Super so dear
From the April 2008 edition of Agriculture Today.
Getting the best return from dollars spent on rocketing fertiliser prices is now the key question about how to treat pastures.
Two valuable long-term tablelands grazing trials offer farmers solid answers to hedge against the restricted availability of superphosphate worldwide and what may come to light about the recent pricing behaviour of some domestic suppliers.
Data and long-term experience from 12- and 13-year trials at Newbridge and Yass respectively reveal a very high (i.e. capital) fertiliser application approach is less profitable than annual supering.
The trials were based on actual super costs over time, however, it was more telling to extrapolate recent superphosphate prices ranging between $400 and $465 per tonne for the entire trial periods.
Using actual stocking rates, lamb numbers, weights and sale prices, the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) trial at Newbridge, on the Central Tablelands, also made the noteworthy point that simply reducing costs (inputs) did not increase profits.
NSW DPI special projects agronomist, Mike Keys, who oversaw the Newbridge trial, said anyone pondering the dilemma and asking whether super would return to pre-2008 prices would be disappointed.
"There is a limited supply of phosphate rock worldwide," Mr Keys said.
"All the rock used to make single superphosphate in Australia has to be imported.
"In the past 12 months the price of phosphate rock has risen fourfold - hence the near doubling of the domestic price of super.
"To make matters worse, a recent embargo on the export of rock by China, the world’s largest supplier, will be a major factor in restricting world supply and one determinant in continuing high prices."
Domestic supply and availability of fertiliser is also under scrutiny by the Senate Select Committee on agriculture and related industries.
The committee has been receiving submissions to its investigation of skyrocketing fertiliser costs, driven up by perceptions of shortage.
The committee has heard that despite the global shortage, anecdotal reports say Australian suppliers had plenty on hand to service the coming winter crop.
At the end of the mid-2007 northern hemisphere summer, the specialist international food and agribusiness banker, Rabobank, a leading rural financier in Australia, compiled an analysis of world nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium supply in an eight page booklet, Rabobank global focus - fertiliser, available online at www.rabobank.com.au
Trials going the distance
Long-term trials are particularly valuable because they are fairly rare - but they’re the only way to answer fundamental economic questions relevant to current circumstances.
This Agriculture Today feature reports two such trials on tablelands grazing country, from which the key message is to apply superphosphate annually in preference to a capital dressing.
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