Skyrocketing fertilizer prices impacting Middle Tennessee farmers

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Fertilizer costs had been already on the rise earlier than the conflict in Ukraine, however now they’re skyrocketing and farmers in Center Tennessee are feeling the pinch. 

Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine are all main exporters of fertilizers and components used for fertilizer manufacturing. Sanctions towards Russia together with the preventing in Ukraine have tremendously diminished the availability of fertilizer being imported to the US and different nations.

George McDonald is the Proprietor/Operator of Catesa Farms in Riddleton, TN, and says he’s seen large will increase in the price of fertilizer. “Final 12 months on urea, we had been paying $450 per ton for fertilizer for urea. This 12 months, that value is $990 per tone, over double the price of what we’re paying final 12 months.”

Nonetheless, fertilizer isn’t one thing the farm can go with out. “All crops mainly require some sort of fertilizer. The crops that we develop, we develop corn, soybeans, candy strawberries, and watermelons, all these crops we use fertilizer on,” stated McDonald.

The rise in the price of oil can be placing a pressure on farmers in Center Tennessee. “What are you gonna do in regards to the excessive value of diesel? We’re gonna purchase it as a result of we have now to have it to function our tools,” McDonald stated.

The rising vitality disaster additionally means paying extra to move fertilizer to native farms. There are a lot of components at play, however on the finish of the day, farmers are coping with elevated meals manufacturing prices and a few of that’s already being translated into greater costs on the grocery retailer.

A worldwide grain scarcity can be looming because of the conflict. “When you’ve got Ukrainian farmers who can’t put out a crop, it is going to undoubtedly have an effect on everybody on the earth. Ukraine is the primary grower of sunflowers on the earth. They’re like quantity two in exports of wheat, quantity three in exports of corn on the earth. So that they have a big impact,” stated McDonald.

With Europe’s breadbasket at the moment out of fee, many US farmers are working to select up the slack.

McDonald tells Information 2 that whereas there are various challenges, the primary objective for him and different farmers is to maintain producing sufficient meals to maintain the world fed, “There’s an outdated saying when there’s loads of meals, there’s a lot of issues. However when there isn’t a meals, there’s just one downside.”