By Clint Thompson
One Alabama Extension economist believes it is unreasonable to predict how much longer input prices will remain at historically high levels. That’s why Adam Rabinowitz wants specialty crop producers to focus on profits and not yields entering this production season.
“These input prices, we’re sitting here scratching our heads looking at these prices going up. It’s not just chemical prices and fertilizer prices for farmers, we’re seeing inflation throughout the economy. It’s hard to really pinpoint how long this is going to continue,” Rabinowitz said. “It seems like it’s been a crazy few years when we go through the pandemic, and it was supposed to be a couple of weeks and it turns into a couple of years. Then there’s the supply chain issues that followed and now we’ve got the Russian-Ukraine crisis. That’s ultimately impacting as well as the crop markets and fertilizer markets.
“It’s hard to really say at this point how long this is going to continue. I think it just stresses the importance of thinking about risk management, making sure that you’re making the right decisions in terms of the application to not necessarily maximize yield but to maximize profit.”
Bill Brim, part owner of Lewis Taylor Farms in Tifton, Georgia, provides clarity on what specialty crop producers are encountering with regards to input costs.
“We need to double what we’re getting on stuff right now just to come out (even). These fertilizer prices have just gone ridiculous,” Brim said. “We were paying $120 an acre for our bed mix last year to go in underneath our plastic. This year when we started out it was $320, and I think it’s now $400.”
