Rising Fertilizer Costs A Concern For Farming Community

Regardless of what you grow or where you grow it, one of the most popular topics of conversation in the farming community is the soaring price of fertilizers.

"It's been a perfect storm of high input costs, high transportation costs, shutdowns..." a sample of testimony at a recent House Agriculture Committee hearing, and indeed even though crop prices are fairly high;

"The problem is that we are seeing a sharp rise in input prices," noted USDA Chief Economist Seth Meyer. He told the committee that he is very concerned about what could end up being a returns or margin squeeze on producers as they try to secure input supplies now for next year's crops.

Meyer said producers always keep costs in mind.

"But I think this will be one of those years where you are really going to have to watch things on the cost side because we're seeing some key input prices rise substantially."

Which could, of course, cost some producers to change how much of what crops they plant next spring.

If you have a story idea for the PNW Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail gvaagen@cherrycreekmedia.com