Farmers planning to apply fall fertilizer could see substantial relief from historically high prices experienced the past two seasons.
Many summer/fall pre-pay programs currently show prices for anhydrous ammonia well below $1,000 per ton after peaking last year at roughly $1,600.
“We finally saw the summer/fall pre-pay programs priced out there and what we’re seeing is it’s down tremendously from where we were last year,” Josh Linville, vice president of fertilizer for StoneX, told FarmWeek. “In the Midwestern U.S., values are down about 60% from a year ago.”
The average price of anhydrous ammonia in Illinois plummeted the past month to $870 per ton, with a wide range of values around the state from $540 to $1,295, according to the latest Illinois Production Cost Report.
“Prices are tremendously lower than a year ago,” Linville said. “It’s a great win for the farmer.”
In the Midwest, potash prices have declined by almost half while phosphate values softened by nearly a third since last year.
Prices in Illinois averaged $821 per ton for diammonium phosphate, $709 for monoammonium phosphate and $557 for potash as of July 27.
“This should be a much more affordable input season (for the 2024 crop) than we dealt with the last year or two,” Linville said. “This is really the case across all fertilizers.”
What changed so much in the last year? It’s all about supply, according to the fertilizer market expert.
“It’s a culmination of factors,” Linville said. “The last two years have been about either a lack of supply or the fear of a lack of supply as we talked about all these black swan events that happened.
Source: farmweeknow.com
Photo Credit: istock-cactusoup
Categories: Illinois, Crops