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Ag economist says skyrocketing fertilizer prices not likely to slow
Nearly every ag input saw rising prices in 2021 and fertilizer was no exception. David Widmar is an ag economist and cofounder of Agricultural Economic Insights.
“First it was in the phosphorus and potassium products, now it’s in the nitrogen products and they just have, you know, been moving higher,” he says. “But then went from 0 to 60 and really jumped higher this fall as we started to take a look at the nitrogen outlooks and the acre debate in the crop production.”
Then, he tells Brownfield then the last quarter hit
“Now we were looking in September to just December and some of the fertilizer prices have gone up, equivalent to 80 bucks an acre,” he says. “And I think some of those dramatic swings could carry with us into 2022, unfortunately.”
When the fertilizer prices were rising in the 70’s , a.banker in my area told a group of “young farmers” that they should , plant less and use less fertilizer ,. if the companies wanted to meet their sales goals they would lower the prices . His idea was the prices of the crops would increase more than enough to off set the lesser production and the producers would be better off financially . The race to produce the most per acre or have the greatest acres planted has been and is a great downfall of the farmer .