Need a independent Fert dealer with Balls!

[furrowtickler]

All in perspective here - should they pay you $15/bus for canola? Or $10/bus for wheat? - No the market dropped right? Well the fert market has dropped and that is a fact! As did the grain and oilseed markets. If no fert supplier is prepared to pay you what you "should have" got for your grain why should you pay what they should have gotten for their fert?
Simple marketing - things change from day to day.
Do not pay for their mistakes, they will not pay or care for yours. jmo. Time is on our side, not theirs.

[furrowtickler]

Remember, we do not have to buy now but they must sell. Someone somewhere will blink first, hopefully not you. This is the last place on earth where fert prices are exorborant.(sp?) If someone pays me $15/bus for canola I will pay .80/lb for N on those canola acres, until then they can spend the winter at the Cabri hotel instead of the Bahamas.

[SASKFARMER3]

Off to Alberta for some needed rest. Need major information on the Anhydrous system that lets me apply in Jan or Dec. It works in Michigan but were colder but less snow. Fert is over priced product that should drop, In our area were basically 90% or better direct seeders. Only one guy 1/2 and 1/2 north of us and the brothers with no Fert. Never I repeat Never have we had to wait for Anhydrous for more than a hour. But were less than two hours from Bel plain. I would pay .80 if I was getting 16 Canola, But when that market plus all rest are at less than 8 its .44 cents or less.
We also have two bottles less than 10 miles away plus third and fourth 30 miles away. Have a great week.

[Burbert]

The open market at work. You have all heard of "supply and demand". Well how about adding MANIPULATION BY CAPITALISTS to the equation. Fert guys know that farmers MUST have the stuff and will pay for it, smile, wink, wink, they'll buy, its just a matter of when and how much! Farmers will fold sooner or later, no doubt about it!

[malleefarmer]

Sak why dont you import your own?
Farmers are doing here again, im not intrinsinkly invloved this time but know whats going on.

Was involved from 1996 to 2002 when a group of 180 farmers imported 24,000 metric tones of map dap and urea

[charliep]

Interesting comments from participants who have suggested over time with holding grain/oilseed inventory from the market as a mechanism to push for higher prices. That is the right of any business.

Also have to ask what rate of return farmers expect on their fertilizer dollars. Over time, the suggestion has been farmers quit applying fertilizer when the return is less than 2 to 1. $2 of increased crop revenue for every $1 of fertilizer investment. I realize a good part of the discussion is about being asked to make major decisions about inputs/costs when the actual sale price is unknown. that is, the ability to manage risk.

[malleefarmer]

sask how we started was each of the 180 farmers contibuted $1300 we leased a shed at a port,poached a ceo from another company stiched him up for 10 years, bought neccesary loaders and belt elevators wieghbriges etc and paid another loader driver and one secretary.
purchased best quality as cheap as we could sent farmers to the manufacturing plants,bangladesh for urea and mexico and later china for map and dap to check thing and inspect vessel loading got gov approval at our port shifted it to the warehouse then out to farmers.

first 2 years farmers had to preypay for fert but the impact was immediate all the big well established companies dropped there fert prices overnight.

and what happened well is sort of got to big for us to handle in the end and we ended up selling after 9 years and the original invbestors got about a 10 fold increase on there original investment.

which leads me to my point we are thinking of doing it all again but credit facitlies and ratings etc have all changed so we may have trouble financing it without some sort of corporate help which defeats the purpose of it in a way.

sorry for being so long winded

[railway]

That's very interesting mallee, That is kind of what FNA (Farmers of North America)is supposed to be doing. You pay a membership fee, they source and sell you product. I've never belonged to FNA, they are just like a co-op, and in the end, I'll pay my local independent retailer a little more, and keep the money in the community. (ever see a sign in your rink saying "Sponsored by FNA"?)

However, not to say I wouldn't be interested in a new start-up importing company as an investor. Sounds like a great idea, but somehow i don't think $1300 would do it.

[Hopperbin]

Saskfarmer maybe we could hire Malleefarmer. He is a get it done kind of guy, which is something we are lacking out here.

[agstar77]

We had pools in the fert business, all gone , farmer apathy, don't whine it's our own fault.