Canadian farmers store fertilizer to fight dealers' pricing power

[pourfarmer]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/27/canada-farming-fertilizers-idUSL1N0VC10Q20150227

[MBgrower]

I hope the greed of agrium et al backfires in their face. Once the majority of farmers have enough on farm storage perhaps we can arrange for delievry from offshore sources and fill up any time of year. Good opportunity for FNA here.

[SASKFARMER3]

700 ton storage for fert adding more every year.

[LEP]

We have 825 mt of a mix of liquid and dry fert storage.

Looked into a 5,000 mt liquid condo facility once. Chickened out.

I could have paid for it twice if I had built when I was going to.

[Oliver88]

It would be nice to be setup for NH3 storage.
Not sure what red tape a guy would have to deal with?

[SASKFARMER3]

Looked at buying a bullet back in the 80S having it moved to our yard from the town it was in. That was the cheap part then the inspections etc and every so many year inspections. Just became to big of a cost. Also you really don't store that much.

[Hamloc]

Store 2/3 of my fertilizer now hoping to put up more this year bins usually pay for themselves in a year. It is interesting to note the Urea price in New Orleans is now down to 280 a short ton down from over 330 in January which translates to a fair value in western canada of 515 a tonne. The vaseline jar is almost empty!!!!

[LEP]

Any attempt to make the market efficient requires infrastructure investment.

Fert storage is a start.

Fert storage on rail is better.

Fert storage and buying offshore is better again.

Not all that different from grain.

[wmoebis]

Help me understand.
Why don't farmers sign contracts with fert companies for agreed price for delivery on an agreed month then the fert company store it until you are ready to pick it up?

Just like the grain system does.
Why do we have to supply bins for the fert Co's and the grain Co's and be their bankers too?

[bucket]

Because farmers like having bins. It's like a gold star in elementary school.

Most were conditioned way back when and haven't shed that mindset yet.

4 farmers put up bins equalling the equivalent of a 10000 tonne elevator.

Beautiful but no closer to a transportation system. And they bought semis to compare as well.

I am not jealous, but I can't believe guys this smart wouldn't invest collectively to avoid the current system. They would be wealthier in the long run.

[samhill]

That was the idea behind your local co-op outlet, but then Federated took over, with highly paid executives, and it all trickled down to highly paid managers.

[bucket]

Been noticing the co-ops getting away from their original roots.

Local input is slowly disappearing and local director guys buy into the suits from regina ideas.

Ours has expanded and is getting rid of the local tank farm for tridems and the corporate new tank location .

They traded assets for depreciating trucks and tire expenses.

[Guest]

well bucket what happens with co-ops is that federated lends enough money to get control of local co-op , then supplies manager to same . directors then have no control , and if they don't comply , no federated dividend . all the local co-ops created this monster and now they are leading the way with fuel price increases in sask .they are doing the exact same thing to co-ops that grain and seed co's are doing to farmers

[furrowtickler]

We have set up our own fert storage as like many others . My question is , why do we need any fert dealers at all for the basic N P K S ? Once set up on farm fert blending is easy espeacialy with liquid, so why the need for a middle man ? All our fert is direct load from suppliers anyway - the locals just get the check and zero agronomy is actually needed .

[MBgrower]

Your right, who needs blending? Airseeder tanks getting up to 700-900 bu, pretty easy to blend as you seed. And with the N stabilizers such as esn or agrotain, you can apply , broadcast N under a wide window now.