Price of fertilizer in 2022

[goodhors]

The fertilizer people warned me last year about increased costs. I get fertilizer after soil testing in two loads. They blend what each side needs in granulated particles, so I use a spreader wagon to lay it down. I don’t use liquid fertilizers. One load for pastures, one load for the hayfields. We need more of the minerals over nitrogen for hay. Previous owners hadn’t fertilized for 20 years!! But adding fertilizer is part of the cost of raising hay and pasture. So you pay what you have to.

I have been spreading horse manure, but actually horse manure is not nearly as nutrient beneficial as cow, sheep, goat or rabbit manure. One stomach animal does not pull nutrients from food like the multi-stomached animal does. The sawdust bedding helps by adding organic matter which my clay soil ALWAYS needs. Sawdust or any woody bedding takes longer to break down, but stays in place which non-composted straw or hay does not. I do not compost, want the volumes of sawdust bedding to cover my land with. I am almost done covering the 11 acres of hayfield once, though I have been at it almost 2 1/2 years. Can’t spread there in summer when hay is growing. The land was very muddy, got stuck a lot while spreading, after turning up the soil the first year before the grass got established. And we do not really have that much manure to spread daily. I spread on the pastures in summer, also helpful in adding the bedding as organic matter, acts as mulch to help the pasture plants.

We are trying to increase hay yield, had some issues, managment, weather, last summer and had to buy to have enough for winter. NOT listening to the Extension Service this year, it reduced yield by cutting on a schedule. No height. Well, anyone can be an “expert” if they are further than 25 miles from home!! Ha ha

I will be spraying herbicide, trying to get rid of volunteer clover. It cuts down our grass yield, takes a day longer to dry before safe baling. This is even with a conditioner behind the mower! LOOKS terrible, though horses scarf it down. Maybe it will leave the extra nitrogen in the soil if I can kill it.

Thanks for the price increase warning. I will need to budget more for the hay expenses. Hoping to have a hay accumulator and grapple for picking up bales with less handling. The Pros using them make it look so easy!

[lenapesadie]

@goodhors

grapple for picking up bales

The first time I saw the farmer pick up a block of ten squares in one fell swoop with the grapple, I about swooned. His baler pops them out in that handy ten block pattern too. I was incredibly impressed.

[Tarlo_Farm]

Stopped to visit my hay farmer friends and they were working on their taxes. I think they farm about 200 acres in west Michigan. The price of their fertilizer last year was $49,000! Didn’t ask what they paid the year before, because I was so stunned their little operation had that kind of a bill.

[sativum]

@goodhors

I have been spreading horse manure, but actually horse manure is not nearly as nutrient beneficial as cow, sheep, goat or rabbit manure. One stomach animal does not pull nutrients from food like the multi-stomached animal does.

Wouldn’t this mean that more of the nutrients are moving through the animal back out with the manure, since if nutrients are being more efficiently “pulled”/digested, they are being more efficiently used by the animal for metabolic processes and growth?

[goodhors]

We are looking at the 8 bale size, tractor is only 40Hp. I think it can handle grapple and weight of 8 bales without a problem. Do not want to buy a bigger tractor. But yeah, 8 or 10 bales at a time is wonderful!! Such a person handling saver! The guy down the road fills his semi trucks in no time with his 10 bale grapples on skidsteers. ENVY here.

We will still need some help stacking in the barn. Aisle is not real wide for turns. I HAVE mentioned a newer skidsteer with tracks and more lifting capacity that would fit in the aisle for stacking! Probably won’t happen though.

[goodhors]

Not sure exactly how the nutrients are pulled and used by the animals, who look well fed. Just that their manure is more beneficial when spread. Having sheep and growing young cattle in one field, everything in there grew much better than in the horse only paddock beside it. The cattle and sheep gained weight, grew well as 4H projects, without needing much in grain foods. I do have good pasture for them, but it was visibly better after the second year with the projects in there. It got rotated so horses could graze it too, the various species like different plants to graze.

[sativum]

I had the understanding that horse manure was pretty close to NPK analysis as dairy or beef cow manure, although that can differ depending if you are considering it on a fresh or dry weight basis - https://ag.umass.edu/crops-dairy-livestock-equine/fact-sheets/plant-nutrients-from-manure

I’d be a bit cautious about applying sawdust or wood bedding - while it is taking longer to break down, with its very high C:N ratio, the microbes that are trying to break down that sawdust and turn it into organic matter are needing to use nitrogen from the soil environment, thus preventing that N from being available to crop growth. You need to add additional N to create an environment where microbes can break it down and benefit the soil while supporting crop growth needs.

[Montanas_Girl]

I work in the agriculture field (feed sales, but for a farmers’ cooperative). We have been warned that fertilizer prices will be astronomical this year. Yes, I expect this will impact hay prices substantially. Plan accordingly.

[clanter]

the primary reason is China has forbid the export of phosphate and urea exports until June 2022 .(or who knows when)

China is the world’s leading producer phosphate and urea used in fertilizers

Also China has bought up most all the grain crops world wide for 2022, so expect your grocery bill to about double or more

[goodhors]

My fertilizer guy talks to me about the soil tests, what I need in fertilizer to produce grasses in pasture and hayfields. I ask questions! He tells me I have plenty of soil with nitrogen, but with the sawdust bedding using nitrogen to break down, that what I need is lime to “free up” more soil nitrogen that plant roots can take advantage of. Providing organic matter by mowing pastures returns minerals to the soil wit cut pieces. Horse grazing removes some of the minerals grasses provide, so animal body can use them. Horse manure returns what minerals horse didn’t need to the soil This is where fertilizing returns lost minerals from grazing or removing hay grasses in bales, to the soils, bringing them up to full productivity again.

Tamara in Tennessee, a hay producer posting on here, always recommended soil testing and fertilizing after each cutting, for best hay possible. I can’t do that, but we do a good job keeping the land happy to produce good grass! I was really glad she shared so much good information!! I have used it over the years.

What bit of Nitrogen I apply is in the form of Ammonium Sulphate, a product that does not vaporize. Urea will vaporize if rain does not come down quickly after application. Vaporizing happens pretty fast after application, causes you wasted money laying down Urea for your nitrogen source.

Husband the Farrier, was adamant about not using Urea for fertilizing, after seeing some client horses suffering the effects of Urea poisoning. Most had to be put down. All hooved animals can get Urea poisoning, so don’t think only horses are affected if you have other livestock.

I found the pricing to be fairly close on the Ammonium Sulphate and Urea, so it did not cost me more to use. I just keep repeating “No Urea” to the various guys at the fertilizer plant as they make up my order.

Our cattle and sheep got the same hay as horses, minimum grain to just keep them friendly, yet their field was visibly greener, thicker plants after 2 years of project animals grazing it. As a gardener I can buy cow manure fertilizer, but never horse manure in bags at garden centers. I would think if horses were as beneficial they would bag and sell the manure. They sterilize the cow manure, so it is not a question of introducing seeds like when going straight from stall to garden. Looking at the manure while cleaning stalls, our cow poop, sheep poop, never had any grain in it like horse poop often does. Something in evolution gave both species such different digestive systems for a good reason.

[goodhors]

I wonder if the NPK levels in cattle manure vary by location? What the cattle eat/graze/feed lot, has to make a difference. Same thinking would apply to horse manure value as fertilizer.

An animal can’t excrete what they do not get in feeds.

[Xanthoria]

Our BM gets the manure taken away by a company that sells it as compost so…?

[B_and_B]

So…make sure that the pass through class of herbicides isn’t in your hay. Or simply make sure that you (or the BO) can account for what herbicides were on applied to the hay. In my case, had we not caught it in time, I could have potentially screwed my customer’s certificate as an organic farm in addition to killing off all of their dahlias. If the manure is going off the property, you need to know whether any pass through products might be present because a farmer may need to know.
Now, in my experience asking that question of hay producers is likely to get you hung up on. Which also pisses me off. It is an agricultural product, everybody else in ag can come up with the chemical sheets, hay producers should as well.
I’m as libertarian as they come, until it comes around to pesticide and herbicide labels!

[SusanO]

Supposedly you cannot sell hay that has Grazon applied to it - you can only use it for in farm use. I guess the feed store did not read that law or chose to ignore it. I don’t know how widely it is used on hay crops and if the big producers use it or not. It is more expensive than 2,4D and those types of herbicides. It kills tomato plants and other susceptible plants for years if it gets in your soil and I could see it wiping out farmer’s plants, organic or not. It killed my tomatoes for 2 or 3 years and then raised its ugly head again after I had stopped putting compost on my garden. I usually ask when I buy hay from the producer but I also buy hay from resellers that may not know. I wish it was labeled too on hay crops.

[goodhors]

I am pretty good with soil nitrogen, according to my soil tests. As mentioned previously, I do not apply much nitrogen, more minerals in the mix. So changing the hayfield to mostly grass instead of clover in one part, should not reduce my food value in the hay. Clover has taken over in that area, was all grass 2 years ago. The clover is a problem with reducing the amount we can bale, takes a day longer to get dried for safe baling. Brown look is certainly not enticing to a buyer if we sold any hay. I have seen 3yr old hay that looks nicer! Ha ha Horses do like it, but certainly not appealing in appearance.

I am organic with spreading horse manure, but it does not give me the benefits that I get by fertilizing with chemical fertilizers and minerals. The horse manure helps build food to provide for the micro organisms in the soil. Bedding/manure is just is not enough to produce enough grass in pasture or as hay that I need. But soil is better soil for the yearly amounts, organic volume added in the manure applications. No empty carbs going into the horses here!

[carman_liz]

I just use basic 12-12-12 or triple 19, but places like southern states and rural king havent changed their prices at all.

[goodhors]

Perhaps you are buying old stock fertilizer, still at the old prices.

Have you ever done a soil test on your land? Adding the same quantity (13-13-13 or 19-19-19) of the various minerals could be wasting money by putting “too much of a good thing” on the land not needing those minerals. Along with that, you could be spreading fertilizer too thin or thickly on the land, using “generic” recommendations. The excess fertilizer minerals will just wash away, unbalancing steams, lakes and river water.

I do the soil test to let me apply exactly what my land needs, no extra per acre, and nothing lacking to produce the hay and pasture our horses need.

My newest farm magazine just arrived, saying we will be lucky if fertilizer cost is only double last year’s cost. Might be even higher, if we can get it. Along with rising cost of seed, fuel, machinery parts.

Best to start putting hay money aside now so you have enough for next winters supply. You might find cheaper hay if your farmer does not fertilize yearly. Many do not, but it does change hay’s nutritional value.

[carman_liz]

I have an order for hay already haha. I am lucky in that regard since my pony will be muzzled come May thru Oct and has to lose some lbs. Seniors time is coming though :(. I only have about an acre fenced off so I usually go the big box fertilizer, some lime and I like to overseed in spring and fall because well… I like “playing outside” as my hubs calls it hehehe.

I see where you are coming from and if I had large acreage I would do all that for sure. Where I am in east TN I know my soils need lime, I am in an area that has a very low ph, the farmers in the area, co op and this government ag website I looked at when we bought the place that shows which areas of the state have the higher and lower ph levels just by nature all said I am on high ph land. I probably should do a soil test , but about 200 a yr for everything and making myself walk spread and hand spray keeps me busy and makes me feel productive .

[goodhors]

Well lime spreading is almost never harmful. But it has been “drilled” into me not to overdose the land with the other fertilizers because they " don’t stay at home" on the fields. They leave and start trouble.

I can see you enjoy “playing outside” and I bet it looks nice! Hand work on a small field does make you feel good! Glad you have your hay already lined up, that has to be comforting. We put up most of our own, not quite productive enough to raise the entire amount yet. We are on a learning curve getting the hayfield back into really good shape with plantings. Still have to buy a couple hundred bales to add for our total winter supply.

I am pretty happy with pasture production, bur I have been caring for that land a lot longer, so it is in better condition than the hayfield. We think being able to graze the horses is better physically and mentally, than feeding much hay in summer. No overweight ones or any health problems, so they all get about 12-14 hours turnout a day. Coming in half a day prevent being too fat because they are easy keepers.

I also enjoy working in the fields with my little tractor, keeping things up. Rewarding to see my results in green pstures, hay in the barn and using our shiny, slick horses!

[NancyM]

Uugggg! We just bought ours yesterday. $2700 for two one ton bags of 18-18-18-3S. This is half our “normal” amount. And costs more than 4 bags used to. Fertilizer, electricity for the irrigation pumps, diesel for the tractors, the cost of machinery parts and repairs (DH does most of the repairs and servicing himself, grudgingly)- all going UP. Sometimes doubling. DH arguing about how much we should put our prices up… he doesn’t think that people can afford to buy our hay if we put the cost up “too much”, and he doesn’t want to be the “bad guy” who puts the prices up. I point out that 50 years ago, we were paying 50 cents a bale for small squares, which a few years later were going for $1.00 a bale. And we paid that. Then $2.00 a bale. Etc. As always, if horse owners can’t afford to buy feed, then sell the horses. And yet, we often don’t, do we? But I’m really glad that I don’t have to buy hay any more. Our hay operation is small, only 40 acres of alfalfa/grass in round bales, and 5 acres of meadow hay in small squares. And we only sell the excess… our horses eat first. Self sufficiency was the goal when we moved here 14 years ago. Very, very glad that we did this.