DTN Retail Fertilizer Trends

OMAHA (DTN) -- Retail fertilizers tracked by DTN for the third week of February 2020 show mostly lower prices, which has been the case in recent weeks.

A streak of five consecutive weeks of significantly lower fertilizer prices was broken. Five fertilizers were lower in price compared to last month but none were down any substantial amount. DAP had an average price of $410/ton, MAP $435/ton, potash $373/ton, 10-34-0 $464/ton and UAN28 $235/ton.

The remaining three fertilizers had a small price increase looking back to last month. Urea had an average price of $361/ton, anhydrous $490/ton and UAN32 $277/ton.

On a price per pound of nitrogen basis, the average urea price was at $0.39/lb.N, anhydrous $0.30/lb.N, UAN28 $0.42/lb.N and UAN32 $0.43/lb.N.

Producing corn in the Northern Plains and the costs associated with this were the focus of a recent South Dakota State University (SDSU) report titled "Corn Production Costs in the Northern Great Plains." It was written by Alvaro Garcia, former SDSU Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources Program director.

The single highest cost of corn production in the Northern Plains is fertilizer. According to Garcia, Northern Plains farmers pay about 8% less for fertilizer compared to their counterparts in the rest of the U.S. This is likely affected by the use of manure fertilizer in this region, he wrote.

Of all of the crop acres that use manure as a fertilizer in the U.S., corn with more than 9 million acres constitutes nearly 60%. Of the total corn acreage in the U.S., nearly 12% is fertilized with manure, the majority (62%) coming from dairies.

Applying fertilizer only as needed makes perfect sense from an environmental standpoint, Garcia wrote. However, it should not be dismissed from an economic perspective.

"Every time the Northern Great Plains crop farmers reduced the fertilizer costs per acre by $10 in 2014 without negatively affecting yields, their income over operating costs increased by 7.5 cents per bushel," Garcia wrote.

The entire SDSU article can be read at:

https://extension.sdstate.edu/…

Retail fertilizers are now all lower in price from a year ago. DAP is 20% lower, MAP is 19% less expensive, anhydrous is 18% lower, both UAN28 and UAN32 are 13% less expensive, urea is 11% lower, potash is 3% less expensive and 10-34-0 is 1% lower from last year at this time.

DTN collects roughly 1,700 retail fertilizer bids from 310 retailer locations weekly. Not all fertilizer prices change each week. Prices are subject to change at any time.

DTN Pro Grains subscribers can find current retail fertilizer price in the DTN Fertilizer Index on the Fertilizer page under Farm Business.

Retail fertilizer charts dating back to 2010 are available in the DTN fertilizer segment. The charts included cost of N/lb., DAP, MAP, potash, urea, 10-34-0, anhydrous, UAN28 and UAN32.

DRY
Date Range	DAP	MAP	POTASH	UREA
Feb 18-22 2019	512	536	385	404
Mar 18-22 2019	509	533	386	401
Apr 15-19 2019	504	531	388	404
May 13-17 2019	498	526	392	426
Jun 10-14 2019	497	527	392	434
Jul 8-12, 2019	497	532	392	431
Aug 5-9 2019	495	531	395	428
Sep 2-6 2019	491	488	387	408
Sep 30-Oct 4, 2019	476	474	384	404
Oct 28-Nov 1 2019	464	472	383	402
Nov 25-29 2019	456	465	381	386
Dec 23-27 2019	443	454	377	378
Jan 20-24 2020	413	435	374	357
Feb 17-21 2020	410	435	373	361
LIQUID
Date Range	10-34-0	ANHYD	UAN28	UAN32
Feb 18-22 2019	470	596	271	317
Mar 18-22 2019	470	597	270	318
Apr 15-19 2019	481	594	270	317
May 13-17 2019	487	595	267	311
Jun 10-14 2019	487	591	271	314
Jul 8-12, 2019	485	585	276	317
Aug 5-9 2019	491	580	272	320
Sep 2-6 2019	473	522	255	290
Sep 30-Oct 4, 2019	470	511	253	289
Oct 28-Nov 1 2019	468	503	251	291
Nov 25-29 2019	472	497	245	277
Dec 23-27 2019	469	488	240	276
Jan 20-24 2020	470	487	237	275
Feb 17-21 2020	464	490	235	277

Russ Quinn can be reached at russ.quinn@dtn.com

Follow him on Twitter @RussQuinnDTN

(SK\CZ)

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