DUMAS, TX – Some corn producers have seen a 33 percent increase in prices received for their crop, but the increase in inputs dwarfs that general runup in commodity prices.
Dee Vaughn is a producer from Moore County, Texas, and a former President of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) and explains for his operation he’s looking at a 264 percent increase in nitrogen fertilizer costs and a 241 percent increase in all fertilizer inputs since 2020.
“The trajectory isn’t good,” he says and it has both producers and bankers concerned. “We’re borrowing money to pay for those inputs and then we lose that crop (to hail, drought, or late freeze), then we have these huge bills that have to be paid next fall” Vaughn adds.
Even if everything goes well and a farmer harvests a bumper crop, another “black swan” event in the markets leading to a major reduction in prices would set up the entire industry for disaster this year he warns, “so that’s what’s got everyone concerned.”
(SOURCE: All Ag News)
