As we head towards the 2022 planting season, farmers continue to expect very high input and fertilizer prices. Vermilion County Farm Bureau’s Tom Fricke talked with Linda Bolton about the importance of anhydrous on 1490 WDAN’s News Makers Program.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: Anhydrous is one of, and probably the most popular way, of putting nitrogen into the ground for the corn crop to be able to utilize. If you’ve driven by a field in the springtime and the corn looks a little yellow, it’s lacking nitrogen, and that nitrogen intake is not taking place.
You can get anhydrous from a variety of products, but the most popular way is probably with anhydrous ammonia. Fricke says lots of farmers probably bought it ahead of time last spring, if they’re lucky.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: Guys probably had pre-paid in the $650 – $700 range. As changes occured in the anhydrous industry; and part of that ties back to natural gas, somewhere we’ve created a natural gas shortage; and now we have increased the cost of production of that nitrogen. And so what was costing $700 now is in the $1,500 – $1,700 range.
Fricke says right now high commodity prices are the saving grace for farmers as they go into the expected challenges of 2022. But if commodity prices drop, the overall picture could really change.