Fertilize cost

Bruce's post below reminded me of one lonely farmer y-tube video today. He says he has had enough of high fert prices, they are not going down anytime soon. He is starting regenerative ag program on his farm with row crops in which he says he will use cover crops like hairy vetch, crimson clover, sun hemp to grow some fertility into his soil naturally.(These are N producers) Think starting this year is is not applying any P or K to his row crops. He is still using 32 % N as he transitions into this program. He also talks about a secret sauce he is applying that he does not give the ingredient mix out to the public. He did let it slip that zinc and iron are in the secret sauce. He showed a picture of sprayer clean out that had left over secret sauce in the tank bottom. Was a black gunk. He says this secret sauce will activate microbes in his soil that will convert phosphate & potash already in the soil into a plant available form. He also has applied 3 - 4 T mushroom compost that has gypsum mixed in it to all his corn ground. Can he farm with profit without buying synthetic fert ? He says just not buying this high priced fertilize in the future.

Well......

Pick a yield level, pick a cost of production, pick a per bu income, and make the numbers work for you.

You say he isnt going to buy fertilizer, but then you list a lot of fertilizer he is buying.... just doesnt come from the coop in little round pebbles. Its still buying fertilizer......

Ive grown a couple acres of cover crop/ nitrogen producers every year of my farming career, I helped dad plow down the legumes when I was 8 years old. If you want to grow the N, that crop needs sun and water and time to grow, so you are going to lose some of that for your main cash crop. They dont give the seed for those away for free either! And then you get 20-80# of N, well a 200bu corn crop needs more than that so you still need to buy some N to apply. You can call it a secret sauce, but its still buying fertilizer. The problem with growing the N is you arent really sure when it will be available for your cash crop, you really need some easier available N around for the crop as it waits for the cover crop to decompose and become available. Lots of unknowns along this path, year to year.....

Its all a compromise.

I farm differently today than I did 5 years ago, and different than I did 15 years ago. We are always changing, improving, looking for a better way to juggle the numbers.

So, he can do that. It might work for him. It might not. It depends what his goals are, what his costs are, and what he can get paid for it.

He will likely have less yield.

Those secret sauces often are pretty expensive in reality, but maybe he has something cheap available.

It can work. But it will be different. I would guess less yield.

And if the world is facing a bit of a grain shortage, is that really what we want to accomplish now? A little less yield?

Before I sound all negative, more power to him, and Im sure he has a plan that will work out, and be adjusted year to year to make a go of it. More power to him and others that try the many different options we have.

Paul

Here in eastern South Dakota, the storm that went through last week left a lot of farms with iron/zinc applied to their fields in the form of pole barn sheeting and doors..

It makes sense that the breakeven point and optimum profit rates for nitrogen fertilizer application will shift as both the cost of nitrogen and the price of corn change.

Reduced input costs that reduce yields somewhat that would result in less product and higher product prices.What is not to like?Actually what he is doing is what Sustainable Ag groups like Acres USA is what they have been advocating for years.Things all thru the economy are changing big time,not just farming.Who would have thought goats would be bringing 3X per pound what cattle fetch?

There's not shortage and we have been over producing for years so now maybe things will even up a bit. Besides we don't get the big money selling wholesale while millers are buying wholesale then marking up for profit and then retail marking it up again as well as selling retail.

He can pull some N out of the air but P&K have to come in on a truck at some point.

I farmed using the strictly organic practices for several years, in an attempt to reach Organic Certification needed to produce Organic milk. I reached the standards to qualify the land Certified Organic, but they wouldnt let me produce Certified Organic Milk because we housed our dairy cows in a tie stall barn. All new herds to produce Certified Organic Milk had to be in free stall barns. And existing Organic tie stall herds had until 2025 to get new facility or be canceled.
So I have had some experience growing crops with out buying commercial fertilizer. Having large amounts of dairy manure, and growing legumes made not buying fertilizer not much of a problem. There was really not much yield drag on the crops I grew, but lack of weed control options could become a concern in corn crops. Manure has both N and Phosphorus, and our soils dont need a great deal of potash add.
But now, screw the Organic diesel fuel farming, buying fertilizer is still a better deal than growing crops that have no market, just to get a bit of Nitrogen. If you have livestock and manure, your fertilizer need isnt as great. Full on crop farming, better start doing a fallow land rotation.

I just got the bill for my first batch of fertilizer.

Had nightmares about the cost with everyone crying how fertilizer went up by 2-3-400% over last year's prices.

Actual increase in cost was 74%. Not even double. I sold my corn last fall for about 74% higher price than I did two years ago, so it all evens out.

The ones that this is really killing are the ego-driven farmers who just have to have that record-breaking yield every year, and pump way to much fertilizer to their crop.

That's what the spent mushroom substrate (aka compost) is for.

There is more than one way to do just about everything.