MARTIN COUNTY – With farmers having had various timetables for purchasing fertilizer, the sudden rise of the Iran conflict and closure of the Strait of Hormuz is leaving some in a tough bind.

According to the USDA, urea dry nitrogen fertilizer is up to an average of $852 per ton and wet UAN nitrogen is averaging $513 a ton at 28 percent total nitrogen and $575 a ton at 32 percent total nitrogen. That average has jumped by $30, $24 and $5, respectively, just in the last two weeks.

Martin County’s Farm Bureau Representative Joe Sullivan, who farms field corn, soybeans, peas and sweet corn, said urea and UAN are the main ones used during the springtime, which are affected by price increases and supply issues.

While this is a critical time for people to be placing down fertilizer, Sullivan said some don’t even have the fertilizer needed to put down.

“This is a time of year you’ll be using a large amount,” he said. “Last fall was when a lot of Minnesota puts on their fertilizer, but it was at an elevated price, so some people were waiting to see if it came down. Now it’s elevated even higher yet. There is a fair amount of producers that do not have as much fertilizer bought or put on as normal.”

Not all farmers need to fertilize the same, so even those following their standard practices are also feeling the squeeze.

“There’s the ones that, for just their practices, they put it down in the spring,” Sullivan said. “You also have ones with lots of hogs and manure, that is a major source of fertilizer, but the mill side dress urea, or UAN they would use in the next 90 days that may just be coming yet. It puts a whole crinkle in the supply chain and means product for any price might not be available just because it can’t get here.”

As for how farmers are expected to figure in this additional cost, Sullivan said with the yield from crops and fertilizer both being commodity markets, he hopes they even themselves out.

“As one goes up, you hope the other one goes up in relation,” he said. “You’re hoping that in the end, everything sorts itself out, because there’s really no way to budget additionally for it. You’re going to have to absorb the costs, and you probably will end up losing more.”

By this point, if farmers have still been waiting for the prices to go down, Sullivan said they only have weeks to put in the required funds or scale back their application, which will also scale back their yield.

“Say you don’t put as much on and you bring down your yields by 10 percent,” he said. “You get to live with that, if you’re a corn soybean rotation, for your proven yield still. What you can buy insurance against, you’ll live with that for the next 20 years on your records, because you produce less, so now you can insure less.”

Thankfully, Sullivan said most people have been able to order their fertilizer by now, but now it is a question of when it will get there.

“It was to be put on a spring application,” he said. “They think it’s going to be there. They’re concerned about ‘Is it actually physically there?’ This is the normal time of the year they’ve been restocking over the winter at all the big fertilizer storage areas. But did they get everything in, or were they waiting for the last 10 percent once the river opened back up?”

Trimont Farmer Layne Ebeling said they are lucky enough to have hog manure and are able to purchase fertilizer from their local co-op. That doesn’t mean it’s all been smooth sailing.

“February was $468 a ton, and today it’s $690 a ton,” he said. “UAN is up 24 percent, and urea is up 33 percent.”

The fertilizer purchased by Ebeling was already prepaid, which they did when they were doing their tax planning.

“As farmers, sometimes we need to spend some more money or pay into the taxes,” he said. “We usually, as a rule, prepay our fertilizer. The prices, we got lucky, are not affecting us as much.”

It’s not just fertilizer either. Gas prices, including diesel, are continuing to rise by 10s of cents per gallon, and Ebeling said taxes are also continuing to rise and pile onto their expenses.

Overall, Ebeling is optimistic about having a successful yield this year.

“We just got to do a good job of pricing our crops, watching the market, and taking advantage of little things that it gives us,” he said. “Pretty excited with the rain [the past few days], it was getting kind of dry, and it’s warming up nicely. We can start in probably 10 days or so, if the weather permits. We’re setting ourselves up to have a good year, as long as Mother Nature works with us.”

For more information, to ask questions, or reach out about any concerns, visit fbmn.org/, email info@fbmn.org, or call 651-768-2100.