Nitrogen Costs, Soybean Seed Challenge Crop Planters
JOYCE BUPP
York Co. Correspondent
YORK (York Co.) Think
rolling energy blackouts in Cali
fornia have no impact on the
East Coast farming community?
Think again.
As natural gas prices have es
calated across the country, ener
gy producers are scrambling for
supplies.
One place they reportedly ob
tained scarce natural gas is from
firms which normally use gas to
produce nitrogen fertilizers.
As a result, suppliers warn
that nitrogen production is down
this spring and costs have blasted
sky-high.
Some area growers have al
ready bought their spring needs
of nitrogen. Some are looking at
alternatives, such as sources of
manure. Some are simply plan
ning to use less, or none at all.
“Nitrogen is the bone in the
craw of producers this year,”
said George Williams, owner of
Codorus Fertilizer Service in
southwestern York County.
“Costs are being driven by ener
gy, especially natural gas, which
is the first item you start with in
the nitrogen production cycle.”
Williams concurs with recent
news reports, that some large do
mestic producers of nitrogen fer
tilizer have resold their supplies
of natural gas to help fill energy
production demands.
“Worldwide, there is less ni
trogen being manufactured be
cause it was not real profitable in
the past. A lot of plants were
shut down and manufacturers
need a couple of months lead
time to gear' them back up,” said
the fertilizer ,supplier.
While thire has been some
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speculation among farmers that
the nitrogen shortage is contrived
to generate higher profits for
manufacturers, Williams sees it
as a genuine supply-demand
problem. That crunch shows no
signs of quick improvement, es
pecially heading into the upcom
ing months when planting puts a
heavy demand on nationwide
stocks of nitrogen.
According to Williams, urea
fertilizer price one year, ago was
running about $l6O per ton. A
ton of the high-nitrogen dry urea
will cost growers upward of $265
per ton. Urea is a 46 percent ni
trogen product, supplying 920
pounds of nitrogen per ton, or
2,000 pounds of material.
Liquid nitrogen, by compari
son, is a 30 percent material pro
viding 600 pounds of actual ni
trogen per ton. Costs of liquid
nitrogen have comparably
climbed, from a February 2000
cost of $llO-115 per ton to a re
cent quote in the $lB5-190 range.
Exploding nitrogen costs was
an issue on the minds of growers
attending the annual York
County corn clinic earlier this
month.
The father-son partnership of
John Marstellar, Sr. and Jr.,
Stewartstown, who raise 800
acres of com, got a little ahead of
the cost curve on their spring
supplies of nitrogen. Aware that
the price was on a serious up
swing, the Marstellars not only
bought ahead, they also added
extra on-farm storage for their
nitrogen needs.
Fawn Grove area grower Bob
Morris has also laid in his spring
order of nitrogen. He related vis
iting with another producer who
was on the search for supplies of
poultry manure to replace high-
cost nitrogen fertilizer.
“I’ll cut back, probably about
25 percent, if prices stay high,”
said Don Glatfelter, Mount Wolf.
Galtfelter, who raises about 125
acres of com and 100 of soy
beans, figures that is will take a
better price for com than the cur
rent level before he could justify
upping his nitrogen use any
more.
Rodney Eisenhart, Thom
asville, plans to minimize nitro
gen needs by growing his com in
former soybean fields. Not a new
plan for Eisenhart, the rotation
pattern just continues a program
he has used in prior years. Like
many York area farmers, Eisen
hart has recently lost some rent
ed acreage to urban sprawl, also
cutting his cash layout for nitro
gen in this high-cost year.
Dairyman Henry Dehoff, Dal
lastown, may cut back nitrogen
use, but no more than 10 percent.
He is concerned, however, that
the short supplies may prevent
their family dairy operation from
getting all the nitrogen they
might want for the 500 acres
they normally plant, even with
slightly reduced application
rates.
Manure availability is a boon
for farmers raising livestock or
poultry since, such as Airville
dairy producer Harry Bickel.
They can supplement added ni
trogen with applications of natu
ral fertilizer. Brian Baer, across
the county at Glen Rock, figures
on doing the same with barnyard
buildup from the family’s beef
cattle herd.
“We’ll be pretty careful with
it,” said retired dairyman Bob
Stewart, Airville, summing up
the general feeling about nitro
gen applications in the 2001
growing season voiced by most
growers attending the crop clinic.
York extension agronomist
Mark Goodson has encouraged
corn growers, if possible, to split
their nitrogen applications. Put
some down as a seedling-starter
boost, then come back in when
corn is ready to make its big
growth push in mid-summer
with a sidedressing, if possible.
Since nitrogen very readily
leaches out of the soil and into
the environment, including
groundwater, splitting applica
tions is doubly beneficial. Not
only does it give the crop a dou
ble-whammy of nutrient, it does
it in smaller amounts, less likely
to go to waste. Also, costs of ni
trogen are expected to take
somewhat of a drop once the
spring planting season is past, al
lowing later applications at a
lower impute cost.
“A lot of our clients say they
may cut back in nitrogen appli
cation,” said ag lender John
Eaton of Peoples’ Bank. “Levels
of nitrogen in many fields in the
area are pretty good, since it’s
been fairly inexpensive in the
past. And, some say they’ll
switch to planting soybeans in
stead.”
Even that plan, warns Cordo
rus Fertilizer’s Williams, may
have its pitfalls this year.
“There’s a definite shortage of
soybean seed this year,” he said.
“Seed beans would have been
short this year, even without
more farmers planting beans in
stead of com.”
Poor conditions at harvest,
with prolonged wet weather in
many cases, left the outer skin of
soybean seeds more thin and del
icate than usual. That thinness
will cause the coats to crack and
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 3,2001-A23
the seeds shatter more readily
than normal, resulting in re
duced germination rates. Those
likely low germination rates, cou
pled with a short supply, are
combining to aggravate the situa
tion.
And, Williams said, soybean
seeds are rated according to
planting length, from the short
er-season beans used in Canada
and New England to much long
er-length season beans such as
might be planted in Virginia.
And the “Group 3” bean, proba
bly the most-popular, season
length seed for the middle-Atlan
tic region, seems to be one of the
shortest in availability.
While longer-season beans will
grow and mature under normal
middle-Atlantic growing condi
tions, Williams advises that they
absolutely need to be planted
early to take advantage of the
entire growing season and ma
ture completely.
Couple the lower germination
rate with fewer seed beans to
begin with, and farmers are look
ing at a shortage of the seed they
might readily switch to in order
to avoid the high nitrogen im
pute costs for corn acres.
With possible shortages of
high-priced nitrogen and less
abundant supplies of lower-ger
mination soybeans, area farmers
find their own ways to deal with
the particular set of challenges
the 2001 crop year offers.
“If the weather delays plant
ing in the southern states and the
whole East Coast opens up at the
same time, we could have a real
problem,” said Williams. “If
planting season is normal, we’ll
probably be okay. I’m afraid no
one has a real handle on what’s
happening.”