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As someone with a medium to large scale farm, the fertilizer price rises have been pretty severe. Already up about 40% over last year. It's really a confluence

As someone with a medium to large scale farm, the fertilizer price rises have been pretty severe. Already up about 40% over last year. It's really a confluence of factors. Natural gas is required to produce ammonia (it's about 80% of the cost), and usually the the prices of both move together, but this has outpaced those global fuel increases. Supply chain disruptions, increased demand, new tariffs on urea, higher fuel costs have all contributed. Fertilizer accounts for about 35% of the input costs for my farm (corn and beans) and 25% for other crops so price changes have a pretty significant impact. There's pros and cons, price increases means less fertilizer applied and lower yields, but also less environmental impact and runoff/leaching.

JKCalhoun 5y ago
> Natural gas is required to produce ammonia If I were a chemist, this would be a problem I would set out to solve: an inexpensive means to produce ammonia without natural gas. The history of (industrial) chemistry is almost nothing but new, inexpensive processes to produce a once-expensive compound. (I don't doubt of course that the natural gas process for creating ammonia was, at one time, such a breakthrough.)
- bluGill 5y ago
  Or even a way to make it more efficient. I have relatives in the business. They are buying out a lot of ammonia plants around the country that were build post WWII with Nazi technology, and then never upgraded. Just by modernizing those plants they are able to save a lot of money in the processing. Stagnation has been a real problem even though the chemists knew how to do better for years.
- pfdietz 5y ago
  Ultimately this will mean hydrogen from electrolysis. In some places (including Europe, China, and the Middle East(!)) this is already cheaper than hydrogen from natural gas.
- viburnum 5y ago
  The Birkeland–Eyde process (making fertilizer from hydro power) is actually older than Bosch-Haber (from fossil fuels), but the latter was cheaper.
  - alephnil 5y ago
    That is super inefficient, and while it was an industry based on hydropower using the Birkeland-Eyde process before 1910, those factories switched to Haber-Bosch using hydrogen made with electrolysis and electricity from hydropower instead from 1927.
mynameisash 5y ago
> Fertilizer accounts for about 35% of the input costs for my farm (corn and beans) Would now be a good time to rethink how we as a country grow corn for everything? Why are we putting so much energy into corn so we can burn it in our gas tanks?
- themgt 5y ago
  Without federally subsidized HFCS added to 80% of supermarket products the average American's BMI might drop dangerously below 30, devastating the large sectors of our economy based around mitigating the effects of obesity!
- untouchable 5y ago
  Fuel ethanol is significant but not the largest use of corn. Livestock feed is the largest use of corn, which connects into the larger conversation about food and sustainability. About 45-50% of all US corn crop and 70% of soybeans is used for animal feed. Almost all of my crop goes to those uses eventually. Here's some info about how the market breaks down if you are curious https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/crops/corn-and-other-feedgrains/feedgrains-sector-at-a-glance/ https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/crops/corn-and-other-feedgra...

JKCalhoun 5y ago

> Natural gas is required to produce ammonia If I were a chemist, this would be a problem I would set out to solve: an inexpensive means to produce ammonia without natural gas. The history of (industrial) chemistry is almost nothing but new, inexpensive processes to produce a once-expensive compound. (I don't doubt of course that the natural gas process for creating ammonia was, at one time, such a breakthrough.)

bluGill 5y ago
Or even a way to make it more efficient. I have relatives in the business. They are buying out a lot of ammonia plants around the country that were build post WWII with Nazi technology, and then never upgraded. Just by modernizing those plants they are able to save a lot of money in the processing. Stagnation has been a real problem even though the chemists knew how to do better for years.
pfdietz 5y ago
Ultimately this will mean hydrogen from electrolysis. In some places (including Europe, China, and the Middle East(!)) this is already cheaper than hydrogen from natural gas.
viburnum 5y ago
The Birkeland–Eyde process (making fertilizer from hydro power) is actually older than Bosch-Haber (from fossil fuels), but the latter was cheaper.
- alephnil 5y ago
  That is super inefficient, and while it was an industry based on hydropower using the Birkeland-Eyde process before 1910, those factories switched to Haber-Bosch using hydrogen made with electrolysis and electricity from hydropower instead from 1927.

mynameisash 5y ago

> Fertilizer accounts for about 35% of the input costs for my farm (corn and beans) Would now be a good time to rethink how we as a country grow corn for everything? Why are we putting so much energy into corn so we can burn it in our gas tanks?

themgt 5y ago
Without federally subsidized HFCS added to 80% of supermarket products the average American's BMI might drop dangerously below 30, devastating the large sectors of our economy based around mitigating the effects of obesity!
untouchable 5y ago
Fuel ethanol is significant but not the largest use of corn. Livestock feed is the largest use of corn, which connects into the larger conversation about food and sustainability. About 45-50% of all US corn crop and 70% of soybeans is used for animal feed. Almost all of my crop goes to those uses eventually. Here's some info about how the market breaks down if you are curious https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/crops/corn-and-other-feedgrains/feedgrains-sector-at-a-glance/ https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/crops/corn-and-other-feedgra...