CHICAGO, April 6 – For nearly two decades, Abe Sandquist has used every marketing tool imaginable to sell a cow’s hindquarters. After all, poop has to go somewhere. The Midwestern entrepreneur has worked hard to convince farmers of the benefits to their crops.
Now, with a global shortage of commercial fertilizers made worse by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, more US growers are knocking on his door. Sandquist says they want to get their hands on something Old MacDonald would swear by: old-fashioned animal manure. Continue reading
“I wish we had more for sale,” said Sandquist, founder of Natural Fertilizer Services Inc, an Iowa-based nutrient management company. “But it’s not enough to meet demand.”
Some cattle and dairy farmers, including those who previously paid to have their animals’ waste removed, have found a fertile side business by selling them to grain farmers. Equipment companies that make manure spreaders known as “honey wagons” also benefit.
According to industry adviser Allen Kampschnieder, not only are more U.S. farmers chasing manure supplies for this spring planting season, some cattle feeders selling waste are selling out by the end of the year.
“Manure is absolutely a hot commodity,” said Kampschnieder, who works for Nebraska-based Nutrient Advisors. “We have waiting lists.”
Sky-high chemical fertilizer prices are expected to reduce American farmers’ corn and wheat plantings this spring, according to US government data. This further threatens the global food supply as domestic wheat stocks are at their lowest in 14 years and the war between Russia and Ukraine disrupts grain supplies from these key suppliers. Continue reading
While manure can replace some of the nutrient deficiencies, it’s not a panacea, agricultural experts say. There are not enough supplies to replace all of the commercial fertilizers used in the United States. Transportation is expensive. And animal waste prices are also rising due to strong demand.
It is also heavily regulated by state and federal agencies, in part due to concerns about the impact on water systems.
Manure can cause serious problems when it contaminates nearby streams, lakes and groundwater, said Chris Jones, a research engineer and water quality expert at the University of Iowa.
Ranchers say it’s hard work complying with all government regulations and tracking how manure is being spread.
RACE FOR TRASH
Regardless of the disadvantages, demand is booming.
In Wisconsin, three dairy farmers told Reuters they had turned down requests to buy their manure via text and Twitter messages.
North Carolina-based company Phinite, which makes manure drying systems, says it’s taking requests from growers in areas as far away as Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa and Indiana.
Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, has noticed the shift in US pig farms that supply its slaughterhouses.
“We definitely see farmers switching to manure as fertilizer prices increase,” said Jim Monroe, a spokesman for the company, which is owned by Hong Kong-listed WH Group Ltd (0288.HK).
Industrial fertilizers such as nitrogen require a lot of energy to produce. Prices started rising last year amid rising demand and reduced supply, when record natural gas and coal prices prompted production cuts by fertilizer manufacturers. Extreme weather and COVID-19 outbreaks have also disrupted global supply chains. Continue reading
The war in Ukraine has exacerbated the situation by reducing fertilizer exports from Russia and its ally Belarus due to Western sanctions and ship congestion. That threatens to shrink harvests around the world at a time of record food inflation. Together, Russia and Belarus accounted for more than 40% of global exports of potassium last year, one of the three critical nutrients used to boost crop yields, according to Dutch lender Rabobank.
In March, commercial fertilizer prices hit a record high, with nitrogen fertilizers up fourfold and phosphate and potash up threefold since 2020, London-based consultancy CRU Group said.
One lost person is Dale Cramer, who grows some 6,000 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat in Cambridge, Nebraska. In search of alternatives, he has been sniffing manure at feeding grounds since last August without success.
“A lot of people have campaigned for the same thing,” Cramer said.
HONEY CAR SCRAMBLE
The increasing demand for liquid manure was followed by prices, which brought cattle breeders and cattle fattening companies an unexpected windfall.
Prices for good quality solid manure in Nebraska alone have reached $11 to $14 per ton versus a typical price of $5 to $8 per ton, consultant Kampschnieder said. A dry winter has helped drive up prices by leaving manure with less water, making it more concentrated and therefore more valuable, he said.
Iowa farmer Pat Reisinger is relieved to have manure from the hogs and dairy cows he raises to fertilize the corn, soybeans and hay he grows to feed those animals. He sold some crap to a neighbor and gets calls from other needy people.
“If I were to sell any more, I’d have to turn back and buy commercial fertilizer, which doesn’t make sense,” Reisinger said.
The boom has also fueled machinery manufacturers that make solid manure spreaders, as well as so-called honeywagons: wheeled tanks attached to trucks and tractors to haul and spread liquefied waste.
Husky Farm Equipment Ltd is sold out in Canada. According to President Walter Grose, the company built its first device as early as 1960 to make the collection and spreading of liquid manure more efficient. Today, Grose sells direct to farmers and machine dealers, and he can’t keep up.
“We have people looking for equipment right away and we’ve been sold out for six months,” said Grose, who sells honey trucks in a variety of sizes. Larger tanks average $70,000.
CNH Industrial, the American-Italian farm and construction machinery giant, said it has seen strong demand for its New Holland-branded box spreaders – essentially a steel box that attaches to a tractor to haul and spread solid manure.
Kansas equipment dealer KanEquip Inc. is no longer stocking New Holland spreaders, even though prices are up 10% from the normal list price of $30,000, regional manager Bryndon Meinhardt said. He said the retailer has ordered 10 more to meet demand.
NO POOP FOR YOU
Even in states where large herds of cattle produce massive amounts of manure, it’s not enough to fully replace commercial fertilizer. Iowa, the top U.S. producer of pork and corn, already applies all of its manure on land that covers about 25% of its corn acreage each year, said Dan Andersen, an associate professor at Iowa State University who specializes in fertilizer management.
On average, Iowa uses about 14 billion gallons of manure annually, said Andersen, known on Twitter as @DrManure. He expects Iowa growers to siphon an additional billion gallons from storage in tanks on farms this year to replace expensive commercial fertilizer.
Part of the current supply problem is rooted in the development of US agriculture. As America’s livestock sector has consolidated, there are geographic hubs where animals are raised for eggs, milk, or meat and where most manure is produced. As a result, some places have too little while others have too much and struggle with ways to dispose of it.
Last October, Pennsylvania dairyman Brett Reinford thought he might be short of manure storage space over the winter. So he made an offer to the local farmers: come and pick it up, you can have it for free. He has no customers.
Fast forward six months and Reinford is now sitting on liquid gold. “We keep everything and I wish we had more,” he said.
Manure could become even more valuable later this year as US cattle and poultry herds shrink.
Hog numbers in the United States have fallen to their lowest level in about five years as producers grapple with swine diseases and rising costs for feed and other inputs. Avian flu, meanwhile, has wiped out more than 22 million chickens and turkeys on commercial US farms since February.
But hard-hit poultry farmers could also use something: their dead birds can be composted and applied as fertilizer, according to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.
Reporting by PJ Huffstutter and Tom Polansek in Chicago and Bianca Flowers in Chicago and New York. Additional reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington, DC; Edited by Caroline Stauffer and Marla Dickerson