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Farmer reflects on a record 2021 crop year, but less optimistic for years ahead

A southwest Illinois farmer is curious what is in store for 2022 after a record crop year in 2021.

Daryl Cates farms in the Mississippi River Bottoms of Columbia, Illinois. He tells Brownfield his 2021 soybean and winter wheat crops yielded the highest since he began farming in 1980 and his corn crop was probably the second best he has seen.

“The old-timers around here used to say if you get two good crops in one year, hold on because the next year is a bust. So I am a little worried because I had three good crops. Not only that, but our double crops were yielding as good as our first crops!”

But he says what scares him the most heading into 2022 is input costs.

“I paid $185 per ton last year for my UAN 32 and this year I am paying $605 per ton. For Liberty last year I paid $36.25 per gallon, and I just got a price this year for $100 per gallon.”

Cates is being told he will only get about 60% of the liberty he got last year, and the rest might not become available. And on top of that, he says seed costs are 5-8% higher and potassium and phosphorus are up to 2.5 times higher than last year with no sign of coming down.

“It sounds like this is going to be the situation even for 2023 and with these input prices if we don’t have the commodity prices we do now or higher it is going to be tough here the next couple of years.”  

Cates will serve as the 2022 Vice President for the American Soybean Association.

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