News

Fertilizer market fluctuations make 2026 planning a challenge for growers

Volatility in the fertilizer market is making it difficult for farmers to know when to lock in prices for 2026.

Jay Debertin, the CEO of the nation’s largest agricultural cooperative CHS, tells Brownfield it might be good to spread out the risk.

“For example, ‘well I’ll wait for all my fertilizer for spring.’ Or on the other hand, ‘I’ll do all my fertilizer here in the fall.’ I think diversifying that risk and spreading it out a bit is frankly, with the knowledge that we all have today, is a route that I think should get a lot of consideration.”

He says that’s true of other ag management decisions too.

“Sales of commodities and purchases of other inputs too, none of us are going to know with perfect clarity how things are going to be six or eight months from now. So given that, I think long and hard about trying to spread some of these decisions out over time.”

Debertin says most fertilizer imports have been exempt from tariffs, which has helped keep costs from climbing even more.