Corn growers are increasingly frustrated about fertilizer prices, with a new survey showing concern accelerating well beyond the current planting season. The National Corn Growers Association surveyed two groups of farmers.
Nebraska farmer Jason Lewis serves on a National Corn Growers task force looking at input costs. He’s blunt in his assessment of fertilizer companies.
“You’re going to put your consumers out of business if you don’t stop gouging this, because we can also see that they are not hurting. In fact, some of those companies are making record-breaking profits, and we’re not seeing this here at the farm gate, so we’ve got to get something figured out here.”
NCGA gathered responses from around 16 hundred farmers in March. For all the concerns this year, the numbers show greater concerns about 2027.
NCGA says retail urea prices are up 37 percent, or about 227 dollars a ton, since conflict in the Middle East escalated. Other nitrogen products are up more than 20 percent, and nine out of ten farmers say local nitrogen prices are higher.
But Lewis says the survey is more than frustration. It’s about putting real numbers in front of policymakers.
“Here are the numbers. This isn’t just, you know, a feeling or how’s our gut feeling — what’s the vibes out there. It’s like, no, this is what’s happening. These are hard numbers. And the, so we have that, and I think it paints a very clear picture. We’re going to the companies, and we’re showing them these numbers.”
While most farmers have fertilizer secured for the 2026 crop, NCGA warns supply chain disruptions today could snowball into real availability problems by the late summer and fall import window, when growers typically begin lining up fertilizer for the 2027 season.