9-12 IAN Fertilizer Cost

 Penny smart and pound foolish. Believe it or not that old saying has an application for the price of fertilizer. I’m David Sparks and I’ll try to explain my logic in just 1 min.

 I have to confess that I often have trouble seeing the big picture because of my concern regarding little niggling things. Let me give you an example. I was talking to a buddy he other day about the price of gasoline. Instead of the word talking let me use the word whining. My buddy gave me a different perspective. He said stop thinking about dollars per gallon and just think of gasoline as being a line item expense. In other words it’s the cost of doing business. His next question, are you making money to which I responded yes. All right said he, gasoline price is just an expense associated with your profit. Now let’s talk fertilizer.

 Thinking about the fall fertilizer application season a weekly report on fertilizer prices shows the price of  some fertilizers are up seven-percent  over a month ago while on the other hand - the average price of other fertilizers are down 10-percent from a month ago.  Like my buddy, who advised me about cost of doing business, a University Soils Specialist Dave Franzen says  even at current prices - fertilizer remains a good investment.  “there is an economic analysis that compares the price of wheat with the price of fertilizer and the most important thing in that whole equation is really the price of the crop. The price of the fertilizer doesn’t really influence until the price of the crop is very low... Till you get down to the $3 wheat, or God forbid, $2 corn,  then the price of fertilizer becomes a major issue. But with the prices this high, then the price of fertilizer is not really an issue at all.