Crop Production NAICS 111

Aug 23, 2025 - Sticker Shock

• Corn producers are suffering from sticker shock as fertilizer prices rise and commodity prices fall, AgWeb reported in July. With the corn-price-to-fertilizer-price ratio on inputs such as phosphate the highest on record, it would take about 226 bushels of corn to buy a ton of ammonium phosphate, up from the 180 bushels it took at the beginning of this year, according to National Corn Growers Association’s Chief Economist Krista Swanson. Current corn prices are below $4 per bushel, down from their peak of more than $8 per bushel in 2022, Swanson notes. With fertilizer prices expected to rise further, corn growers are concerned about the upcoming 2026 crop. Moreover, trade tensions and uncertainty could cause fertilizer prices to trend even higher, further diminishing farmers' purchasing power. Fertilizer is a key input for corn, making up about 40% of a farmer’s total operating costs.
• Heat and extreme weather are driving short-term surges in food prices around the globe, The Wall Street Journal reports citing a study led by Spain’s Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC). Adverse weather conditions are driving up the price of staples including potatoes, rice, onions, lettuce, and fruit, per the BSC report. “Until we get to net-zero emissions, extreme weather will only get worse, but it’s already damaging crops and pushing up the price of food all over the world,” Maximillian Kotz, a research fellow at the BSC, told WSJ. In the US, vegetable prices in California and Arizona jumped 80% year over year in November 2022 after extreme drought, while in Ethiopia food prices rose 40% in March 2023 following a drought in 2022. Last year was the hottest year on record. With temperatures continuing to climb, weather conditions and further price shocks are to be expected, per the BSC report.

• Agronomists are encouraging farmers to be on the lookout for tar spot after the disease was confirmed in corn fields in two midwestern states in June, AgWeb reports. Tar spot, a foliar disease of corn caused by the fungus Phyllachora maydis, was first confirmed in the US in 2015 in Illinois and Indiana. The Crop Protection Network reported the disease was found on June 11 northeast Kansas and Indiana. Corn crops with extended periods of leaf wetness – due to fog, high relative humidity, or rain – are most vulnerable, according to Bryant Luers, LG Seeds field agronomist. Tar spot develops rapidly, overwinters in residue and can travel airborne from neighboring fields making it nearly impossible to eradicate completely. It’s also more aggressive than typical Corn Belt diseases. Tracking daily humidity levels is a good way to scout for the disease.
• As part of its dismantling of the USAID, the Trump administration has halted the Food for Peace program, which provided a market for US crops and helped to feed 4 billion people in more than 150 countries since its inception in the 1950s, The Wichita Eagle reports. However, Trump’s shutdown of the US Agency for International Development is facing pushback from Republicans in farm states. To safeguard the program and billions of dollars in wheat, rice, and other farm product sales, two Kansas Republicans are pushing legislation to move it to the US Department of Agriculture. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas said food aid had proven its value in fostering political stability abroad, bolstering US national security and providing markets for US crops, adding “By moving this program closer to the producers who grow these crops, we can help reduce waste and make certain our farmers have access to this valuable market.”