Most Fertilizer Prices Now Higher

Feb 22, 2024

By Russ Quinn

For the first time in several months, more retail fertilizer prices were higher than lower than the previous month, according to sellers surveyed by DTN.

During the third week of February 2024, prices for five of the eight major fertilizers were higher than last month, while prices for the remaining three fertilizers were lower. For the fourth straight week, however, no fertilizer saw a significant price move, which DTN designates as anything 5% or more.

The fertilizers that were higher in price included DAP, with an average price of $739 per ton, 10-34-0 $610/ton, anhydrous $771/ton, UAN28 $336/ton and UAN32 $392/ton.

The three fertilizers that were just slightly lower in price from last month were MAP with an average price of $809/ton, potash $504/ton and urea $529/ton.

On a price per pound of nitrogen basis, the average urea price was at $0.57/lb.N, anhydrous $0.47/lb.N, UAN28 $0.60/lb.N and UAN32 $0.61/lb.N.

The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) recently expressed some alarm with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) lowering of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter, according to a TFI news release. This change will lead to permitting gridlock across much of the country, negatively affecting economic growth and fertilizer production, TFI contends.

The particulate matter NAAQS significantly curtailed air pollution nationwide, but a major challenge for industries arises as those levels are progressively lowered. Despite ongoing technological improvements, industries reach a threshold where additional air quality improvements become more and more unfeasible under stricter standards, especially as 84% of current PM2.5 emissions originate from nonindustrial sources, according to TFI.

"At a time when the need to strengthen the domestic fertilizer industry has been made clear by multiple ongoing global crises and echoed by the Biden administration, now is not the time to hamstring fertilizer production by making new production facilities or the expansion of existing production more difficult or, in some instances, impossible," TFI President and CEO Corey Rosenbusch stated in the news release.

All fertilizers except one are now lower by double digits compared to one year ago. MAP is 6% lower, DAP is 12% less expensive, 10-34-0 is 19% lower, urea is 23% less expensive, potash is 27% lower, UAN28 is 31% less expensive, UAN32 are 32% lower and anhydrous is 37% lower compared to a year prior.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.