Fuel, fertilizer prices cause uncertainty for Manitoba farmers as seeding nears
CBC
Farmers in Manitoba are used to uncertainty. For many, while farming is a lifelong passion, they also recognize it's a business rife with risk.
The severe drought conditions last year that stunted crop growth and led to winter feed shortages have been alleviated with this winter's average to above-average snowfall.
But farmers are once again starting this growing season with a lot of uncertainty.
Prices for fertilizer and fuel have skyrocketed due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, leading to drastically increased input prices for farmers in Manitoba.
"Right now we're worried about the price of fuel," said Tom Johnson, who farms in the rural municipality of St. Laurent, in Manitoba's Interlake region.
"So far, everything's looking promising that we'll have a decent hay crop, but then if we're going to pay through the nose for fuel to get it off, who knows?"
The rural municipality declared an agricultural state of disaster last summer. Cattle farmers were forced to sell off herds as hay crops didn't grow through the drought and dugouts, where cattle get water during the summer, ran dry.
Johnson and his son, who farm together, toughed it out. They trucked hay in for the winter months at a cost of $150 per bale. Other farmers in his area, he said, paid up to $300 per bale.
This summer, he's hopeful he'll get the hay crop he needs.
"We're looking a lot better moisture-wise," said Johnson. "We got our old-fashioned winter, which I hoped and asked for, which we got blamed for by a lot of people.
"But we sure needed the snow."
Robert Misko, chair of the Manitoba Crop Alliance, said prices for fertilizer have doubled in some cases.
"I think there's a lot of farmers that are concerned that [if] they've even spoken for fertilizer … are they actually going to get it?" said Misko, whose organization represents many wheat, barley, corn, flax, winter cereal and sunflower growers in the province.
Russian nitrogen was a big factor in the world fertilizer market, says Misko, who farms near Roblin, close to the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border.
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