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Farmers are comparing nitrogen sources

Farmers are closely watching the prices for nitrogen fertilizer options.  Josh Linville with StoneX tells Brownfield that urea-ammonium nitrate or UAN manufacturers have been dropping their prices, but when you compare UAN to urea, “They are still a massive premium versus urea, and we are hearing this across the nation, across North America. Farmers are fed up with the high price and are saying, you know what? Let’s talk about what it would take to switch my demand over to urea. What does it take from an application standpoint? from an operational application standpoint?”

And, Linville says for some, it’s worth penciling out the numbers to haul poultry litter. “When fertilizer prices start getting to where we’re at today, you can move that stuff a lot further and justify it because it helps offset a much higher priced product.”

Linville says the phosphate market prices are also sliding a little, and fall demand was disappointing. “We think that there have been application cuts that have been made. We think some typical fall farmers have been delayed until spring, and I know that’s the conversation I know I had with my family, but that’s not to say that the demand isn’t coming there.”

Linville says retailers are putting together spring pre-paid prices now, and farmers should shop and compare, and contract some grain to offset the fertilizer expense.