Fertilizers

Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow emeritus at the International Food Policy Research Institute, told attendees at the Sosland Purchasing Seminar in Kansas City that geopolitics has moved to the forefront of agricultural markets. He said the current disruption of shipping routes in the Middle...

Minnesota and other Corn Belt states entered planting season this spring with many producers waiting for fields to dry, and several regional managers report planting is behind where it was a year ago. Drought and dry winds have been particularly severe across Nebraska and the Plains, and this spr...

Planting across parts of the Midwest is running behind typical timelines as farmers wait for fields to dry, with reports from Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois showing slower starts compared with this time last year. Several managers say planting progress in Iowa and Illinois is roughly 30% behind whe...

Farmer sentiment slipped in April, with the Purdue University–CME Group Ag Economy Barometer dropping from 127 in March to 121 AEB index . The pullback was driven more by weaker readings on current conditions than by changes in expectations for the future. The monthly survey shows...

Host Mike Pearson spoke this week with agriculture meteorologist Greg Soulje about an El Niño pattern expected to strengthen through summer, bringing wetter-than-normal conditions to large parts of the Corn Belt and Plains. El Niño wet pattern was cited as the primary driver of c...

A new federal portal now lets U.S. importers request refunds of duties paid under emergency tariff authorities, a move that could ripple through agricultural supply chains. CAPE portal open for Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, or CAPE, means businesses that ...

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the administration will unveil a sweeping set of fertilizer initiatives this week that span multiple agencies, aiming to ease rising input costs and boost U.S. production. The package will involve USDA, EPA, the Department of Energy, the Department of Com...

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that the USDA and other agencies are working on short-term measures to help lower fertilizer costs and that an announcement could come soon. She said addressing fertilizer prices will require a significant, coordinated...

Kansas State University economist Gregg Ibendahl warns that rising oil prices are already pushing key farm input costs higher, and could add significant expense for grain operations this year. Ibendahl estimated that a move to $90 per barrel of oil would add more than $1 per gallon at the pump an...

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division has stepped up investigations across agriculture, with a heavy focus on meatpacking and other concentrated input markets. Investigators are examining how fed cattle supplies are gathered and routed through the industry, and whether major packers...