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Input costs influence other farm purchases

Opening day attendance was strong at one of Wisconsin’s largest farm shows, but not everyone is in a buying mood.

Farmer Chris Pollack from Ripon, Wisconsin, is attending the WPS Farm Show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin looking for ideas, but not looking to spend money on this trip. He says, “Not buying. I had to pay my fertilizer bill this morning. It was twice as much as last year.”

Pollack tells Brownfield he’s sticking to his rotation of corn, soybeans, wheat, alfalfa, canning peas, and lima beans.

Pollack milks 160 Holsteins and farms 850 acres, so with fertilizer costs so high, he’s going to try and use what the cows gave him sooner than usual. “I’ve pretty much stuck with what the plan is hoping that next year, things are going to be better, but also by the same means, we don’t normally empty our manure pit in the spring but we’re probably going to try and pull some nutrients out of there to put on a few fields to try and help things out.”

Pollack traditionally empties the manure pit in the fall, but he’s optimistic he can apply some manure early in spring and again when the wheat is harvested.

Brownfield interviewed Pollack during the WPS Farm Show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.