Phosphorus and 2026
As producers start thinking about the 2026 crop year the agricultural press is struggling to paint a rosy picture with all the issues that are facing the North American farmer. The issue of fertilizer price increases with commodity price deflation presents a very serious issue for mainstream fertilizer's unit in and unit out arithmetic. Fertilizer nitrogen (N) is receiving some establishment discussion, but the main element topic is phosphorus (P).
As was discussed in The Growers Solution article "Fertilizer Prices Vs Corn Prices Are Now Some of the Worst in History" Volume 38 Issue 5, the price of P has significantly increased due to geopolitical events in today's world. There doesn't appear to be any change coming to lessen world political tensions; also, chemical companies are not interested in lowering their profit outlooks. So, as agricultural commodity prices drop (this also lowers specialty crop prices) the producer is left in a very difficult financial position. This squeeze between fertilizer usage and lower agricultural product prices is exactly what Growers Mineral, Corp. has been discussing since 1955. Dr. V.A. Tiedjens said in the beginning that agricultural producers will never control the price of the products they produce, their only recourse is to control the cost of what they spend to produce their product.
In the past when fertilizer prices went up farmers would stop applying P to their crops and increase the amount of applied nitrogen (N) to try and keep the volume of their production successful. However, in today's world fertility experts warn that a lack of P in young tissue creates a lack of cellular integrity which prevents the cell from producing sugar (energy) for the plant and the plants' fruit production. Also, in the past less added P and more added N (fertilizer or manure) could help with maintaining product production while controlling the total amount of money spent. However, the increase in N prices has reached a level that this approach is not nearly as successful as it was in years past. So, in today's world Growers Mineral, Corp's idea of target fertility gives the producer an approach that has been used for 70 years by various producers.
As the science of immunotherapy in humans has significantly progressed in human medicine, the idea of fertilizing the plant and the soil microbiology at the same time is gaining a larger audience. We believe that P availability is a key issue for both plants and microbes since it is important to energy transfer in all living tissue; thus, P is the key to improving fertilizer efficiency while controlling environmental issues. It has been known for many years that P helps move the necessary elements for plant growth into the plant either by root absorption or foliar absorption. Also, the source of P needs to be placed where both the plant and microbes have easy access to it (as close to the plant as possible) and the source of the P needs to have as little contamination as possible.
The use of calcium (Ca) to make more of the elements in the environment available to growing plants is the best approach to improving crop ROI. However, if Ca has not been applied to the soil environment as the delivery mechanism to crops for the other necessary elements; targeting fertility with correct utilization of P can help slow down the bleeding of an upside-down price ratio between fertilizer and commodities.
This is an excerpt from the Spring Growers Solution (2026) written by Jim Halbeisen, Director of Research.
Signup for our newsletter to stay in the loop
