Fertilizer

Trump Admin to Roll Out Major Fertilizer Plan This Week, Accelerate U.S. Production Push

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 17:09:55 GMT

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says the Trump administration will unveil a sweeping set of fertilizer initiatives this week, warning that surging input costs are putting intense pressure on American farmers. Speaking at a Missouri farm on Friday, Rollins told those in attendance that fertilizer has become an issue of national security, which is why she says this week’s announcement will be broader than just USDA, also including EPA, Department of Energy, Department of Commerce and Department of the Interior.

While at GR Farms in Higginsville, Mo., on Friday to roll out an announcement on the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP) top-up payments, Rollins described the Trump administration’s upcoming announcement on fertilizer as a large-scale investment initiative. She says while she hoped to roll out the plan while in Missouri, the administration is still finalizing the size of the funding package.

Rollins says the plan will address both immediate actions to stabilize fertilizer prices and a longer-term roadmap aimed at ensuring affordable, domestically produced supply for U.S. farmers.

Washington analyst Jim Wiesemeyer says the plan will likely need to include a mix of financial and policy tools, such as grants, tax incentives, loan guarantees outside of existing USDA programs and greater consistency in U.S. trade policy, while noting imports will still play a role, particularly for key nutrients like potash sourced from Canada.

Short-Term Fertilizer Price Pain

During her comments Friday, Rollins highlighted how quickly fertilizer prices have increased since the conflict started in Iran, outlining the additional strain it is placing on producers.

“We know that urea prices have gone up 50% over the last month. Ammonia is up 30% or more,” she said, adding that “our farmers are feeling that pinch.”

Rollins also told the crowd fertilizer has been a longer-term challenge, even before the situation in Iran caused the latest price spike.

“To be clear, this has been a problem for years. The actual numbers are lower, believe it or not, than they were even in 2022,” she says. “But nevertheless, that jump in prices overnight, we have to address.”

Framing the issue as more than just an economic challenge and one that is a matter of national security after decades of offshoring fertilizer production, Rollins says the administration views the issue as part of a broader structural problem within the fertilizer industry.

“The loss of competition in the fertilizer industry has obviously led to higher fertilizer costs over time,” she says. “When combined with what’s happening overseas with the current geopolitical issues facing our world, certainly we have come to a crossroads that requires immediate action. This is indeed a matter of national security, and we are working to tackle it head on.”

Focus on Domestic Fertilizer Production

While Rollins didn’t give details, she hinted the centerpiece of this week’s announcement will be a major push to reshore fertilizer production, backed by federal investment to accomplish that. Working with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, she says the administration is preparing to direct significant funding toward building new fertilizer plants across the country, while also supporting existing projects.

“I have asked Howard to do, and his team to do, and what we’re doing in partnership is to identify a significant number ... that we can deploy into building out fertilizer plants in America,” she says.

Rollins emphasizes cutting regulatory delays will be critical to making that plan work. She says projects are already being identified nationwide, but permitting delays remain a major obstacle — with the goal of getting that process down to months versus the current years it takes.

“We’ve already begun to identify all over the country. Some are under production. How do we move them along more quickly? Some are in the permitting bureaucracy, which sometimes takes years to get through permitting,” she says. “Our goal is to, instead of years, to get to permitting in a matter of weeks, or perhaps months, so that even in one year, two years and three years, we will have facilities up and running that we will never have had that opportunity or option before.”

United States’ Energy Advantage for Nitrogen Fertilizer

Rollins also points to domestic energy resources as a key factor in expanding fertilizer output, particularly for nitrogen production.

“We became, in a matter of just a short period of time, a net exporter of LNG versus importer, meaning we were producing our own energy in America, so much so that we no longer had to rely on other countries,” she says. “The reason that is important is, as our farmers are facing these exponential nitrogen fertilizer costs, we now have the resources in America. We just have to build the facilities, the manufacturing facilities, to turn that LNG into nitrogen. So this is going to happen quicker than you would normally expect, I think because of the pieces of the puzzle that have already been put into place.”

In the meantime, Rollins says the administration is continuing short-term efforts to improve supply availability and reduce costs.

While the longer-term strategy ramps up, she says the administration is continuing short-term interventions to ease pressure on farmers. These include:

Extending a waiver of the Jones Act
Opening new import channels
Working and meeting with industry/fertilizer companies

Highlighting cooperation with domestic producers, she pointed to CF Industries as an example.

“They have said, in order to protect our farmers, we are going to stop maintenance. We are going look at holding our prices steady,” she says.

She also points to ongoing coordination with the Department of Justice.

“Last year, we signed a joint agreement, USDA did, with the Department of Justice, ensuring that farmers have access to competitive and affordable inputs,” she says. “Looking into the activities of our fertilizer companies and what has happened over the last few years, but with a new eye on potential price gouging right now.”

Long-Term Goal: Reduce Foreign Dependence

Looking longer term, Rollins says the administration is focused on reversing decades of reliance on foreign suppliers.

“America has offshored for far too long, far too much of our fertilizer production, leaving us dangerously reliant on Russia and China,” she says. “Changing that long-standing industry that is reliant on global markets won’t happen overnight,” she says. “But working with our farmers and across industry and government, we will find ways to make fertilizer that we can do here in America and make sure it is a price that our great farmers can afford.”

At the same time, the administration is increasing scrutiny of fertilizer markets. Rollins noted ongoing coordination with the Department of Justice, saying officials are taking “a new eye on potential price gouging right now.”

Ultimately, she framed this week’s announcement as the beginning of a broader shift away from foreign dependence.

Rollins says additional details, including funding levels and project specifics, will be included in next week’s announcement.

“We’re at a crossroads that requires immediate action,” she says.

Watch Rollins’ full press conference here:

The Fertilizer Gap Is Real — Here Is the Tech Closing It

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 19:07:03 GMT

The ripple effects of global conflict are landing squarely on the farm, where rising fertilizer prices and tightening supply chains are forcing difficult decisions. For many growers, the math no longer works the way it used to.

“More than 80% of rice, cotton and peanut producers reported they cannot afford all required fertilizer,” says Arthur Erickson, CEO of Hylio, underscoring the scale of the challenge facing production agriculture. While specialty crop-specific data remains limited, the broader trend shows that farmers are being pushed to do more with less.

That shift is accelerating interest in precision agriculture tools, particularly drones designed to apply inputs with far greater accuracy than traditional equipment.

Erickson describes the approach as fundamentally data-driven. Farmers can deploy scouting drones or satellite imagery to assess field variability, identifying exactly where fertilizer or crop protection is needed — and where it isn’t.

“You could analyze the pixels essentially across the imagery on your farm, and then, of course, just target those specific areas,” he says. “In that way, just being a lot more surgical … would lead to an overall reduction in your input needed to get the same or better result.”

That level of precision matters most when budgets are squeezed. If growers are cutting fertilizer use by 30% to 50%, blanket applications can translate into wasted product in some areas and insufficient nutrients in others. Targeted spraying allows them to stretch limited resources without sacrificing yield potential.

Arthur Erickson, CEO for Hylio, says farmers can deploy scouting drones or satellite imagery to assess field variability, identifying exactly where fertilizer or crop protection is needed — and where it isn’t.

(Photo courtesy of Hylio)

“You have to have the data,” Erickson says. “You also have to have a precise enough application tool to do right by that data.”

Traditional equipment, he adds, often lacks that granularity. Even with strong field intelligence, a 120-foot boom sprayer or aerial application cannot match the pinpoint accuracy of drones capable of treating small, defined zones.

An Accessible Alternative

The economic pressure extends beyond inputs. Erickson points to a “double whammy” of rising costs paired with falling commodity prices, leaving farmers with less revenue and higher expenses per acre.

“What we’re seeing is a huge reduction in new purchases of traditional, larger equipment,” he says, noting that tractor sales are down significantly in some regions.

In contrast, drones are emerging as a more accessible alternative. Erickson estimates that a fleet of agricultural drones can cost a fraction of traditional machinery while covering thousands of acres per day.

“Instead of spending $500,000 on a tractor, you could spend $100,000 and still have a fleet,” he says. “So, four or five times cheaper in terms of capital cost and also on the operating cost side.”

That affordability is helping drive adoption even in a tight financial environment. In fact, Erickson describes the current moment as a turning point for farmers who may have been hesitant to embrace new technology.

“This was kind of a big enough shock to actually convince them to try something ‘new’ or untested as drone technology,” he says. “Once they use it, they’re going to realize it is pretty darn effective.”

Eye on the Horizon

Supply chain uncertainty is another factor reshaping decision-making. From COVID-19 disruptions to ongoing geopolitical tensions, farmers are increasingly concerned about access to equipment and replacement parts.

“Half the conversations we have with farmers come up like, ‘Hey, if I do buy your drone, where are your parts coming from?’” Erickson says. “Is it one-day shipping, or is it three months’ shipping for a replacement part?”

That concern is driving interest in domestically produced technology. Erickson notes that Hylio has seen demand increase during past disruptions as farmers sought alternatives to overseas supply chains.

“It’s been one thing after another,” he says, citing COVID-19, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and current tensions involving Iran. “Even the people that normally wouldn’t pay attention are being forced to think about that every day.”

Incentives Serve as a Catalyst

Public funding may also help accelerate adoption. Several states already offer grants for precision agriculture tools, and federal programs tied to the next farm bill could expand access to subsidized loans or direct funding.

“These grants are generally funding precision agriculture tools,” Erickson says, adding that many programs include Buy American requirements that favor domestically manufactured equipment.

For growers navigating today’s volatile environment, those incentives could lower the barrier to entry for technologies that promise both cost savings and efficiency gains.

The implications extend beyond the farm gate. Reduced planting or lower input use could tighten supply and push food prices higher in the coming months.

“There’s going to be a price hike,” Erickson says. “I mean, the number of farmers that literally can’t plant crops this year or they’re severely cutting back on the acreage, there’s a pretty good chance [of] significant price increases.”

While the exact trajectory remains uncertain, the direction is clear: As global pressures reshape agriculture, tools that help farmers maximize every input are moving from optional to essential.

Winning Gold for Specialty Crops: Corteva’s Award-Winning Microbial and Fungicide Breakthroughs

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 19:42:33 GMT

The Edison Awards, often referred to as the “Oscars of Innovation,” recognize products that solve real-world problems through cutting-edge science and social impact. This year, Corteva Agriscience secured a double victory, taking home the gold Edison Award for its microbial nutrient enhancer Utrisha N and the bronze Edison Award for its next-generation fungicide Adavelt active.

According to Tim Davies, bioprocess science and technology leader for Corteva Agriscience, these accolades validate a natural solution that benefits everyone from the field to the dinner table.

“I think one of the things that resonates … is that this is a natural solution that helps farmers increase yields, which reduces the cost of products for consumers and has an impact both for the farmer but also environmentally as well,” Davies says.

Utrisha N: Gold-Standard Microbial

Winning the gold award, Utrisha N is a biological product that allows plants to capture nitrogen from the air and convert it into a usable form. While initially widely adopted in row crops like corn and soy, Davies notes that the product is quickly becoming a powerhouse for specialty growers, particularly in high-stakes markets like California.

One of the standout features of Utrisha N is its Organic Materials Review Institute registration, making it a vital tool for both organic and conventional growers.

“It is OMRI registered, so it can be used by conventional farmers and organic farmers alike,” Davies says. “One of the areas where we’ve had very good results is in potatoes, where farmers are seeing significantly improved yields by adding [Utrisha N].”

With global fertilizer prices remaining volatile, Utrisha N acts as a nutrient enhancer that works alongside traditional nitrogen practices. Davies notes that in more than 1,000 internal and farmer-partner trials, the product successfully increased yields in more than 80% of cases.

Adavelt Active: Bronze-Level Crop Protection

In the highly competitive crop protection category, Adavelt active secured the Bronze. While Utrisha N represents the biological side of the portfolio, Adavelt showcases Corteva’s technical prowess in traditional chemistry.

The goal, according to Davies, is not to choose one method over the other but rather to provide specialty growers with a balanced toolkit.

“What we’re working on, really, at Corteva, is to use all of our technical abilities to provide the best outcomes for farmers,” Davies says. “Whether it’s a traditional chemical or a biological, both have their place in the market, and both can provide great benefits for farmers in the right place when they deploy them in the right way.”

Bringing Award-Winning Tech to the Specialty Market

With Utrisha N already registered in over 50 countries, Corteva is now focused on expanding its reach into more specialty acres. By generating rigorous agronomic data, the company aims to give specialty growers the peace of mind they need to invest in new technology.

“Farmers need confidence that when they spend money on a product, it’s going to work,” Davies says. “We’re working hard to increase those confidence levels.”

As Corteva continues to roll out these award-winning solutions, the company says it will continue providing the right technology at the right time to ensure a more resilient and productive future for specialty agriculture.

The New Ag Economy: Why This Downturn is a Structural Shift, Not Just a Cycle

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 21:22:20 GMT

What You Need to Know:

Structural Evolution: This downturn is a permanent market shift, not just a temporary cycle.
Friend-Shoring: Trade is moving toward geopolitical allies to ensure supply chain resilience.
Aggressive Cost-Cutting: Farmers are doubling generic input use and delaying machinery purchases to protect margins.
Financial Resilience: Better management and working capital make today far more stable than the 1980s.
Premium Protein Demand: GLP-1 medications are driving consumers toward smaller, higher-quality meat portions

As the industry enters the third year of this downturn, farmers and agribusinesses are questioning if a recovery is on the two-year horizon. While cyclical behavior is normal, two economists suggest the structural evolution within crop protection, machinery, technology, livestock and other individual sectors is creating a different kind of staying power for those who survive the recovery.

The Evolution of the Cycle

When characterizing the current economic cycle in agriculture, historical patterns provide a necessary baseline, yet the present landscape is defined by unique pressures. Typical agricultural cycles consist of roughly six years of expansion followed by four years of decline. Currently, the market is navigating a “corrective period,” returning to long-run averages.

The drivers of growth are typically demand shocks — export surges, fuel demand or policy shifts such as the Renewable Fuel Standard. However, Wes Davis, ag economist at Meridian Ag Advisors, notes the current environment is an intersection of traditional contraction and sector-specific evolution.

“What I think we’re experiencing right now is that typical cycle behavior where we see growth in some business firms, and then some contraction and pullback to adjust to the cycle going back to more of the long-run average,” Davis explains. “I think we’re also seeing evolution of individual sectors within the market where there’s adjustments happening because of the industry itself.”

In other words, this isn’t just a cycle — it’s also a structural shift.

Change Fatigue and Modern Volatility

Farmers aren’t strangers to volatility, but global trade disruptions, policy shifts and rising competition, especially from Brazil, are layering uncertainty onto already volatile markets.
Farmers are grappling with “change fatigue,” a byproduct of the high velocity of information and extreme price swings that dwarf the relative stability of the early 2000s.

“When I go talk to any industry group right now, the phrase that I hear is ‘change fatigue’, and I feel that. Every couple minutes, something shifts,” says Trey Malone, Purdue University ag econ professor. “But to be clear, it’s not that the farm economy isn’t used to volatility, it’s just the uncertainty and the volatility now is, like, ‘hold my beer relative’ to the old volatility.”

Malone attributes this to layers of uncertainty created by global trade and policy. The rise of Brazilian production, coinciding with the disruption of U.S.-China trade relations, has created a permanent state of flux. This sentiment is reflected in the Purdue Ag Economy Barometer, which shares a higher correlation with the Small Business Index (.5) than with actual commodity prices. This suggests farmers view themselves primarily as small business owners facing broad economic pressures rather than just price-takers.

“We don’t see very strong correlations even with lagged soybean prices and corn prices,” Malone notes. “The world is more complicated than just looking at what happened in the market yesterday and gauging how farmers feel.”

Global Competitiveness and the Trade Reallocation

A primary concern for U.S. producers is their position as low-cost providers. While the U.S. maintains an infrastructure advantage that lowers the cost of getting products to export ports, Brazil continues to close the gap.

“It’s a fair question farmers ask a lot: Are we actually the ones who are the low-cost producers, and do we still have a place in the global market if Brazil continues to lower the cost of production and transport their grain to export terminals?” Davis asks.

However, Davis points out that global trade hasn’t shut off; it has reallocated. Only three global regions — North America, Latin America and parts of Southeastern Europe/Central Asia — are net exporters. The rest of the world remains net importers.

“While our trade has kind of shifted around ... that shift has really reallocated stuff in different places. Those calories and products end up going somewhere. It’s just a question of where,” he says.

The Shift to “Friend-Shoring” and Resilient Supply Chains

The industry is moving from “just-in-time” (hyper-lean) procurement to “just-in-case” (inventory-heavy) strategies, a lesson reinforced by the pandemic. This shift is accompanied by “friend-shoring,” where the U.S. prioritizes trade with geopolitical allies.

“We’ve gone from offshoring to onshoring to nearshoring to friendshoring,” Malone explains. “We’ve got a paper that’ll be coming out ... where we document friend-shoring in ag and food supply chains. Over the last 10 years, there’s been a shift where we mostly in the U.S. trade with other people who vote like us in the WTO. That’s kind of one way to measure friends.”

This resilience is also visible in crop protection. In 2019, 80% of active ingredients were sourced from China. Today, that is closer to 60%, with manufacturing shifting to India and domestic sites. Davis calls these “geopolitically resilient” supply chains.

The Rise of Generics and Decision Paralysis

The economic downturn is fundamentally changing the business model for input providers. Farmers are aggressively cutting costs, leading to a massive surge in generic usage.

“The latest survey I saw shows about 60% of farmers use generics today. That was about 30% to 40% just 5 years ago,” Davis says. This forces companies to pivot from differentiation to operational volume.

In the machinery sector, high costs and economic uncertainty have led to “decision paralysis.” Farmers are extending the life of their equipment, treating machinery replacement as the most controllable variable in managing annual ROI. Davis notes the U.S. ag equipment cycle is currently 15 to 20 percentage points lower than typical low points, driven by this hesitation. Furthermore, there is significant skepticism toward subscription-based technology models.

“Farmers don’t terribly love this idea, and I think the other interesting thought here is I’m not sure that retailers like selling them either,” Malone adds.

AI: The “Undergraduate Intern”

While artificial intelligence (AI) is a major talking point, its current role in agriculture is more supportive than transformative. Malone views AI as a “highly capable undergraduate intern” — useful for processing information but incapable of replacing the trust and risk management provided by human advisors.

“I don’t think you need to be replacing your agronomist. I think your mediocre agronomist just got OK,” Malone says, noting while LLMs can pass CCA exams, they cannot manage the risk of a wrong decision. “The risk management value proposition of an in-person Claude, or whoever, is probably going to win out because there’s still a risk.”

Currently, the adoption gap is wide: While 75% of agribusiness managers see potential in AI, only 4% have implemented it, according to a Purdue University survey in 2025.

Livestock and the GLP-1 Impact

The livestock sector is facing a unique demand shift driven by weight-loss medications (GLP-1s). This is leading to “premiumization.” As consumers eat smaller portions, they are opting for higher-quality cuts.

“The explosion in demand for protein is just shocking,” Malone says. “What GLP-1s do to that calorie count is they are all shifting toward premium cuts. You don’t care how much it costs because you’re only going to have seven bites of it. But you’re going to have a steak. That premiumization is going to really, really take off in the next 10 years.”

Conversely, the hype surrounding “fake meat” has largely faded, proving to be more of an investor-led phenomenon than a market-driven one.

Financial Stability: Not the 1980s

Despite the downturn, the financial health of the American farmer remains more stable than during the crisis of the 1980s. Currently, 10% to 12% of farmers are in a “tight” financial position , compared to 20% to 30% in the 80s.

“We do have a completely different, more professional ag workforce than we did back then,” Malone says. “The farm policy we have right now does not necessarily match what we need for the future, but all of these things make me think we’re in a much more stable position.”

Farmers have built-in “shock absorbers,” Davis adds, including off-farm income and working capital built up during the expansion years. However, in his research Davis has seen how alternative financing is becoming a major tool for the 50% of farmers who use it — either to manage stress or, for larger operations, to leverage relationships with retailers.

Strategic Reassessment: Winning at the Bottom

The experts agree the “bottom of the cycle” is the time for professionalization and upskilling. Surviving — and thriving — will require sharper management. It is an opportunity to reassess farm transitions and management disciplines, such as financial management, accounting and planning, which become critical in tight margins.

“Farmers are going to have to get smarter and get more creative with how they manage,” Malone says. “This is a good opportunity to take a step back and think about what the strategy needs to be moving forward.”

Davis emphasizes relationships are solidified during these periods: “Farmers are going to remember the folks who were around when they were in the bottom of the cycle, and who were there to support them. The best farmers will continue to get better ... I get excited about what we can look like as we come out of this cycle.”

So Is This Ag Cycle Different?

These experts say yes as every cycle presents its own unique reshaping of future opportunities.

To download the full report on why this ag cycle is different and what it means for your operation, click here .

Why One California Farmer is Betting Big on Algae for Fertility

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 14:44:35 GMT

Rows of citrus trees stretch across the landscape under the California sun, their canopies forming neat green corridors between irrigation lines and tractor paths. Some trees are newly trimmed, others older and thicker from years of growth. It’s the kind of orchard scene that has long defined agriculture in this part of the state, where permanent crops dominate the landscape and generations of farmers have worked to coax productivity from difficult soils and an increasingly unpredictable water supply.

For fifth-generation farmer Justin Wylie , these groves are more than just another orchard to manage. They represent an opportunity to rethink how soil works on his farm and whether biology — specifically algae — can play a larger role in the future of California agriculture.

Wylie and his family farm roughly 4,000 acres across California’s Central Valley. Some of that land has been in the family for generations, while other acres are leased. Like many farms in the region, the operation produces permanent crops such as pistachios and citrus, commodities that require long-term planning and careful soil management.

“This is a long-term lease with an investment company partner,” Wylie says. “And we just entered into that lease last year. It’s a 15-year lease with a five-year extension.”

One of the ranches he’s currently working to improve came through a recent leasing agreement that gives the family time to invest in the land and experiment with new approaches. That time horizon matters. With permanent crops like oranges, orchard decisions can affect productivity for decades. The trees must be pruned, fertilized and irrigated carefully year after year, and the soil beneath them has to remain functional through increasingly hot and dry growing seasons.

When Wylie’s team first took over the ranch, some improvements were necessary before any new ideas could be tested.

“We were really lucky on this ranch,” Wylie says. “The previous guys, they did let some of the trees get overgrown, so we did have to come in and push a hedge and top and resize those trees.”

While the orchard needed structural work above ground, Wylie says the bigger opportunity lies beneath the surface. The ranch is now part of a broader effort on the farm to transition a portion of the acres toward organic and regenerative systems.

“For the majority of the ranch, as far as fertility, the soils, the condition of the ranch,” he says, “I think the big thing with this ranch is transitioning from a conventional model to an organic regenerative, which is part of our commitment in the lease. It’s part of the model of the lease here — that we transition the ranch from conventional to certified organic and regenerative.”

The transition is happening gradually. Wylie says roughly 25% of the farm’s acres are currently part of that shift, allowing the family to experiment with new soil-building practices without risking the entire operation.

But the push to explore regenerative systems didn’t begin with markets or policy. It started with a deeply personal experience.

A Personal Connection to Soil Health

Wylie says his interest in soil biology and regenerative farming took shape nearly a decade ago, around 2015 or 2016. At the time, his family was dealing with a serious health challenge involving his young son.

The experience pushed him to start researching nutrition, gut health and the human microbiome — topics that would eventually reshape how he thought about farming.

“[My son] was sick as a kid, and so we were doing everything we could to heal him,” Wylie says. “His gut ended up in the hospital a few times with an autism diagnosis.”

Doctors and therapists offered guidance, but the recommendations didn’t sit well with Wylie.

“And then at the time, the doctors and the therapist told us basically, ‘Practice acceptance,’” he says.

Instead, Wylie started searching for more information about gut health and what researchers were learning about the microbiome. Over time, he began seeing parallels between the human digestive system and the biological activity that happens in healthy soils.

“They started figuring out that autistic kids had very weak gut microbiomes,” Wylie says. “And so when you make that connection as a farmer and you start saying, ‘What are all the things I can do at home to not stress that?’”

That question eventually carried over into his work in the field. The farm’s first experiment with regenerative practices was modest.

“We started on 40 acres of pistachios, playing around with it,” he says. “What can we do here growing in a different system?”

At the same time, the regenerative agriculture movement was gaining momentum online, making it easier for farmers to explore new ideas.

“At the time, there were quite a few regenerative agronomists out there releasing podcasts and YouTube videos,” Wylie says. “So the information was there. It was never on my radar before. But once you join that community and industry, it’s pretty interesting.”

Building on What Came Before

Even as Wylie explores new biological tools, he says the farm’s current practices still build heavily on the work done by previous generations.

His father’s generation invested heavily in agronomy research and orchard management strategies, developing systems that helped the farm stay productive in California’s demanding growing environment. From pruning methods to fertilizer programs, many of those lessons still guide how the farm operates today.

Rather than abandoning those systems, Wylie says his goal is to refine them.

“It’s really a tweak,” he says. “In my mind it’s a slight change in the method, not a complete start over.”

The farm continues to rely on the knowledge accumulated through decades of conventional farming, while gradually introducing new practices aimed at improving soil biology.

“We’re just trying to make tweaks to the system that we’re already operating in on the other ranches to see if we can do this a different way,” Wylie says.

One of the biggest challenges in that transition is managing fertility.

California orchards have historically relied on precise fertilizer programs to keep trees productive. But moving toward organic or regenerative inputs can create a different nutrient dynamic, especially during the early years of transition.

Wylie says growers sometimes underestimate how sensitive orchards can be during that shift.

Managing the Transition Carefully

According to Wylie, one of the most common mistakes farmers make when transitioning to regenerative systems is reducing fertilizer too quickly.

He says orchards that have spent decades under conventional management are accustomed to intensive nutrient programs, and abruptly changing that system can cause yields to fall sharply.

On some ranches where regenerative practices have been in place for several years, Wylie says the difference in soil structure is already noticeable.

“There’s other ranches we’ve been farming regenerative for five years,” he says. “You can stick your hand in the soil and get your fingers down right there on the berms next to the trees — it’s chocolate cake.”

But he warns farmers shouldn’t assume that kind of soil health will appear immediately after switching systems.

“Until that day, do not pull back,” Wylie says.

He says the biggest mistake happens when growers assume they can immediately match their old fertility programs using organic inputs.

“That’s the mistake that growers make,” he says. “They think I’m going organic regenerative, I can match dollar for dollar, I can do the same thing I was doing conventionally.”

Instead, Wylie says the transition often produces what he calls a “J-curve.”

“You’re going to see that J-curve,” he says. “I mean, it’s going to tank.”

To avoid that, his farm relies heavily on testing.

“We pull a lot of sap samples, multiple tissues and soils per year,” Wylie says. “Kind of watching our fertility and making sure these trees are fed.”

He says growers must remember trees grown in conventional systems are used to consistent nutrient availability.

“The soil has been farmed a certain way,” he says. “These trees are used to being fed intensively in that conventional system.”

And organic fertilizers don’t always behave the same way.

“The organic fertilizers just don’t work as well,” Wylie says. “So you have to be careful.”

Introducing Algae Into the System

As Wylie searched for ways to accelerate soil improvement, one newer tool caught his attention: microalgae.

The technology comes from soil health company MyLand, which produces living algae on farms and distributes it through irrigation systems.

“We’re probably in our fourth or fifth season,” Wylie says.

The idea behind the system is relatively simple. Rather than applying microbes directly to the soil, the system produces algae that help stimulate microbial activity already present in the soil ecosystem.

Jeff Tuel says the technology centers around specialized tanks designed to grow algae on the farm itself.

“We call these APVs, algae producing vessels,” Tuel says. “And essentially, the sole purpose is to grow algae here.”

Water from the farm is stored inside the vessels, where conditions are controlled to encourage rapid algae growth.

“So for all intents and purposes, this is kind of like the algae producing container,” Tuel says.

From there, the algae are delivered through irrigation systems already used on the farm.

“And we try to keep that holding tank to a level where if the irrigator is irrigating a 12-hour set, 24, 36,” Tuel says. “Our main objective is for them to never run dry of algae.”

Production is adjusted to match the grower’s irrigation schedule.

“We harvest according to the grower’s irrigation schedule,” he says.

Another important step happens before the system is even installed. MyLand scientists collect algae samples from the farm itself, identifying native strains that are already adapted to the environment.

“The reason native is important is because it’s used to the pH, it’s used to the droughts, the floods, everything Mother Nature’s thrown at it,” Tuel says.

Because those organisms already exist in the local ecosystem, they are more likely to survive once applied to the soil.

“Its odds of surviving and actually making an impact in that ecosystem are far greater,” he says.

Microalgae also sits at the base of the soil’s microbial food web.

“Microalgae is actually the base of the microbial food chain,” Tuel says. “All the bugs and beneficials in the soil are feeding off of it.”

Rather than introducing microbes, the strategy is to stimulate the microbes already present.

“I like to say instead of a bug-and-a-jug approach, we are ringing the dinner bell for the microbes,” Tuel says. “It’s kind of an all-you-can-eat buffet for microbes to get them moving and active.”

Tackling Difficult Soils

For Wylie, improving soil biology could help solve one of the Central Valley’s most persistent challenges: poor soil structure.

Many orchard soils in the region contain very low levels of organic matter, which limits their ability to hold water and maintain structure through the growing season.

“We have about 0.5% soil organic matter,” Wylie says. “Our water holding capacity is very low.”

That lack of organic matter can cause irrigation problems later in the summer.

“A lot of times these soils as we’re irrigating during the season will lock up,” he says.

Early in the season, irrigation water infiltrates the soil fairly easily.

“You start with very good water infiltration in April, May, June,” Wylie says.

But conditions change as the summer progresses.

“By the time you get to July, August, when you really need it, it’s very difficult to push water down in the soil,” he says.

For farmers trying to manage water carefully in California’s dry climate, that creates a major challenge.

“These soils are not very functional for us as farmers,” Wylie says.

Tuel says stimulating microbial activity can gradually improve those conditions.

“When you get those microbes to start moving and firing, you’re going to start to build soil aggregate,” he says.

Better aggregation can help water move through the soil while also improving nutrient availability.

“If it’s a high-salt ground, we can start to leach out some of those salts,” Tuel says.

Algae may also influence soil chemistry.

“Algae is also going to help regulate the pH in the soil so we can start to free up some locked-up nutrients,” he says.

Thinking Long-Term

While installing an on-farm algae system requires investment, Wylie says he sees it as part of a long-term strategy for improving soil performance.

“In a biological system like MyLand, it’s about the same cost as a soil amendment program out here, depending on how much acreage you’re using,” Wylie says.

The difference is the system focuses on building biological activity rather than simply adding nutrients.

“But it’s a long-term solution,” he says. “It’s not going to work overnight.”

Instead, the goal is to strengthen the soil’s microbiome so it can better buffer environmental stresses.

“It’s actually creating a buffer by just supercharging the microbiome that’s in the soil,” Wylie says.

That biological activity may help address several common soil issues in California orchards.

“Everything feeds on it,” he says. “It’s overcoming high salt, high chlorides.”

Even trace mineral challenges may improve over time.

“In some cases in California, we have very high boron in some areas,” Wylie says.

He believes increased biological activity may help mitigate those problems faster than traditional soil-building methods alone.

“Microalgae being put into the system can actually overcome those salts that might take 10 or 15 years of compost and cover crops,” he says. “You can accomplish in a few years by using MyLand.”

The Pressure on California Farmers

The search for new tools is happening at a time when farming in California is becoming increasingly expensive.

Data from USDA shows the state continues to rank as the most expensive place in the country to grow crops, driven by high labor, energy and input costs.

Those economic pressures are compounded by growing regulatory expectations.

Wylie believes California farmers are already facing some of the strictest scrutiny in global agriculture.

“I think the state’s already looking at it very closely,” he says. “I think they’re going to put more pressure on farmers in California.”

Compared with other agricultural regions, he says California producers are operating under unique constraints.

“Other than the European Union, there is no one in the world that’s under as much pressure as a California farmer to change the way we do things,” Wylie says.

Because of that, he believes farmers must take the lead in finding workable solutions.

“We need to figure this out,” he says. “And I want to figure it out before the government gets involved and tries to tell me how to do it.”

Government incentive programs exist, but Wylie believes the real challenge is making soil health practices economically viable.

“They can offer me some incentives,” he says. “We have healthy soils out here. They give you a little compost and cover crop seed.”

Ultimately, though, growers need systems that work on their own.

“We need to figure this out and we need to make it economical and profitable before the state comes in,” Wylie says.

Because once regulations remove certain tools, farmers may have little room to adapt.

“Now you’re forced to figure it out with your back against the wall,” he says. “We don’t want that.”

For Wylie, the answer may lie beneath the soil surface where billions of microbes, fueled by algae, could quietly reshape how California farms grow their crops. And by doing so now, Wylie hopes he’s able to find ways to continue to grow productive crops in California, despite increased regulations.

Conflict in Iran Ripples Through Global Fertilizer Markets, Raises Prices Even Higher

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 16:28:10 GMT

Update: President Trump took to social media on Tuesday to say he has ordered the United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to provide political risk insurance and guarantees for the Financial Security of all Maritime Trade.

He also says the United States Navy will begin escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz if necessary.

"Effective IMMEDIATELY, I have ordered the United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to provide, at a very reasonable price, political risk insurance and guarantees for the Financial Security of ALL Maritime Trade... If necessary, the United States Navy will begin… pic.twitter.com/pIJyFwL78j
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 3, 2026

The joint U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran has triggered a significant ripple effect across global markets.

While crude oil prices soared on Monday, the global fertilizer market is also rallying. This comes as conflict threatens the stability of the Strait of Hormuz.

This narrow waterway is located between Oman and Iran and links the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. It serves as a critical maritime chokepoint for global energy and also handles a substantial portion of the world’s fertilizer supply.

Key for Fertilizer Supplies

Josh Linville, vice president of fertilizer for StoneX, notes the Strait of Hormuz accounts for nearly 25% of globally traded nitrogen fertilizer.

(StoneX)

“We have got three of the top 10 global urea exporters that sit in the Persian Gulf,” Linville says. “Three of the top 10 anhydrous exporters sit in the Persian Gulf. One of the world’s top five phosphate exporters sits in the Persian Gulf. And with that Strait of Hormuz continuing to stay shut out to safe passage, those tons just don’t matter anymore. They don’t exist until the Strait reopens.”

Conflict Increases Already Historically High Fertilizer Prices

Global fertilizer prices rose immediately following the attack. They moved in tandem with higher energy and natural gas prices, which are the primary feedstocks for nitrogen products.

Fertilizer prices were already at historical highs prior to the conflict. Linville reports urea markets saw the sharpest increases, followed by phosphate.

In New Orleans (NOLA), physical barges for April urea traded at $457 per ton on Friday. By Monday, prices had jumped to approximately $550 per ton.

“We have had prices up about $70 a ton from Friday afternoon trade. It’s been significant,” Linville says.

UAN and anhydrous prices have not reacted as violently, but phosphate values are not far behind.

“Phosphate, we’ve got that price up about $30 a ton from the last trade we had seen. Again, [I’m] a little surprised it’s not up more. That’s, I guess, a thankful thing that’s not up more, but I think more increases are coming. Really, the only major fertilizer that hasn’t been impacted so far is potash. But you can even make a case for that given Israel and Jordan’s importance,” he adds.

Corn-to-Fertilizer Ratio Stretches Further

He says the corn-to-fertilizer price ration was already one of the worst in history, and this has added insult to injury.

“We were already the second or third worst urea-to-corn ratio that we had been for this time of the year, this part of the calendar. This just moves that higher,” Linville explains.

(StoneX )

Timing Threats for Spring Planting

Higher prices aren’t the only problem: Supply is in jeopardy. Linville says, from a timing standpoint, it could not be worse for agriculture.

A multi-week conflict could keep some supply from getting to the U.S. in time for spring planting.

“It takes 30 days to get a vessel of urea to load in the Persian Gulf, sail it over here, hit U.S. shores, and then another three to four weeks to move that product into the interior of the nation to a point where the farmer can put their hands on it,” Linville says.

This means a vessel loading today might not be available until May 1. The window for spring application is closing quickly.

While healthy fertilizer import volumes in February provide some cushion, the industry could see a shift in acreage. Some farmers may move from corn to soybeans if nitrogen supplies do not arrive in the Corn Belt in time.

White House Drops Reciprocal Tariffs on Fertilizer, Other Ag Products Not Produced in the U.S.

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 23:50:06 GMT

President Trump signed an Executive Order Friday afternoon that modifies the scope of the reciprocal tariffs he first announced on April 2, 2025. The Executive Order now exempts several agricultural products from tariffs, including fruit, coffee and fertilizer.

In a fact sheet released Nov. 14, 2025, the administration says President Trump has determined that “certain qualifying agricultural products will no longer be subject to those tariffs, such as certain food not grown in the United States.”

This is good news for farmers, as certain qualifying agricultural products will no longer be subject to those tariffs, including fertilizer. However, the announcement could open the door for more beef imports, as the move also gets rid of reciprocal tariffs on beef.

The document goes on to spell out examples of products that are now exempt from the reciprocal tariffs. According to the fact sheet, “The President has thus determined that certain agricultural products shall no longer be subject to the reciprocal tariffs.”

Some of these products include:

coffee and tea
tropical fruits and fruit juices
cocoa and spices
bananas, oranges and tomatoes
beef
additional fertilizers (some fertilizers have never been subject to the reciprocal tariffs).

“I have received additional information and recommendations from various officials who, pursuant to my direction, have been monitoring the circumstances involving the emergency declared in Executive Order 14257,” stated the Executive Order. “After considering the information and recommendations these officials have provided to me, the status of negotiations with various trading partners, current domestic demand for certain products, and current domestic capacity to produce certain products, among other things, I have determined that it is necessary and appropriate to further modify the scope of products subject to the reciprocal tariff imposed under Executive Order 14257, as amended.”

President Defends Tariff Strategy, Says It’s Working

In the fact sheet, the White House went on to defend the reciprocal tariffs.

“In less than one year into his second term, President Trump has strengthened the international economic position of the United States by delivering a series of historic wins for the American people,” the fact sheet states.

The White House says through these tariffs, “President Trump is bringing manufacturing jobs back to America, revitalizing communities, and strengthening supply chains.The Administration will continue to use all available tools to protect our national security, advance our economic interests, and uphold a system of trade based in fairness and reciprocity.”

You can read the entire fact sheet here.

Fertilizer Prices Under Fire: Monopoly or Markets to Blame?

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 17:11:27 GMT

As President Donald Trump demands a federal investigation into meatpackers for inflating beef prices , another battle over farm input costs is already heating up. Fertilizer, long one of the most volatile and least transparent costs in farming, is now drawing renewed scrutiny on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has reintroduced The Fertilizer Research Act, a bipartisan measure requiring USDA to study pricing and competition across the fertilizer market. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins says that effort will go hand in hand with a Department of Justice probe into market concentration, promising to take a look at whether farmers truly have fair choices when buying the inputs that feed the nation.

“Pressure Cooker” on Capitol Hill

Two weeks ago on Capitol Hill, lawmakers took up the issue farmers have long demanded answers for: Why fertilizer, seed and input prices keep rising while competition keeps shrinking.

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing, titled “Pressure Cooker: Competition Issues in the Seed and Fertilizer Industries, ” drew fiery testimony from across agriculture. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say they’re hearing growing frustration from rural America.

Grassley tells the committee that farmers are being boxed in by consolidation at every level of the ag supply chain.

“Over the last 20 years, a few big companies have bought up many of the smaller seed and chemical businesses,” he says. “Those same companies now sell not just the seeds, but also the pesticides and digital farming tools that tell farmers what to plant and when. Because all these products and data systems are tied together, it’s hard for farmers to switch to a different brand.”

Sen. Cory Booker, D–N.J., delivers one of the sharpest warnings of the day.

“What’s happening in America is dire,” he says. “Congress must not just talk about the problems; we’ve got to fix them. Otherwise, American farming as we know it will be forever changed.”

Farmers Take a Stand

The goal of the hearing was to understand what’s driving record-high input prices and what, if anything, Congress can do to restore fairness and competition.

Of the six witnesses called that day, two were farmers who spoke candidly about what they’re experiencing on the ground.

Noah Coppess, a fifth-generation farmer from Cedar County, Iowa, tells senators the volatility of fertilizer pricing has turned crop planning into a gamble.

“If the market becomes too constricted, it is ultimately the farmer who loses,” Coppess says. “Fertilizer pricing has become very volatile, with wild swings of 25% to 50% from year to year. We’re asked to prepay for fertilizer three to six months before it’s applied to the soil and up to 14 months before harvest. Many contracts have a narrow window for application. If we miss it, the contract expires and the input is repriced higher or we’re charged monthly fees just to extend it.”

He says it’s forcing farmers to cut back in ways that threaten long-term soil health.

“Phosphate fertilizer has become a bare-minimum usage fertilizer on our farm because of the cost,” Coppess adds. “We simply can’t afford to apply it like we used to.”

Kentucky farmer Caleb Ragland tells the committee the same pressures are weighing on his operation.

“Farmers are paying more than ever to grow their crops,” he says. “In just five years, seed prices have increased by 18%, fertilizer by 37%, pesticides by 25%, machinery by 23% and interest expense by 37%. Seed is a key cost consideration for farmers. Advancements in seed technology and pesticides have delivered real agronomic benefits — but at an added cost. Those costs are eating away at what little margin we have left.”

Industry Response: “A Perfect Storm”

But the hearing wasn’t just about farmers. Corey Rosenbusch, president and CEO of The Fertilizer Institute (TFI), appeared before the committee to represent the industry’s view. Speaking later with “AgriTalk” host Chip Flory, Rosenbusch says the pressures farmers face are real but are largely the result of global dynamics, not domestic decisions.

“It’s a challenging time for growers,” Rosenbusch says. “In some cases, it’s even harder for the American farmer right now than it was a few years ago when markets exploded because at least, back then, commodity prices were high. Right now, it’s a perfect storm. Commodity prices are low, and input costs keep going up and up. Our message is simple: We need farmers to be successful because if they’re not, we don’t exist. But the factors driving this market are frankly outside of our control and, honestly, outside of this country’s control. Geopolitics is taking the headlines when it comes to supply and demand.”

He says Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s fertilizer export restrictions and global energy volatility are all rippling through fertilizer markets — forces far beyond the industry’s ability to manage.

“These are global supply and demand pressures,” Rosenbusch says. “When geopolitics dominate, prices react worldwide.”

Farmers Push Back: “Too Few Suppliers”

Farmers listening to the hearing say those global explanations don’t tell the whole story.

Mark Mueller, a farmer from Bremer County, Iowa, was supposed to testify on behalf of the Iowa Corn Growers but says he was disinvited, which he believes was because of Iowa Corn’s strong stance on lack of competition in the fertilizer market.

He still attended the hearing in person and says one statement from the fertilizer industry blew him away.

“The bottom line is that we don’t have many places to get our inputs from,” Mueller says. “I might have a half dozen retailers in my county, but when you go a little farther, they all get their phosphorus from one company, their potash from two companies, and their nitrogen from maybe three, and it’s the same problem in the seed industry.”

Mueller says one comment from the industry’s leadership stuck with him.

“The most disingenuous statement I heard came from the CEO of the Fertilizer Institute,” he says. “He said there are 20 unique companies supplying fertilizer inputs to the industry. That’s like General Motors saying they’re made up of four or five unique companies — Buick, Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac. It’s all one company.”

“It’s Not a Monopoly — It’s an Oligopoly”

Josh Linville, vice president of fertilizer at StoneX Group, agrees the U.S. fertilizer market isn’t a monopoly, but he says it operates much like one.

“Here’s why I can’t be a politician,” Linville jokes. “No, there isn’t enough competition. It’s not a monopoly, but it’s definitely an oligopoly. When you look at nitrogen, three players control the vast majority of production. For phosphate, there’s one main producer. For potash, we’re highly dependent on imports. Almost all of it comes from Canada. So yes, we have some competition — but not enough.”

Linville says fewer players mean tighter supply chains, and that amplifies every global shock, from wars to tariffs.

“A lot of what’s happening is global supply and demand,” he says. “But the lack of competition doesn’t help. Tariffs, countervailing duties and even the fear of new sanctions on Russia are inflating prices that global trade already pushes higher.”

Concerns Potential Government Trade Aid Payments Further Inflate Fertilizer Prices

There’s yet another wildcard this year: the potential for the White House to release tariff aid payments. USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden confirmed on AgriTalk the agency is preparing to roll out $12 billion in trade aid once the government reopens.

Linville says the potential for new government aid has some unintended consequences for the fertilizer market.

“Unfortunately, no,” Linville says when asked if fertilizer prices might ease if aid payments don’t go out. “If the payments come out, I’m afraid it’s gonna boost fertilizer prices. It doesn’t change the supply and demand for most of these products, but it does change the timing, and timing is everything.”

Linville says the fertilizer market is as much about when farmers buy as it is about how much they buy. Injecting fresh cash into the market at once could cause a surge in demand that suppliers can’t absorb smoothly.

“If there’s a big fat check that goes into the farmer’s pockets and that gets spent on fertilizer, and you pull all that demand into one period, fertilizer is going to see its prices boosted as a result,” he adds. “We saw that the last time the checks went out.”

Read More: Tariff Aid Payments Could Backfire, Boosting Fertilizer Prices, Analyst Warns

Little Hope for Price Relief

When asked whether fertilizer prices could ease before spring, Linville doesn’t sugarcoat it.

“You know me — I’m never going to deal in guarantees,” he says. “I’m not going to say prices can’t fall between now and spring, but the second I do, the market will humble me again. We’ve got some improvements: China’s exporting a little more, Russia’s exporting more, there’s more peace in the Middle East, but we still have production problems in Europe, and China’s slowing exports again. Phosphate exports are being cut in half this year, and the world doesn’t have anyone ready to fill that gap. So could prices fall? Yes. But I’m not holding my breath.”

Stockpiling Isn’t a Solution

When asked on “AgriTalk” whether stopping exports and stockpiling product domestically could help ease prices, Rosenbusch says the U.S. doesn’t have that capability.

“Even if we wanted to take a page out of China’s book and stop exports, we couldn’t,” he says. “We still have to import 40% of our phosphates. We don’t have the infrastructure to stockpile fertilizer in this country. It just doesn’t exist.”

A Critical Step Forward

In what’s being hailed as a small but meaningful win for the U.S. farm economy, the Trump administration recently added phosphate and potash to the list of 10 minerals deemed critical to national security. The designation could help accelerate mining permits and spur new domestic investment — something both industry and lawmakers say is badly needed.

But for farmers testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the message was clear: They can’t wait years for market reform.

“Fertilizer is the biggest pain point on farms today,” Coppess says. “We need change, and we need it soon.”

AgZen, Corteva Team up on AI-Powered, Retrofit Sprayer Tech

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 16:10:42 GMT

AgZen announces an agreement with Corteva to further “explore the commercial potential” of AgZen’s AI-powered crop spraying optimization technology, RealCoverage.

The news comes on the heels of Corteva’s big announcement on Oct. 1 , detailing the crop protection multinational’s plan to split its crop protection and seeds businesses.

AgZen, a tech startup spun out of MIT, is making a name for itself by pioneering feedback optimization for spray applications — a new approach the company thinks has potential to improve farmer outcomes and reduce crop input costs.

(AgZen)

AgZen’s first product, RealCoverage, is a retrofit kit that can be bolted onto any sprayer to measure and optimize the number of drops of agrochemicals applied to crops. The system features a boom-mounted sensor that analyzes the coverage and quality of spray applications in real-time, displaying actionable data to a tablet mounted in the cab. Farmers can use the data to optimize the physical settings on spray rigs, both self-propelled and pull-behind, to increase coverage.

The startup says its system works by leveraging AI and cutting-edge computer vision, and customers have used RealCoverage to save 30% to 50% on input costs.

Farmer Feedback

(AgZen)

Northwest Indiana farmer Bryan Brost slapped a RealCoverage system onto his Hagie STS 16 high-clearance sprayer to use on his waxy corn and soybean crops. He says it has helped boost his spray program efficiency overall by reducing application rates while maintaining optimal coverage throughout his 12,000-acre operation.

“The payback came in the first year,” he tells Farm Journal via text message. “We have increased our acres [covered] per day with less hours on the machine, the operator and the nurse tanks supplying product [to the sprayer].”

Corey McIntosh set the technology loose across his 4,000 acre spread in Missouri Valley, Iowa. He is looking forward to using the data to improve his application efficiency across the board. He’s also letting his neighbors and local retailer in on the secret.

“I was getting a chem shuttle refilled at [the] co-op, these guys have always been complimentary of our weed control, I asked them: ‘What percentage of leaf surface area do you think you are covering with your sprayers?’ One of their best operators said he thought 50% coverage. The salesman next to him said it would definitely be more than 60%,” McIntosh says.

“They were shocked when I told them we were at 9% to 10%, but nobody has had ever had a way to quantify this before,” he adds. “We are really looking forward to making improvements.”

Since launching on the market in 2024, AgZen says it covered more than 970,000 commercial acres of application across the U.S. on row crops and specialty crops.

Your Next Read: Breakthrough Fungicide Delivers White Mold Disease Control in Key Crops

Take It Outside: Onetime Indoor Ag Pioneers See Opportunity Out In The Field

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 12:16:34 GMT

For the past year, the team at Soil Action has been working toward building an artificial intelligence driven product to sense soil nutrition in real-time. Whereas other companies have attempted to revolutionize soil testing before, co-founders Jack Oslan and Nate Storey say the AI tools available today are making what was once difficult or nearly impossible, possible.

“Soils are unknown and misunderstood,” Storey says. “We can use AI to understand soil better, and our goal is to come up with the instruments to solve the problem.”

Soil Action’s solution in progress includes building models and training models pairing near infrared spectroscopy with AI. Its goal is to reengineer the traditional process of sampling, shipping, agronomic recommendations, prescription files and applications while making it all in real-time. They are doing on-farm demonstrations this fall.

Before founding Soil Action, these two businessmen first met 12 years ago co-founded indoor agriculture startup Plenty. Storey’s time at Plenty was applying his laser focus on yield with innovation in algorithmic nutrition.

“I went into indoor ag because it was an area with the largest opportunity to drive yield. I have a lot of interest in yield,” he says. “In indoor, you can control everything and measure it–everything can be known in those systems and control every part of the process: root zone temperature, gas composition, and more.”

Now, Storey and Oslan want to bring those learnings outside and into the field.

“We got really good at understanding how to take an algorithmic approach to yield. It’s about understanding the yield equation, breaking it apart, optimizing individual aspects, and restacking them,” Storey says. “In row crops, the soil is the most important part, and to solve the yield equation we have know the variables that correlate and then begin to manage.”

What Does The System Look Like?

Currently, the beta version product is housed in a 3”x6” steel tube which can be mounted on any style of implement or equipment to automatically take measurements 4” to 6” deep every 50’.

(Soil Action)

“The real end goal is to have every equipment cab be mounted with an AI enabled agent to give you real-time measurements of what’s going on in your field,” Storey says. “It’s an AI agent focused on optimizing yield.”

The first testing was conducted in northern Iowa.

“We’re building our models on data collected from the field, and we’re using deep learning to ingest all of the information and help understand correlations,” Oslan says. “We can see everything that’s there, but we don’t understand everything that is there. That’s a focus for our work right now.”

“Holy Grail of Soil Sampling”

When it’s ready to be commercially available, Soil Action aims to provide results measuring two forms of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Other crop nutrients will be added in the future.

“Every expert we talked to said we couldn’t use NIRS in soil sampling, but the physics said we could,” Oslan says. “We took two intensive weeks using sand and manipulating it for measurements with NIRS, and our deep learning models can untangle data in a way classical statistical methods cannot. Now, it’s about how fast we can solve for soil nutrients with these newer tools.”

Soil Action says it aims to provide the equipment to farmers for a hardware fee of $10,000 paired with a subscription for the analysis on an annual fee basis.

US Justice Department to Examine Rising Cost of Farm Inputs, Says Farm Secretary

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 19:18:47 GMT

The U.S. Department of Justice antitrust division will work with the Department of Agriculture to look closely at the rising cost of agricultural inputs like fertilizer and seeds under a memorandum of understanding signed on Thursday, said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

The goal of the joint effort is to “protect American farmers and ranchers from the burdens imposed by high and volatile input costs, such as feed, fertilizer, fuel, seed, equipment and other essential goods,” Rollins said at the Ag Outlook Forum in Kansas City, Missouri.

The DOJ will scrutinize competitive conditions in the agricultural marketplace, including antitrust enforcement that promotes free market competition, Rollins said.

Rollins previously said the USDA is examining high fertilizer costs and exploring options for farmer relief. The U.S. farm economy is saddled this year with low crop prices and trade disputes.

(Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington, Editing by Franklin Paul and Nia Williams)

High Iowa Water Nutrients Come Down to (and With) Rainfall

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 20:10:13 GMT

The equivalent of 70 nurse tanks of nitrogen per day and one truckload of phosphorous per hour is flowing through the confluence of the Des Moines and the Raccoon rivers in central Iowa. This represents an estimated $50 million annually in agriculturally valuable nutrients lost as water pollutants. So says the “Currents of Change” analysis recently released by Iowa’s Polk County.

“Those nutrients would be much better spent as fertilizer applied to crops that are actually helping our plants grow and producing food that feed people,” says Eliot Anderson of University of Iowa, one of the analysis’ 16 contributing scientists, who spoke at a livestreamed public event presenting the findings.

The analysis highlighted several key findings about the central-Iowa watershed that supplies drinking water to the Des Moines metro area. These included ecological issues like declining biodiversity, fish kill events and harmful algal blooms and water safety problems like antibiotic-resistant, disease-causing pathogens, PFAS and pesticides.

But excessive nutrients, namely agriculturally-sourced nitrogen and phosphorous, were a key focus.

Awash in Nutrients

According to both the analysis and the scientists who presented the findings, the watershed’s normal nitrate levels sit at around 6 to 8 milligrams per liter. While this is lower than EPA’s nitrate standards for drinking water at 10 milligrams per liter, it still ranks the rivers as having among the highest nitrate concentrations of the country. The analysis and presenters note nitrate concentrations regularly spike up to double that level, especially following rain events. Too-high nitrate concentrations in drinking water can have severe health consequences, including “blue baby syndrome” and various cancers.

Concentrations of total phosphorus in the watersheds ranged from roughly 0.2 to 0.7 milligrams per liter depending on location. These levels were above the national average for comparatively sized watersheds. High total phosphorus can result in harmful algal blooms.

Jerald Schnoor of the University of Iowa, another of the analysis’ contributing scientists who spoke at the public presentation of the findings, says stakeholders might well ask where the nutrients are coming from.

“Most of it is from agricultural land — roughly 80% — and of that, 40% of the nitrate is coming from fertilizers applied directly onto the land, about 20% is coming from manure onto the land, and another 20% from soybeans and other legumes that can fix nitrogen and make more nitrate available to run off into tile drainage,” he answers for nitrogen.

For phosphorous, roughly three-quarters of what is in the rivers came from “the state’s extensive corn and soybean production,” overwhelmingly from applied fertilizers, according to the analysis. It cites 2019 data from the U.S. Geological Survey sourced from monitoring sites across the Midwest in identifying the sources of nutrients in the waterways.

However, the problem of high concentrations of nutrients in the Des Moines and the Raccoon rivers is not new. The analysis itself shows nitrate concentration rates regularly getting into current ranges going back to the early 1980s. A 1992 essay from Iowa State University’s Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture notes high nitrates was a long-running problem at the time. It points out that concentrations going back to the early 1980s were quite close to those of the mid-1940s, back before commercial fertilizer use.

A History of Nutrient Control Efforts

Agricultural efforts to curb nutrient runoff in the area isn’t new either.

Greg Wandrey, director of sustainability at the Iowa Corn Growers Association, points to the 2013 Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy as just one example.

“The Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy goal for phosphorus has been met,” he says. “Farmers have done a tremendous job reducing soil erosion with different practices like cover crops and less tillage and strip-till.”

Wandrey also describes the work of the Iowa Nitrogen Initiative , a public-private partnership run by Iowa State University. The initiative does on-farm trials to try to determine the agronomically-optimum application rate. He says the results of the hundreds of trials is the realization that application rate recommendations of a couple of decades ago — roughly 1.2 lb. of nitrogen per bushel produced — are too high for modern corn production practices and needs.

“The number of pounds of nitrogen per bushel is down to about 0.85 to 0.9,” he says. “The nitrogen use efficiency of farmers has improved dramatically over the last 15 to 20 years.”

And those improvements shouldn’t be surprising, he points out.

“[Farmers] don’t just put on a bunch of nitrogen just for the fun of it because nitrogen is, if you own your land, probably the second-highest input cost behind seed. And if you rent, it’s probably the third-highest behind rent and seed,” Wandrey says.

Iowa corn growers aren’t the only ones involved with controlling nutrient runoff into the watershed.

“Iowa pig farmers care deeply about clean water and clean air, and we always have, because we live here too,” says Pat McGonegle, CEO of the Iowa Pork Producers Association, in a public statement. “We’re constantly improving how we manage nutrients and care for the environment, from using advanced manure management practices to investing in research and conservation partnerships.”

Ag retailers also have been working on fertilizer best practices for some time. In a news release celebrating its 25^th year, the Iowa-based Agriculture’s Clean Water Alliance (ACWA) announced its official adoption of the 2025 Fertilizer Code of Practice . It describes the code as “a voluntary agreement between 12 ag retailers statewide to prohibit sales and application of nitrogen in early fall when conditions make nutrients more volatile.”

“Over the course of 25 years, we as an ag retail community have adopted numerous practices like nitrogen stabilizers, cover crops, reduced tillage, the 4R’s and many other practices to maximize the nutrients we are applying to be as efficient as possible,” says Dan Dix, ACWA board president. “The Code of Practice is just one tool we collectively implement to meet these nutrient goals.”

Dealing With Weather Problems

With these long-running efforts at reducing nutrients in the central-Iowa watershed, why do the levels continue to be so high? Wandrey points to weather when it comes to nitrogen.

“The single biggest factor in nitrate moving is rainfall,” he says, explaining nitrates are mobile in water, meaning that rain leads to more ending up downstream. “The last couple of years when we had literally no rainfall after June 15, there were no nitrate problems just because it wasn’t moving. It was staying in the soil and being used, and it wasn’t leaching down out of the fields.”

The inverse is also true, Wandrey notes.

“When we had all of this rainfall this year, way above average rainfall, you’re going to get more leeching,” he says. “Rainfall is the No. 1 factor.”

The analysis notes: “The greatest episodic nitrate events tend to occur in the days or weeks following heavy rain in the spring and summer.” It also highlights that, during the same time as improving farmer nutrient efficiency, climate change has meant more and more intense rain during that time, increasing 16% over the past 30 years. Not only can rainfall mobilize nitrates, the analysis notes it can increase erosion, a major contributor for phosphorous in the watershed.

Since rain cannot be controlled, farmers are working with what they can control. Wandrey points to shifting trends in nutrient application times as one example of farmers adapting to changing needs.

“We’re seeing farmers go to more in season [application] because during mid-May to July 1, that’s when that plant is rapidly growing,” he says. “Getting that nutrient, nitrogen in this case, applied when the plant is using it at that rapid rate has been found to be much more effective compared to just a fall application.”

3 Retailer-Farmer Partnerships Selected as 4R Advocates

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 17:48:56 GMT

The Fertilizer Institute announced Aug. 5 the selection of three sets of agricultural retailers and their farmer partners as the 2025 4R Advocates. According to TFI, the grower-retailer partners are being recognized for their outstanding commitment to implementing nutrient management practices grounded in the 4R principles: “Applying the Right fertilizer source, at the Right rate, Right time, and Right place.”

“Our 2025 4R Advocates are leading the charge in three unique regions when it comes to sustainability and stewardship in agriculture,” says Corey Rosenbusch.TFI president and CEO. “Their dedication to the 4Rs supports healthy soils, strong yields and a more resilient food system. We’re honored to recognize these grower-retailer teams for advancing science-based practices that benefit both the environment and the bottom line.”

The 2025 4R advocates are:

Retailers — Felipe Aguilar and Fernando Ceja of Helm, Calif., at the Wilbur-Ellis Co.; farmer — Sal Parra, Jr. also of Helm, at Burford Ranch and Coyula Farms.
Retailer — Anthony Furlin of Trenton, Mo., at MFA Inc.; farmers — Mark and Kristi Urich of Laredo, Mo., at Urich Farms.
Retailer — Taylor Ivy of Stuart, Fla., at Nutrien Ag Solutions; farmer — Elizabeth Malek of Naples, Fla., at Lipman Family Farms.

TFI says the 4R Advocate program is a key element of its efforts to raise awareness and adoption of 4R Nutrient Stewardship practices. The initiative underlines the critical role of efficient nutrient utilization in sustainable crop production systems, it says.

Now in its 13th year, the 4R Advocate program showcases the tangible benefits of 4R Nutrient Stewardship through real-world application and field-level results, says TFI. It adds that the 4R framework is designed to provide farmers with research-based, practical tools to improve crop productivity, enhance environmental outcomes and promote sustainable farming for future generations.

Representing a wide range of crops and regions, the 2025 4R advocates will engage in TFI-led outreach and education efforts throughout the year. These activities will include speaking at on-farm field days, industry panels and local engagement opportunities to help share their stories and encourage broader adoption of 4R practices.

TFI announced earlier in June that 65 million acres of U.S. cropland are under 4R nutrient management practices, well ahead of an industry goal of reaching 70 million acres by 2030. A 4R acre is defined as an acre of U.S. cropland under management using 4R practices, such as crediting organic sources and removal rates, variable rate technology, split applications, the use of cover crops, accounting for weather during application, etc.

Rising Ag Tides Lift Fertilizer Boats

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 18:57:15 GMT

Many sectors of the agricultural world have had a lot to celebrate in the passage of House Resolution 1 , often called the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” The fertilizer industry was no different, though it was not the direct focus of the bill’s agricultural elements.

“Any results that are positive for farmers typically bring a boost to the nutrient markets in terms of further buying of nitrogen, phosphate and potash supply,” says Mark Milam, fertilizer specialist and editor at Independent Commodity Intelligence Service. He notes the fertilizer industry at large has not immediately reacted to the passage of H.R.1, but that he expects the next round of demand will emerge after crops are harvested in the coming weeks.

“Policies that provide for industry growth, expansion and innovation are critical for the continued success of the U.S. fertilizer industry,” says Corey Rosenbusch, The Fertilizer Institute’s president and CEO.

“Our competitiveness on the global level comes in part from certainty and the ability to plan and invest in the future,” he adds. “The tax policies included within this legislation will allow our industry to continue providing our farmers with the crop nutrients they need to grow the food that feeds our country.”

Primary among those tax policies were:

Making the 20% deduction for pass-through business income permanent
Increased manufacturing investment credit from 25% to 35%
Making permanent the Opportunity Zone program for rural communities
Farm program funding for reference pricing, crop insurance, price loss coverage and agricultural risk coverage

Milam notes, among other things, that the bill raises reference prices under the Price Loss Coverage program and the Agricultural Risk Coverage program, and that crop insurance programs would see about $6.3 billion in increased spending.

“There is sentiment this commitment by the federal government will help improve crop prices, bring about more affordable crop insurance and improvements to livestock disaster program,” he says. “When evaluating the new bill, U.S. farmers certainly would be deemed as having a favorable outcome as it is estimated it will provide as much as $68.3 billion in spending for farmer programs over 10 years.”

Your next reads:

Just When You Think Fertilizer Shortages are Improving, Trucker Vaccine Mandates Slam Supply Chain Into Disarray

Fri, 28 Jan 2022 13:06:03 GMT

Fertilizer availability concerns have plagued agriculture for months, but recent COVID-19 vaccine mandates in both the U.S. and Canada could take even more truckers off the road. As the supply chain is already wading through chaos and shortages of everything from food products to equipment parts, more fertilizer shortages could be coming just before spring.

Trucking industry experts warn while empty store shelves are being advertised as a product of these recent vaccine mandates, the issue will snowball into much more. The concerns derive from a recent vaccine mandate requiring truckers to be vaccinated before crossing the border. Truckers were previously exempt from federal travel restrictions. The new mandate went into effect on January 15,, 2022 in Canada, and on January 22, 2022 in the U.S.

Sending off the truckers from the East Coast.
Let's Goooo!!!!! pic.twitter.com/Okz6jeEyR8
— Bret 🍁 (@Bret_Sears) January 27, 2022

🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/hdIellXNNj
— Andy Pasztor 🧼🧽 (@apasztor82) January 27, 2022

The Canadian Trucking Alliance estimates the mandate may block up to 20% of the 160,000 Canadian and American cross-border truckers from entering either Canada or the U.S. And in Canada, a convoy of truckers took to the road across Canada this week to protest the cross-border vaccine mandates. The protests started in Vancouver over the weekend and are expected to reach Ottawa by Saturday.

“I worked for two years to bring goods and services, and toilet paper and everything to everyone. We went through having no showers, no bathrooms, no food — we starved sometimes for days on end on the road — and nobody cared about us then, and now all of a sudden, they care,” convoy trucker Bridgette Belton, who owns and operates her own rig running food products and containers between Canada and the United States, told CBC News .

More Fertilizer Shortages?

And in the U.S., effects of driver shortages are just starting. Kelly Krapu is safety director for True North Compliance Services in West Fargo, North Dakota, a company that helps trucking companies and drivers navigate rules and regulations on the road. She says we haven’t seen the full extent of the impact considering the mandate for drivers coign to the U.S. only went into effect Saturday. “I have been told from some chatter in industry, and some of my customers is a lot of their fertilizer comes from Canada,” she says. “About 50% of Canada’s fertilizer is exported into the United States. So, if an unvaccinated driver is not allowed to go into Canada to pull that fertilizer out, we’re going to have some issues there. And then vice versa, even if the Canadian driver that’s going to pull some fertilizer down into the U.S. isn’t vaccinated, they’re not going to be allowed in.”

Krapu says it’s not that truck traffic is shuttered. She says it’s just severely throttled back since there are so many cross-border truck drivers unvaccinated. But there’s no definitive answer on just how many are still unvaccinated despite the new mandate. She says some drivers who aren’t vaccinated are opting for different routes that don’t take them across the border. So, that leaves fewer drivers able to transport goods, including everything from food and fertilizer, across the border.

“That is one of their concerns is how they’re going to get fertilizer back from Canada that they regularly have been getting easily from Canada for years,” says Krapu. “And now we’re going to have to figure out a new situation. They have some drivers that can go but if you had 14 drivers that could go and now you only have four, you have to be creative on how you’re going to get that done.”

Fewer Truckers to Go Across the Border

Krapu says estimates point to as few as 25% of current U.S. truck drivers are vaccinated. Shaun Haney who hosts Canada’s Real Agriculture says the estimates in Canada show anywhere from 10% to 30% of drivers going across the border are unvaccinated.

“Think of an example from an agriculture perspective of getting California fruits and vegetables into Canada has all of a sudden become a lot more challenging than it was previously,” Haney told AgDay. “And if it does, we’re also hearing those freight rates have gone up substantially. So a lot of concerns here and it kind of, in my mind, feels a little bit like a little bit of a self-inflicted wound.”

Krapu says a group of senators and governors sent a letter to the Biden administration asking for an extension to the implementation of the vaccine mandate. That wasn’t fruitful, and she says there aren’t currently any religious or medical exemptions truckers can file.

Severe Shortage of Truck Drivers

She says the issue is just adding another layer of difficulty into the supply chain, as trucker drivers were already in short supply.

“So currently with a truck driver shortage being as it is, we are seeing huge supply chain issues and have been for obviously, since the pandemic started. And that’s two-fold,” says Krapu. “We’re losing drivers to early retirement because of all of the regulations and mandates that are being imposed. So people have chosen early retirement, and then we’re not backfilling those retirement positions. And then it’s also we are losing people that industry because of vaccine mandates.”

Canadian grocers report some produce shelves are bare, and the cost of hauling everything from tomatoes to lettuce from the southern part of the U.S. has jumped 25%. It’s estimated about $45-billion worth of goods crosses the border every month and most of the trade between the two countries uses trucks.

Vilsack Lists USDA's 4 Policy Objectives for 2023

Wed, 11 Jan 2023 14:16:20 GMT

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack has a history of making key announcements during visits, and that was the case during his appearance at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual meeting in Puerto Rico.

Some of them include:

1. ERP Phase 2

Vilsack announced Phase 2 of the ERP, which will provide help to producers for production and quality losses of eligible crops, utilizing calculations of a producer’s decrease in gross revenue.

Those were about to be released months ago but were pulled back at the last minute due to lawmaker and farmer complaints. USDA eventually announced anyway.

USDA said in documentation on file at the Federal Register that using that approach will reflect the losses “without requiring the more extensive calculations and documentation required under previous programs” for disaster-related crop losses. USDA said this streamlines the aid to minimize the burden on producers and processing of applications by county FSA offices. Using that process also means it will address losses for a qualifying disaster event whether it happened before or after harvest.

ERP Phase 2 will be available for a decrease in gross revenue in 2020 or 2021, primarily to those with losses not covered by Federal Crop Insurance or the Noninsured Assistance Program (NAP).

The application period is Jan. 23-June 2. USDA has already paid out $7.31 billion under ERP Phase 1 as of Jan. 8, up from $7.28 billion the prior week, including $6.23 billion for non-specialty crops ($6.21 billion prior) and $1.09 billion for specialty crops ($1.08 billion prior). A total of $10 billion was earmarked for ERP.

USDA projects outlays for ERP Phase 2 payments will be $1.2 billion and will likely be pro-rated as USDA projects total gross outlays at $1.5 billion.

Phase 2 Reflection

Phase I was highly successful and it worked well. Phase 2 has tons of problems. Comparing schedule F in relevant years to past years doesn’t reflect losses. A farmer may have had to sell land or livestock when they didn’t want to. They may have sold a previous year’s crop in the year in question. These and other things skew the schedule F. There is also the issue of forcing farmers to share schedule F info with local FSA offices.

2. Pandemic Assistance Revenue Program (PARP)

Vilsack announced PARP payments for producers that suffered a 15% or greater decrease in allowable gross revenue for the 2020 calendar year compared with either 2018 or 2019. This effort, Vilsack said, aims to “fill in gaps” for losses covered by either Phase 1 or Phase 2 of ERP.

The payments will have a factor of 80% (90% for underserved farmers and ranchers) and will be reduced by 2020 ERP payments, and pandemic assistance under either the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) 1 or 2 and other pandemic aid.

Payments will be limited to $125,000 per person or entity and USDA may set a lower maximum payment amount per person if total payments exceed available funding and USDA expects that to be the case — PARP outlays are projected at $250 million with gross outlays pegged at $2.66 billion.

USDA also will expand payments under prior efforts such as CFAP 2 and others. The total payments USDA projects under the ERP Phase 2, PARP and expanded other programs is $1.82 billion with gross amounts at $4.54 billion.

3. U.S.-Made Fertilizer

USDA will seek public comment on 21 potentially viable projects totaling up to $88 million to boost U.S. fertilizer production via the first round of USDA’s Federal Production Expansion Program, a $500 million effort announced earlier this year.

The projects are in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. USDA is seeking comments through Feb. 8 on the environmental impacts of the projects.

4. Meat and Poultry Processing

Vilsack announced three projects in Ohio, Michigan and Minnesota which will expand independent meat and poultry processing capacity via the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program.

The projects total $12 million and are in addition to other recently announced efforts in the sector.

More on policy:

We Have ERP Phase II
Policy and Payments: What Producers Can Expect in 2023

New Legislation Would Require USDA to Study Fertilizer Industry

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 22:06:12 GMT

New legislation, called the Fertilizer Research Act , has been introduced to require USDA to study competition and trends in the fertilizer market.

The bill was introduced by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.). Grassley shared with Ag Day’s Michelle Rook it is a result of the fertilizer industry being too concentrated into too few hands.

“This whole bill is to get the Secretary of Agriculture looking into all this. So, if there is collusion, if there’s antitrust, he can suggest action to the FTC and to the Justice Department to take action through a lawsuit,” he says.

Within one year of the bill’s passage, the Secretary of Agriculture, in consultation with the Economic Research Service, would be required to issue a report on USDA’s website regarding the U.S. fertilizer industry.

Specifically, the report should include:
• A description of impacts on the fertilizer market that influence price
• Market trends in the past 25 years
• A description of the imported fertilizer and market impacts
• Impacts of anti-dumping and countervailing duties
• A study of fertilizer industry concentration
• A study of emerging fertilizer technologies
• A description of whether current public price reporting is sufficient for market transparency

“Farmers’ bottom lines thin as the price of fertilizer rises. With fertilizer being one of the ag industry’s highest input costs, it’s problematic farmers have such a limited window into market fluctuations. Our bill will provide farmers in Iowa and across the Heartland with needed transparency and certainty as they navigate production costs,” Grassley said in a release about the legislation.

At the same time, Josh Linville, vice president of fertilizer at StoneX, says while he appreciates the Congressional attention to fertilizer prices, the market has somewhat corrected the problem with values down sharply from the record highs 18 months ago.

“Overall, a lot of the high price situation we’ve been dealing with have largely been solved and if you look at things like urea, I thinks its urea, UAN and potash are all down 60% from where they were at the high. I think phosphates closer to 40,” Linville says. “So there’s been a lot of the price depreciate since of highs. Obviously, we’d all like to see a cheaper but it’s a good ratio today compared to where corn values are.”

Linville also believes the high prices were less about anti-competitive practices and more about global supply and demand fundamentals.

“It’s Chinese government export restrictions, its European natural gas markets being sky high to where they normally are and production issues around the world. We thought we’d lost exports from Russia when they invaded Ukraine,” he says. “So, a lot of the factors that have driven volatility have had much more to do with the international market than has been domestic.”

Linville adds he agrees with the bill’s aim to improve price transparency in the industry.

Sen. Grassley shared he aims to have this legislation included in the next Farm Bill but is open to other avenues for passage.

To view the legislation in full, click here .

Fertilizer industry invests billions in sustainability, new report finds

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 13:34:45 GMT

The Fertilizer Institute, Arlington, Va., has released a new report highlighting industry improvement in sustainability performance in key priority areas of workforce safety, energy and the environment, fertilizer use and industry innovation.

“The 104,000 employees of the fertilizer industry work each day to produce and supply fertilizer to farmers in an effort to feed the world,” Corey Rosenbusch, TFI president and CEO, said in a news release. “To feed a global population of 1 billion people by 2050, fertilizer is playing a critical role in increasing food production and land use efficiency sustainability in agriculture. 2022 also showed us how fertilizer’s role in feeding the world contributes to global stability and national security.”

TFI has collected data since 2013 on metrics that provide insight into the industry’s efforts to improve safety, security, sustainability, environmental stewardship and efficiency, the release said. The data announced today was gathered in 2022 and reflects industry operations in 2021.

“The industry is continuously working towards more sustainable operations, including efforts to decarbonize and mitigate environmental impacts,” Rosenbusch continued. “Each step of the supply chain is focused on doing more with fewer resources and the impact on communities and the environment. The data in this report highlights the achievements we’ve made in worker safety and energy and environmental metrics.”

Report highlights include:

Survey participants invested an average of over $1 billion annually in capital investments to help the industry meet sustainability goals, including increasing production efficiencies, reducing energy and water use, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and strengthening the U.S. economy to meet current and future agricultural needs.
In 2021, the industry captured 31% of all carbon dioxide generated per ton of nutrient produced, an increase of 368% over emissions captured in 2013.
To reduce the industry’s energy footprint, 39% of all energy consumed is generated using waste heat rather than pulling from the electrical grid.
Nitrogen producers recycled enough water to fill 1.6 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.
In 2021, both the recordable rate and the lost time incident rate were the second-lowest since the survey was launched in 2013.

The data includes metrics on segments of the fertilizer industry from fertilizer use on the farm, worker safety, energy and environment, and industry innovation.

U.S. Commerce Rules Russian UAN Imports Unfair, Opens Door for Tariffs and Even Higher Fertilizer Prices in U.S.

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 15:37:34 GMT

The Department of Commerce (DOC) issued a preliminary determination this week showing urea nitrate from Russia and Trinidad and Tobago is being sold into the U.S. at less than fair value. The determination could open the door for countervailing duties, and in turn, even higher fertilizer prices for U.S. farmers.

The Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA) announced countervailing duty (CVD) rates based on their finding.

According to Pro Farmer Washington Correspondent Jim Wiesemeyer, the Federal Register shows the dumping rates for Trinidad and Tobago are 63.08% for Methanol Holdings and for all other firms. And rates for specified Russian entities range from 9.15% to 127.19%, with a rate of 15.48% for all other firms.

The ITC already ruled last summer that UAN imports from Russia and Trinidad and Tobago are hurting domestic fertilizer producers. That allowed the DOC to conduct the most recent investigation.

Facts and Figures

In the report, the Commerce Department said imports from Russia totaled 1,186,295 short tons in 2020 with a value at $137.8 million, with imports of 996,136 short tons from Trinidad and Tobago with a value of $99.7 million.

As a result, Wiesemeyer says, “the Commerce Department will impose cash deposit requirements on imports of UAN from Russia and Trinidad, based on the preliminary rates of dumping. Additional CVD cash deposit requirements are already in place based on Commerce’s previous preliminary finding that Russian UAN imports are unfairly subsidized at rates ranging from 9.66% to 9.84%, and that Trinidadian UAN imports are unfairly subsidized at a rate of 1.83%.”

Higher Fertilizer Prices Ahead?

Fertilizer prices are already posing price pain for farmers looking to lock in inputs for the 2022 season. The latest Purdue University/CME Ag Economy Barometer was just released Tuesday, and it showed a producers expect a sharp decline in income in 2022 compared to 2021, and the driving factor was input prices and availability. The monthly barometer hit the lowest reading since July 2020.

Far from Over

While the preliminary findings are now public, the Commerce Department says the final determination will be delayed and will now be released June 17 with a final determination by the US International Trade Commission (ITC) due Aug. 1.

The 4Rs can Help Reduce the Sting of Fertilizer Supply Logistics

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 20:25:37 GMT

As U.S. farmers evaluated fertility needs, prices and prepay opportunities this past December – and wondered whether to delay purchases, hoping prices might improve before planting season – Corey Rosenbusch was doing a similar evaluation.

(Farm Journal)

“I would have never dreamed where we’d be three months later,” says Rosenbusch, president and CEO of The Fertilizer Institute. “There’s even more than we anticipated, and it just keeps layering on.”

Based on what industry members tell him, Rosenbusch says an “anecdotal” estimate is 50% of the fertilizer products farmers will need this spring are in U.S. warehouses and distribution facilities.

“We’re by no means completely at that 100% mark of having everything that’s needed,” he told Farm Journal during a conversation at the 2022 Commodity Classic.

“The question is, what’s next? What should we be preparing for?” he adds.

Grab The ‘Bull’ By Its Horns
Farmers can’t fix the situation with fertilizer availability and high input cost, but they can get a better grasp on their crop fertility requirements, even now.

Rosenbusch advises farmers to lean on retailers and other agronomic advisors to help them be as efficient with products as possible.

And, once the ground thaws, he says go pull soil samples and find out what they tell you.

“If you’re not soil sampling, if you’re not using variable rate application, if you’re not using the 4R stewardship principles to be as efficient as possible with your fertilizer, now is the time to do it,” he says. “If there’s any bright light in the current market situation it’s that it really will drive farmers to adopt and use these nutrient stewardship principles in their farm.”

On The Near Horizon

As he evaluates the current fertilizer situation, Rosenbusch says the U.S. still faces potential challenges getting products brought into the country. At play are what he calls “correlated effects” – multiple factors in the marketplace that influence each other – that combined make the upcoming planting season so concerning.

Two unique, potential factors that might yet come into play this season and impact fertilizer supplies for U.S. farmers:

1. A potential CP railway strike in Canada. The U.S. gets 80% of its potash from its northern neighbor, Rosenbusch says. A rail strike could mean zero product would come across the border and into the U.S.

In a March 7 letter to President Joe Biden, The Fertilizer Institute, the National Grain and Feed Association, and 19 other members of the Agricultural Transportation Working Group requested the administration work with the Canadian government to avert a major railway labor strike and to rescind the cross-border vaccine mandate for workers moving essential commerce.

“We’ve done everything we can to urge the White House of the serious nature of this coming into the spring season,” Rosenbusch says. “We’ve got our partners in Ottawa, urging the Canadian government to get involved, because that would be a huge supply disruption to the market if something like that happens.”

2. A domino effect created by a lack of access to natural gas. Russia supplies the lion’s share of natural gas to Europe. That matters to the U.S., because nitrogen production is based on natural gas.

“So, if we are looking at a major curtailment of European nitrogen production, that is going to have, you know, significant global nitrogen ramifications,” Rosenbusch explains.

How that could potentially play out in the U.S. is farmers might have access to nitrogen but it might not be in the form they want or are accustomed to using.

“You might not find it as UAN, and you’ll have to use urea instead,” Rosenbusch says, as a for instance. “So, we will definitely need to have some flexibility in terms of the type of product to achieve your nitrogen requirements.”

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Has The Farm Financial Picture Turned Dire? Ag Economy Barometer Reveals Reality of Input Price Pain for 2022

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 15:38:34 GMT

No matter where you travel across the country right now, farmers share similar sentiments and concerns. And it’s those concerns weighing on outlooks as the latest Ag Economy Barometer fell to its lowest reading since July 2020 with economists showing a sharp decline in income for 2022 compared to 2021.

“The biggest thing that changed for our farm is the input cost this year. I think that’s going to be a real challenge,” says Randy Poll, president of the Michigan Corn Growers Association and a farmer based near Hamilton, Mich.

As input prices climb, corn and soybean commodity prices are strong and seem to be gaining strength, but it still may not be enough.

“The pricing really seems to be a little bit out of control,” adds Poll. “Corn and soybeans aren’t keeping up with the input costs.”

Purdue’s Jim Mintert, professor of Agriculture Economics, joins Chip Flory on AgriTalk to break down the results of the latest Ag Economic Barometer.

Pinched Profits

Matt Frostic is chairman of Michigan Corn Board. The Applegate, Mich. farmer says profits will be pinched with the current price scenario.

“We’re looking at breakeven costs and trying to find a margin if we can,” says the Michigan farmer.

Both farmers say even with commodity prices higher than where corn and soybeans sat two years ago, input prices have soared at a much quicker rate.

“We had that spike in corn a year ago in the summer; now we’ve come back to that $5.50 range, which is a fair price. But when our inputs are so high, three times as much as a year ago, that’s going to be a real concern and a challenge to pencil that out,” adds Poll.

Input Cost Reality Check

Issues with input issues are evident in the latest Purdue University/CME Ag Economy Barometer. The January barometer fell 6 points, which marks the lowest reading since July 2020. The survey of 400 producers showed supply chain disruptions aren’t just causing angst, prompting producers to adjust their outlooks for the farm financial picture for 2022.

(Farm Journal)

“The sharp drop in the financial performance index this month indicates producers expect a sharp decline in income in 2022 compared to 2021. In the December survey, producers were focused on comparing a very positive income year, 2021, to 2020, which really supported the index at year end,” says Jim Mintert, the barometer’s principal investigator and director of Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture.

The January Ag Economy Barometer shows:

57% of respondents expect farm input prices to rise by 20% or more in 2022.
34% of producers said they expect prices to rise by 30% or more.

And in terms of availability, survey responses showed:

28% of producers said they have had difficulty purchasing crop inputs from suppliers for the 2022 crop season.
In a follow-up question posed to producers experiencing difficulty in procuring crop inputs, respondents reported difficulty in purchasing a broad spectrum of crop inputs including herbicides, insecticides, fertilizer and farm machinery parts.
The rise in farm input costs was also the primary reason why many producers are expecting to have a larger operating loan in 2022.
27% of respondents said they expect to have a larger operating loan in 2022 than a year earlier, 10 points higher than on last year’s survey and 12 points higher than two years ago.

(Farm Journal)

Supply Chain Concerns

“Rising farm input costs and ongoing supply chain disruptions appear to be contributing to producers’ weaker perception of current conditions and expectations of their farm’s financial performance in 2022 when compared to last year,” says Mintert.

The Ag Economy Barometer shows prices for nitrogen fertilizer have skyrocketed over the last year. The Barometer cites USDA data and shows:

Anhydrous ammonia (NH3) prices in Illinois during January 2022 were nearly triple what they were in January 2021.
Although a majority (57%) of corn producers said they intend to use the same nitrogen application rate in 2022 as in 2021, nearly four out of 10 (37%) said they intend to reduce their nitrogen application rate compared with last year.

As input prices place strain on producers, farmers are looking to reduce application rates.

“Talk to some of my neighbors; they’re thinking they’re going to have to just cut back on inputs. And I think what’s going to happen is our yields will suffer. So I think as a whole, as a country, we may have a lower yield,” says Poll.

And it’s not just price shaping outlooks and weighing on planting decisions this year. Supply is also a major concern, especially for chemistry.

“Another concern I have is getting some of the chemistry for herbicides. I’ve been hearing rumors that atrazine is going to be tight, and we use that in our rotation for herbicides,” says Poll.

Those on the Front Lines

For producers on the front lines, the input situation adds another layer of uncertainty to the gamble of farming everywhere.

“It’s certainly taking more of our time and resources to figure out the avenue to what we are going to plant. Are we going to plant more corn or more soybeans?” Frostic says.

Delayed Acreage Decisions

And some farmers say depending on how the input situation plays out, the ultimate decision on acreage may not happen until May.

“That could be depending on when we get it, and we probably won’t know that until middle of April or even May,” says Poll.

Overall, the Ag Economy Barometer “Index of Current Conditions” fell 13 points to a reading of 133. The Index of Future Expectations changed little in January, down 2 percentage points to a reading of 112.

The Ag Economy Barometer is calculated each month from 400 U.S. agricultural producers’ responses to a telephone survey. This month’s survey was conducted from Jan. 17 to Jan. 21.

Fertilizer Prices Just Fell 30% in One Day, Farmers Saw Prices Skyrocket 133% in a Year

Fri, 27 May 2022 17:16:47 GMT

Fertilizer prices, led by CF Industries, fell in Thursday’s trading. Nitrogen prices reportedly plunged 30%, partly due to demand destruction.

According to Bloomberg , the June spot price in Tampa, Florida, for ammonia nitrogen fertilizer settled at $1,000/metric ton, a 30% drop from May’s $1,425/ton.

Southeast Asia and other places are seeing more buyers who are unwilling to pay the record high prices that were seen in April and May, and the cost of ammonia production has declined as European natural gas prices fell in Q2, Green Markets analyst Alexis Maxwell told Bloomberg.

Nitrogen Prices Surged 133% From 2021 to 2022

A recently report by the Agricultural and Food Policy Center (AFPC) at Texas A&M University shows higher input prices are having a larger impact on farmers than originally thought. That’s after Texas A&M economists recently found nitrogen prices surged 133% in a year .

The latest report, compiled by Joe Outlaw, Ph.D., and Bart Fischer, Ph.D., co-directors of the AFPC, found

Net cash farm income on the representative feed grain and oilseed farms is projected to decline by an average of $534,000 from 2021 to 2022 across the 25 feed grain and oilseed farms.
Representative wheat farms face an average reduction in net cash farm income of $399,000.
Representative cotton farms face an average reduction in net cash farm income of $716,000.
Rice farms face the largest reduction in net cash farm income per farm at $880,000 and a per acre reduction of $442.

Nitrogen Prices Now Seeing a Resurgence For Fall, and Natural Gas Isn't the Only Driver

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 14:03:20 GMT

High input prices continue to be a pain point for farmers planning their 2023 crop needs, and nitrogen prices are now seeing a resurgence heading into fall. Experts say the price of natural gas isn’t the only driver fueling the market as farmers look to book their fall needs.

Nitrogen prices averted a major disaster on Friday when rail companies and rail unions reached a tentative agreement and avoided a possible strike. Even with the positive news, this chart from StoneX Group shows prices are climbing back toward the highs producers saw last spring.

(Farm Journal)

One ag retailer in Missouri told AgWeb anhydrous prices for falls needs were:

$800 per ton during the fall of 2021
$1500 during the spring of 2022
Farmers booking fall anhydrous today are paying $1325

A retailer located in Iowa also reported a fertilizer price increase this fall. The location reported:

Prices started around $700 during the fall of 2021 and jumped to $1500 by the end of last fall
Prices jumped to $1,700 during the spring of 2022
Farmers looking to book for fall of 2022 saw prices that started at $1000 per ton, but now it’s more than $1400 per ton

What’s Behind the Price Increase for Fall?

What’s fueling the price increases now? Ag Economists say natural gas used to be the main indicator, but that’s not the case anymore.

“Historically we might have thought fertilizer is primarily an energy cost input,” says Brad Lubben, agricultural economist with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “Energy drives the cost of fertilizer, but so does output so does the price of corn. So do the supply shocks overseas in terms of foreign suppliers. So do the current energy shocks in Europe, which leaves all kinds of questions about the winter natural gas supply and availability, as well as transportation and everything else that we see going on here with the challenges we’re seeing today. Volatility is something producers are going to have to manage.”

Outside of the global energy battle, some economists and analysts argue the larger driver of nitrogen prices today is the price of corn.

“You have a lot of factors at play there,” says Cory Walters , an agricultural economist with University of Nebraska- Lincoln. “You have corn prices heading back up. You have issues over in Europe, you have tariffs, you have you have transportation costs, it’s everything across the board is leading to this price level and this level of volatility. And I’d expect more of that going forward, as we as we move into the fall and winter.”

Josh Linville of StoneX Group says there were reports Friday that two European nitrogen plants are planning to come back online. He says that will likely be with the help of government assistance in an effort to beat the cold temperatures this winter. As a result, NOLA January futures were down $30 from the highs on Thursday.

USDA Is Now Sending Out $500 Million to Fight High Fertilizer Prices in the U.S.

Tue, 27 Sep 2022 19:56:30 GMT

USDA unveiled additional plans to help boost domestic fertilizer production including $500 million in grants. In an announcement Monday, the plan aims to bring more of the critical input sourcing stateside, and therefore reduce the risk of a series of black swans that have flown into the fertilizer market in the past two years.

Farmers are currently looking at fertilizer prices that are trending higher for fall, aiding economic concerns and anxiety about potential farm income for 2023. However, some in the fertilizer industry warn adding fertilizer production in the U.S. will take time and could ultimately lead to higher fertilizer costs.

Tuesday’s announcement marks the second time for USDA to unveil a plan on this issue this year. In March, USDA announced plans to make $250 million available toward pushing more American-made fertilizer. At the time, USDA said it intended to use funds from the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to develop a grant program to provide ‘gap’ financing to bring new, independent domestic production capacity on-line.

Details of USDA’s Fertilizer Production Expansion Program

Six months later, that plan is now coming to fruition. On Tuesday, USDA announced details around what it’s calling the Fertilizer Production Expansion Program , saying the funding is double what the agency originally set aside with $ 500 million now available in grants.

“Under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, USDA is creating a resilient, secure and sustainable economy, and this support to provide domestic, independent choices for fertilizer supplies is part of that effort,” says U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “USDA believes in the growth of innovative, local businesses owned and shared by people who can best serve their own unique community’s needs, fill gaps, and build opportunities. Recent supply chain disruptions have shown just how critical it is to invest in the agricultural supply chain here at home. The Fertilizer Production Expansion Program is one example of many Biden-Harris Administration initiatives to bring production and jobs back to the United States, promote competition and support American goods and services.”

The Biden administration says the grants are geared toward independent producers who are working toward sustainable American fertilizer production for farmers.

The maximum grant amount is $100 million
Thee minimum is $1 million.
Each grant term is five years.

The White House says the funds can be used to help expand manufacturing of fertilizer as well as alternatives, through:

Independent, and outside the orbit of dominant fertilizer suppliers. Because the program’s goal is to increase competition, market share restrictions apply.
Made in America. Products must be produced by companies operating in the U.S. or its territories, to create good-paying jobs at home, and reduce the reliance on potentially unstable, inconsistent foreign supplies.
Innovative. Techniques will improve fertilizer production methods and efficient-use technologies to jumpstart the next generation of fertilizers and nutrient alternatives.
Sustainable. Ideally, products will reduce the greenhouse gas impact of transportation, production and use through renewable energy sources, feedstocks and formulations, incentivizing greater precision in fertilizer use.
Farmer-focused. Like other Commodity Credit Corporation investments, a driving factor is providing support and opportunities for U.S. agricultural commodity producers.

The Fertilizer Institute President and CEO Corey Rosenbusch said: “The U.S. fertilizer industry consists of large international corporations, small regional producers, and everything in between. They all play a critical role in suppling farmers with the nutrients required to grow the food that feeds the world. While a nitrogen plant can cost between $2-$4 billion to construct, anything that helps strengthen domestic fertilizer production is a win for the industry, growers, and consumers.”

What’s Causing High Fertilizer Prices Today?

The U.S. currently ranks in the top three for fertilizer imports. Most of those products, or components of fertilizer, come from countries including China, Russia, Canada and Morocco. Supply chain issues led to soaring fertilizer prices last fall. Those prices crept even higher ahead of spring planting this year. It wasn’t just price that was a concern, but also availability of fertilizer.

A year ago, n ews that about black swans hitting the fertilizer industry was a trending story . From the impacts of Hurricane Ida to political and climate issues entangled in a cobweb of production slowdowns in Europe and China, the Black Swan events continued to stack up.

A year later, the issues are still prevalent as farmers face rising fertilizer prices again. From corn prices, transportation issues to even energy prices, there are several factors driving the resurgence of fertilizer prices leading into fall.

Nitrogen prices averted a major disaster two weeks ago when rail companies and rail unions reached a tentative agreement and avoided a possible strike. Even with the positive news, this chart from StoneX Group shows prices are climbing back toward the highs producers saw last spring.

Concerns About Farm Income in 2023

USDA Chief economist Seth Meyer spoke at the Ag Outlook Forum in Kansas City this week. He described the financial outlook for farmers in 2023 as one that comes with more anxiety, and the main reason is over concerns commodity prices won’t rise at the same rate as input prices. One of those pricey inputs causing concern is the increasing price of fertilizer.

“I think for U.S. producers, it’s all going to be about price,” Meyer told AgWeb. “You’ll be able to get what you want, but it’s going to be about price. I’s not going to be at the price you want to pay. I think that part of what we’re seeing on costs for this crop that folks are harvesting now was some folks bought ahead and didn’t face the full brunt of those rising fertilizer prices.”

Meyer says he doesn’t see fertilizer prices trending back down toward pre-pandemic levels in the short-run.

How High Are Fertilizer Prices Today?

Just how high are nitrogen prices today? One ag retailer in Missouri told AgWeb anhydrous prices for falls needs were:

$800 per ton during the fall of 2021
$1500 during the spring of 2022
Farmers booking fall anhydrous today are paying $1325

A retailer located in Iowa also reported a fertilizer price increase this fall. The location reported:

Prices started around $700 during the fall of 2021 and jumped to $1500 by the end of last fall
Prices jumped to $1,700 during the spring of 2022
Farmers looking to book for fall of 2022 saw prices that started at $1000 per ton, but now it’s more than $1400 per ton

“Historically we might have thought fertilizer is primarily an energy cost input,” says Brad Lubben, agricultural economist with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “Energy drives the cost of fertilizer, but so does output so does the price of corn. So do the supply shocks overseas in terms of foreign suppliers. So do the current energy shocks in Europe, which leaves all kinds of questions about the winter natural gas supply and availability, as well as transportation and everything else that we see going on here with the challenges we’re seeing today. Volatility is something producers are going to have to manage.”

Can the Push to Domesticate Fertilizer Production Solve the Issues?

While the short-term price issues are causing concern for farmers today, economists also say moving production domestically will take time. The reason fertilizer production moved to countries like China, Russia and others was due to a lower cost of energy, as well as not as many regulatory hurdles to jump through.

As the Biden administration works toward adding fertilizer capacity in the future, there will be 45-day application window for applicants to receive priority for projects that increase the availability of fertilizer (nitrogen, phosphate or potash) and nutrient alternatives for agricultural producers to use in crop years 2023 or 2024. An additional 45 days will be available for an extended application window to receive applications for financial assistance.

Fertilizer

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What You Need to Know:

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Change Fatigue and Modern Volatility

Global Competitiveness and the Trade Reallocation

The Shift to “Friend-Shoring” and Resilient Supply Chains

The Rise of Generics and Decision Paralysis

AI: The “Undergraduate Intern”

Livestock and the GLP-1 Impact

Financial Stability: Not the 1980s

Strategic Reassessment: Winning at the Bottom

So Is This Ag Cycle Different?

Why One California Farmer is Betting Big on Algae for Fertility

A Personal Connection to Soil Health

Building on What Came Before

Managing the Transition Carefully

Introducing Algae Into the System

Tackling Difficult Soils

Thinking Long-Term

The Pressure on California Farmers

Conflict in Iran Ripples Through Global Fertilizer Markets, Raises Prices Even Higher

Key for Fertilizer Supplies

Conflict Increases Already Historically High Fertilizer Prices

Corn-to-Fertilizer Ratio Stretches Further

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White House Drops Reciprocal Tariffs on Fertilizer, Other Ag Products Not Produced in the U.S.

President Defends Tariff Strategy, Says It’s Working

Fertilizer Prices Under Fire: Monopoly or Markets to Blame?

“Pressure Cooker” on Capitol Hill

Farmers Take a Stand

Industry Response: “A Perfect Storm”

Farmers Push Back: “Too Few Suppliers”

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AgZen, Corteva Team up on AI-Powered, Retrofit Sprayer Tech

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A History of Nutrient Control Efforts

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Vilsack Lists USDA's 4 Policy Objectives for 2023

1. ERP Phase 2

2. Pandemic Assistance Revenue Program (PARP)

3. U.S.-Made Fertilizer

4. Meat and Poultry Processing

New Legislation Would Require USDA to Study Fertilizer Industry

Fertilizer industry invests billions in sustainability, new report finds

U.S. Commerce Rules Russian UAN Imports Unfair, Opens Door for Tariffs and Even Higher Fertilizer Prices in U.S.

Facts and Figures

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Read More: “Has The Farm Financial Picture Turned Dire? Ag Economy Barometer Reveals Reality of Input Price Pain for 2022"

Far from Over

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Has The Farm Financial Picture Turned Dire? Ag Economy Barometer Reveals Reality of Input Price Pain for 2022

Purdue’s Jim Mintert, professor of Agriculture Economics, joins Chip Flory on AgriTalk to break down the results of the latest Ag Economic Barometer.