High cost and demand for fertilizer scares farmers

[uscitizen]

Jun 4, 6:23 AM EDT

High cost and demand for fertilizer scares farmers

By JAMES HANNAH
Associated Press Writer

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- Corn stalks normally dominate the fields of farmer Lyle McKanna. But this summer, leafy green soybean plants will swallow up more acreage than ever.

McKanna, who farms 800 acres near Lima, has replaced more than one-fourth of his corn crop with soybeans, which require far less fertilizer.

In part because of a global surge in demand, the price of fertilizer has skyrocketed 228 percent since 2000, forcing U.S. farmers to switch crops, cut back on fertilizer or search for manure as a substitute.

Wholesalers and retailers are scrambling to find and buy fertilizer and juggle what supplies they have to meet customers' needs. Between 2001 and 2006, global demand jumped 14 percent, an amount equivalent to the entire U.S. market, according to The Fertilizer Institute, a Washington D.C.-based trade group.

"We're trying to get as much as we can and get it into storage," said Joe Dillier, plant, food, markets manager for The GROWMARK System, a farm cooperative based in Bloomington, Ill. "It's hard to buy as much as you want forward because everyone sees that this price is going to continue to go up."

The price increase means the cost of fertilizing an acre of average-yield U.S. corn rose from about $30 to $160.

Mike Duffy, professor of economics at Iowa State University who closely tracks the costs of crop production, said the more expensive fertilizer might increase the price of sweet corn this summer. And if enough farmers change over to soybeans, it could cause some localized shortages of sweet corn and increase the price of corn in grain markets.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...TAM&SECTION=US

[Thorn]

I was astonished to read a few months ago that fertilizer is actually petroleum-based. Is this true?

[uscitizen]

natural gas, petoroleum and Phosphate I think. But not for sure.

[Cancel3]

Yes, many fertilizers are petroleum based. Not only is petroleum an ingredient, it is a big part of the manufacturing process.

Petroleum is an integral part of most things we use in our daily lives.

The computers you are using to read this take 10 times their weight in oil to manufacture.

The manufacturing of a single car requires 20 barrels of oil and roughly 120,000 gallons of fresh water.

Our economy is based on oil. We don't have to run out of oil for it to screw us up royally.

A good analogy is the human body and water. A 200lb man is roughly 140lbs of water. But if he loses 10 or 15 lbs of that water, he will probably die.

We only have to have a small portion of our oil supply disappear and we are screwed.

Its not just the gasoline. Want a real eye-opener? Do a little research for yourself and find out what percentage of the oil imported goes to gasoline.

[uscitizen]

The price increase means the cost of fertilizing an acre of average-yield U.S. corn rose from about $30 to $160.
//

But some will blame the rise in food prices on ethanol.

[uscitizen]

Yep Solitary, our country was designed around cheap oil. Unlike most of europe and such.

Much of the pain from high oil is just now beginning to show it's ugly self. Our largest chemical company just announced about a 20% rise in their products which are used in much of what we buy and use.

I feel that the housing bubble and such will pale in comparison to what is coming.
The debt, both national and personal. having to start paying back the around 3 trillion in spent SS surplus funds in a few years, etc....

[Cancel3]

Yeah, the Social Security fiasco was a joke.

Especially the part where the surplus SSI collected could only be used in one way. It could ONLY be loaned to the federal government.

Like loaning money to the government was a good bet. Talk about sub-prime nightmare.