Indiana Farmers Face Rising Gas and Fertilizer Costs

Farmers across Indiana say the timing could not be worse.

Indiana's WRTV reports both fuel and fertilizer prices are expected to continue rising across the Midwest just as the busy and important spring planting season approaches. Farmers tell the news outlet it's getting harder and harder to lock in fertilizer prices in Indiana.

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We know from past experiences that when fuel prices soar and farmers face higher costs, the prices of groceries also skyrockets.

You know, the groceries that are already expensive enough! Unfortunately, impacts such as these can ripple throughout the entire economy. And don't expect prices to come down anytime soon.

So, What's Driving Up Prices?

According to WRTV the same conflict driving up gas prices in the Middle East is also the push behind rising fertilizer costs. Shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for oil, fertilizer, and other materials, are resulting in higher prices. In fact, things have gotten so bad that local farmers are having to make some quick last-minute decisions.

As Blain Hizer, a farmer in Kewanna, Indiana told WRTV,

If you go to your local co-op or wherever you get your fertilizer, a lot of them just took their bids off the table; you couldn't even get a price...so farmers right now are trying to consider whether they stick with corn or do they switch to beans, plant more beans, and go that route where they don't have to put the nitrogen on