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Taking the emotions out of fertilizer purchases

A risk management consultant with StoneX Financial says fertilizer prices remain elevated despite backing off recent record-high prices.

Matt Blasdel is encouraging growers to take emotions out of fertilizer decisions ahead of the planting season.

“Our business is very emotionally driven. We have markets that are emotionally driven. We see corn charts and fertilizer charts from price standpoints and that gets an internal emotion in us,” he says. “I like to try to take some emotion out of those decisions and look at it from a ratio standpoint. How many bushels of corn does it take to buy a ton of fertilizer. If you have that price data from previous years do that same exercise and what you’re going to find out, I think, is that $6 corn and where current fertilizer prices are at probably comes in to a ratio that is really similar to what we’ve seen in previous years if not cheaper.”

He tells Brownfield corn prices also help.

“Use logic to realize that the (fertilizer) market is high but so are corn prices and those trade in tandem with each other which makes sense,” he says. “Now, it’s not a ratio if you don’t do both, right? So, If you’re going to be looking at buying fertilizer, I think it makes a lot of sense for you to work with your grain merchandiser and sell some corn to cover that fertilizer bill.”

Blasdel is based in Zionsville, Indiana. Brownfield interviewed him during the recent Agricultural Summit by First Farmers Bank and Trust.