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MFU president skeptical about reasons for escalating fertilizer costs
The president of Minnesota Farmers Union is questioning some of the reasons behind the rising cost of crop inputs.
Gary Wertish tells Brownfield fertilizer prices have gone through the roof.
“Are the suppliers of the fertilizers just charging more because they can, or have their costs gone up to justify it? The skeptical side of me (says) they are charging more because they know the farmer with a decent price for corn is going to put on what he needs to raise a decent crop.”
He says fertilizer prices seem to go up every time there’s a runup in commodity prices, but are slow to come back down.
“We think there needs to be some price transparency to see if those costs are justified, because that is huge.”
He says farmers are limited in what they can do to mitigate high input costs, even when corn is above $5 a bushel.
Brownfield interviewed Wertish during the Minnesota Farmers Union Convention Saturday.
