So how much nitrogen are you growing this year?
Nitrogen costs a lot these days. Keystone Agriculture Producers in Manitoba reports urea prices are now near $600 per tonne, up nearly 45 percent from two years ago.
Usually, rising natural gas prices are blamed for expensive nitrogen, but this time it is increased demand. All those extra corn acres in the United States and canola acres in Canada need more nitrogen and the North American nitrogen production industry is stretched thin.
It has been a good time to own shares in fertilizer companies. The share prices of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan and Mosaic have about doubled from the same time last year and Agrium’s shares have risen about 60 percent.
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The nitrogen business has suffered in North America because the price of natural gas, also called methane, is significantly higher than in other regions in the world.
It is a safe bet that high energy costs and strong corn ethanol demand will continue for some time and that means nitrogen fertilizer costs are likely to remain high.
What is a farmer to do?
First, make the best use of his fertilizer dollar by soil testing and applying only what it needed for target yield. If possible try to buy nitrogen in the fall when the price is usually the lowest. Work with an agronomy advisor to develop a variable rate application program.
Many producers also grow their own nitrogen by seeding pulse crops.
The nitrogen benefits of peas are partly behind the trade’s expectation that even more acres of the crop will be seeded this spring.
However, more producers might also begin to investigate ideas that are a little out of the mainstream.
The University of Manitoba’s agriculture faculty maintains a website call Natural Systems Agriculture at www.umanitoba.ca/outreach/naturalagriculture.
There you can find research papers on nitrogen-fixing cover crops and green manures. One idea is that in areas with good moisture, it is possible to seed a nitrogen-producing cover crop after harvest to take advantage of fall growing weather.
Innovative producers are also experimenting with intercropping a pulse with an oilseed and report overall better revenue per acre.
Manure is another nitrogen source.
As the nitrogen in manure becomes more valuable, it increases the viability of crop-only farmers buying manure from their livestock-producing neighbours.
An Associated Press story out of the United States in March said manure hauling is a growth business. It notes that in 2003, only one person in Ohio was licensed to buy and apply large amounts of manure. Today, there are 30, with 48 more in the process of obtaining their permits.
Of course, environmental concerns about phosphorus overloading also help explain this trend.
Crop prices might be the best in years, but producers still need to keep a sharp eye on expenses to harvest a profit.
Alternative thinking about nitrogen could make a positive difference.
