By Jared Strong
Farmers in the United States are likely to plant less corn and use less nitrogen fertilizer on their fields for next year’s growing season due to sky-high fertilizer prices and short supplies. That trend will be less pronounced in Iowa, where fertile soils make the extra costs worthwhile.
“We have a very natural advantage for producing corn,” said Sam Funk, a senior economist for Iowa Farm Bureau. “Those nitrogen fertilizers are worth more on very productive Iowa ground rather than in other states.”
A confluence of factors has led agricultural fertilizers to reach their highest prices in two decades, according to Green Markets, which tracks those price trends.
Global natural gas shortages, limited fertilizer stockpiles, and other factors had already driven those prices upward this year when Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana in August. The storm halted fertilizer production in the storm-affected areas and stalled transportation barges on the Mississippi River.