What are your thoughts on the fertiliser price s for 2022

If you need it you need it, if you can get away without it then you don't.

If not having it is going to cause you problems then you need to take action.

It depends on your system. Ya suckler's farmers cannot. But if you are a drystock farmer working on s margin you adjust your buying price accordingly to costs. I am adjusting my costs by about 100/ head this year. If I cannot buy for that price I will not replace.

So if you can't burn some other poor farmer you will do without them. Well, I hope then that you will be left without....

First off nobody tried to burn anybody. If you on a margin you have to manage that margin. Lads with stores are already on selling to protect that margin so as to buy no fertilizer.

Because I have cattle, I have to manage there outcome. If I cannot make a margin I burn capital. If you do that you will go out of business in 3-4 years anyway. If there are lads that can make a better margin they can squeeze a better margin than I can, they will squeeze me out of business.

If they out bid me and there is no margin they burn capital and I am back in the game.

How could paying market value be considered taking advantage?

I can't get my head around farmers/suckler farmers thinking that because of there expense the next in supply chain should be forced to lose money as well and then get indignant when you refuse to buy.

It's like the guys on donedeal that have the real good stock i won't tell you the price until you drive half way across the country but you will buy them when you see them. No I won't because beef is a certain price and it doesn't matter how good they are beef is still only a certain price.

Rant over just had a weekend of dealing with lads that insisted they had titanium and wanted gold prices when a most of them had pyrite but insisted that I had to buy. Mart only place to buy cattle for few months until reality hits store producers.

Rant definitely over this time.

FWIW I'm not trying to take advantage of anyone when I'm buying or selling but....when buying there's a price I'm willing to pay and I've worked out in advance what that is based on what I think the margin will be on that product in up to 2 yrs time (which can be like reading tea leaves) .............I feel my only real power in that type of negotiation is to set the max price in my head, dont let the buyer know what that is and start lower than it if bargaining/bidding and be truly willing to walk away and make sure to demonstrate it if its a regular seller you deal with.

When I'm selling it should be the same except for the industry has age limits etc that squeeze you but I still like to understock to have the power to withdraw stock on a regular basis and train the buyer to know I'm a strong seller and if they want it they will have to at least get to market rate....and if that rate is **** ill hold on for as long as is sane and do my damndest they go to another buyer (I budget a bit to have this as an option although I try to avoid incurring too much expense by selling at opportune times so I don't have to do it at all).........

afaic the only real power a buyer or seller has is the option and willingness to walk away, thats why I hate these effing age limits...even moreso as I cant see how they are anything other than an industry lever and bad for the environment to boot.

Well, I used to like a BMW when I was younger but every wannabe jumped up sh1t bought one in the boom and turned me off. Am an EClass Merc wannabe now or a Porsche.

I can understand the guys on tight margins buying but being a seller myself and seeing the carry on in the Marts it sickens me. If only we could all make a few bob along the line.....

And don't talk to me about assholes on done deal. I always put down a price and try not to be a timewaster.

Some queue waiting for Auginish Alumina

Agri and energy may have some exemptions

My CAN arrived yesterday, it’s 26 N + S from Grassland, when i got Cutsward last year it was 23-2.5-10 +S, seems to be very common now for Sulphur to be added and N reduced a bit.

Sulphur is important in the first half of the year. Worth it for silage ground as well

I be checking ground temperatures. If above 7C I would be spreading when a 24-48 hour window allows ( which is all about the time at present). On silage ground I would split the application.

Even when spread it take 2-3 days for Urea to start working. Growth is slow but it's still present.

Fertilizer grows nothing in the bag. Fields with covers at present are moving

Despite the cold snap grass that got fertiliser last week is jumping up now, any yellow patches are bright green.

Sulphur is very important for the nitrogen to work, new grass leaves and also for the quality of your silage. It's added into fertiliser more nowadays because we understand its need better and also because there is less sulphur in the atmosphere to rain down on crops. It's a balancing act but there is to much emphasis on N and not enough on S so that's why the numbers are being brought down.