Fertilizer prices have climbed to record levels during the past year

Tag : Fertilizer

Kansas farmer Jeff Fowler prepares his southeast Kansas farm fields for planting hardred winter wheat, the primary bread-making grain, Fowler is mixingchicken droppings into the soil.
The reason? Money. Poultry waste, or chicken "litter," is a cheapalternative to the nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers that arekey to growing a good wheat crop.
"We just started doing it this year," said Fowler. "It's becausethe cost of fertilizer is so high."
The benefits of poultry waste as fertilizer have long been knownand valued by farmers. But the practice has traditionally beenlimited to those close to poultry operations.
But now, with commercial fertilizer prices so high -- over $100 anacre in some cases -- farmers far from poultry operations see theeconomic benefits of buying bird waste, even in light oftransportation costs.
"It's a fantastic alternative to fertilizer," said Kansas StateUniversity soil specialist Doug Shoup. "Of all manure, it has thehighest concentration of nitrogen, good calcium, good sulfur, and abit of a liming effect. It is a little bit like Miracle Grow."
"There are a lot of producers using this," Shoup said.
Fertilizer prices have climbed to record levels during the pastyear, with nitrogen and phosphate prices more than doubling, thoughthey recently have come off their peaks.
Because of increased costs, among other factors, many U.S. farmershave decided to either reduce the acreage they plant this fall orcut back on fertilizer and hope their farm fields will have enoughresidual nitrogen and phosphorous to carry another crop.
Significant supplies of poultry litter are being purchased fromArkansas and Oklahoma, which rank among the largest producers ofpoultry in the United States, Shoup said.
But the practice doesn't sit well with everyone.
An increased use of poultry litter as farm fertilizer can lead tohigh concentrations of phosphorus in surface run-off, potentiallycontaminating bodies of surface water, said Bill Hargrove, directorof the Kansas Center for Agricultural Resources and the Environment(KCARE).
Indeed, Oklahoma has sued poultry producers over what it says is anexcess of chicken litter spread as fertilizer that is polluting thestate's watershed.
The Poultry Community Council has argued that poultry litter is avaluable economic commodity for farmers and that any contaminationof waterways is comparable to areas where the chicken waste is notused.
A federal judge on Monday rejected Oklahoma's request for aninjunction against spreading chicken litter, though the lawsuitremains ongoing.
(Reporting by Carey Gillam; editing by Jim Marshall)