Mid-South Rice Fertilizer Economics: Derving recommendations and considering cost

摘要

Now that we have finally closed the books on one of the longest and most challenging rice growing seasons ever, we can begin to focus on the 2009 crop. What weighs heavily on most producers minds this year, as in previous years, is the high cost associated with growing a rice crop - namely diesel fuel and fertilizer costs. There is a lot of uncertainty when it comes to fertilizer costs and understandably so. This uncertainty comes from the dramatic increase in fertilizer costs that we saw last year.I try to keep up with local fertilizer prices the best that I can during each growing season, and I have plotted the local retail cost of urea, triple super phosphate and potash that I was quoted last year just to illustrate the wild fertilizer roller-coaster ride that we took during 2008. By the time this article is published, I am sure that these prices will once again have changed, hopefully for the better.