Take nitrogen deliveries now, AIC recommends

With UK suppliers of ammonium nitrate reporting low January figures, the Agricultural Industries Confederation is encouraging farmers not to delay in taking deliveries.

"Returns from our members shows January deliveries to farms are significantly lower than the average for the past ten years. This may well be a reaction to the uncertainty generated by the delays surrounding the Single Farm Payments in England, compounded by the increasing price of nitrogen fertiliser," says David Heather, Head of AIC's Fertiliser Sector.

From economic, agronomic and practical perspectives, AIC stresses the need for farmers to consider carefully both the quantity and timing of their nitrogen purchases.

"The yield response curves to nitrogen fertiliser are well established and clearly demonstrate that even large variations in either crop value or fertiliser price have little impact on the optimum economic rate for nitrogen application," says AICs Agriculture and Environment specialist Jane Salter. "Nitrogen fertiliser, evenly applied in the right amount and at the right time is critical to yield, crop quality and financial return and even at today’s cereals and nitrogen prices remains an extremely economic input, with one kilogram of nitrogen typically producing around 50kg of yield."

"The hundreds of thousands of tonnes of fertiliser still to be moved onto farms will put significant pressure on the haulage sector," warns Mr Heather, "which will make it difficult for farmers to achieve optimum timing of nitrogen application – another critical factor in optimising the benefits from the nutrient."