Reuters — A global shortage of nitrogen fertilizer is driving prices to record levels, prompting North America’s farmers to delay purchases and raising the risk of a spring scramble to apply the crop nutrient before planting season. The Texas Arctic Blast in February and Hurricane Ida in August disrupted U.S. fertilizer production. Then, prices of […] Read more
Fertilizer shortage may lead to spring scramble
'It's next year's prices I'm worried about'
‘Perfect storm’ causes fertilizer price spikes
'Most of us are in a "wait-and-see" position'
MarketsFarm — Fertilizer prices have increased over the past year, but could be headed even higher as a recent confluence of events has caused a shortage — the effects of which may affect producers past the New Year. “Particularly, in the last few weeks, there have been a number of supply events which have really […] Read more
Manitoba soil temperatures allow for spring fertilizer
Winter ban lifted, with cautions
Farmers across Manitoba are now cleared to apply spring fertilizers including livestock manure on their fields, thanks to sufficiently warm soil temperatures, the province said Tuesday. Though the winter nutrient ban has been lifted, the province cautioned producers to “assess current weather conditions and periodically check weather forecasts” if they’re applying anytime between now and […] Read more
High fertilizer prices likely to climb more
MarketsFarm — Expect fertilizer prices to resume increasing, despite having fallen back recently. Prices began their sharp rise around the middle of December and beginning of January. “They will go higher as demand goes up at seeding time,” Mike Jubinville of MarketsFarm Pro in Winnipeg said. Jubinville reported urea prices have jumped $100 per tonne […] Read more
Facing green push on farm, fertilizer makers look to sea for growth
Winnipeg/Oslo | Reuters — Two of the world’s biggest fertilizer producers, CF Industries and Yara International, are seeking to cash in on the green energy transition by reconfiguring ammonia plants in the U.S. and Norway to produce clean energy to power ships. The consumption of oil for transportation is one of the top contributors to […] Read more
A fertilizer revolution is on the horizon
IBM says it will produce a breakthrough within five years that will greatly lower the energy needed to make nitrogen fertilizer
Reading Time: 5 minutes As fledgling technology goes, quantum computing sounds as science fiction as it gets. Most people have likely not even heard about it, let alone think it can be used for anything immediately useful. But if IBM fulfills a very bold promise it made in September, crop producers will see the fruits of this technology in […] Read more
Fertilizer use increasing rapidly in Western Canada
Reading Time: < 1 minute Rising Prairie grain production has seen steady increase in the use of nitrogen, phosphate and potash over the past 10 years, says provincial market analyst Ryan Furtas. Nitrogen use in Western Canada has gone from 1.66 million tonnes a decade ago to 2.28 million tonnes in the 2019-20 crop year — an annual increase of […] Read more
Get more bang for your fertilizer buck by focusing on rates
It’s not easy to determine the optimum rate, but start with post-harvest soil testing, says soil scientist
Reading Time: 4 minutes A bumper crop of canola or wheat is bound to put a smile on your face. But writing a cheque for replacing all the nitrogen used by that crop? Not so much. And those cheques are only going to get bigger if the trend for N use continues on the same track it’s been on […] Read more
Fall fertilizer prices offer more good news for Prairie growers
Prices for urea, phosphate and anhydrous ammonia are all at the lower end of their normal range
Prices for urea, phosphate and anhydrous ammonia are all at the lower end of their normal range
Reading Time: 4 minutes Fertilizer prices have seen some ups and downs over the past six months, but the situation heading into winter looks favourable. “When we look at the overall input markets so far in 2020, we see that they’ve kind of eased up. For producers right now, that’s a pretty good spot to be in,” said Craig […] Read more
Fertilizer use fuelling climate-warming nitrous oxide emissions, study says
London | Reuters — Rising use of nitrogen-based fertilizers is driving up global emissions of nitrous oxide, a lesser-known greenhouse gas, complicating efforts to limit climate change, scientists reported in a study on Wednesday. Most of the focus in curbing climate-warming gas emissions has focused on the most abundant, carbon dioxide, and one of the […] Read more
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