Cargill workers approve 5‑year deal; farmers split on fertilizer buys as prices fall

Cargill workers at the company's Fort Morgan beef processing plant have approved a new five-year labor agreement, bringing a three-month labor dispute to an end. Workers are expected to begin returning to the plant around August 24th, with beef processing scheduled to resume during the week of September 7th. Cargill halted operations after workers rejected an earlier contract proposal and amid concerns about a potential strike.

With nitrogen and fertilizer prices at current levels, producers are split on whether to wait on purchases or move on purchasing now for next season. Vice President of Fertilizer at StoneX, Josh Linville.

“I think it's a huge mix. I think that there is a group of farmers out there that have gone ahead and they bought their anhydrous for the fall. I think some folks have already started to buy up some of their UAN for next spring. Same thing for urea. These values have dipped down. When you look at where we're at today on a lot of these prices, they are down remarkably from where they were in March and April. And so, just from that perspective, it's one of those swings. It's like, well, yeah, it's not quite where I would think it would be historically, but it was also way up here just not that long ago. Let's just jump on those when we get the chance. I think there's going to be a lot of other farmers who look at and say this just does not make sense for my operation. If I plug those numbers into my spreadsheet, it's kicking out red numbers that doesn't make sense. I'll wait and I'll see.”

Linville encourages producers to set aside the emotion that comes with a volatile market, and focus on what the price itself is signaling.