News Update: Retail fertilizer prices moved mostly lower for the week ending August 28, but the relief split by season. UAN28 led the way, down 8% to $428 a ton, and urea followed, down 5% to $655 a ton, the two products farmers lean on most for spring and sidedress nitrogen. The fall workhorse didn't get the same break: anhydrous ammonia edged down just 4% to $923 a ton, and it's still running 21% above a year ago, the worst year-over-year gap of any nutrient DTN tracks. Potash held near flat at $493 a ton and 10-34-0 at $715 a ton. On a straight nitrogen basis, urea prices out at $0.71 per pound of N, anhydrous at $0.56.
Phosphorus didn't join the pullback at all. DAP and MAP, the two primary dry phosphate fertilizers, both ticked up slightly month over month, to $918 and $959 a ton, and are running 5-7% above last year.
Diesel adds another wrinkle for anyone timing fall field work: Illinois diesel was $4.65 a gallon as of August 7, more than 50% higher than the same week in either of the last two years. Fertilizer and fuel markets have both been reacting to the collapsed U.S./Iran ceasefire and renewed uncertainty around shipping through the Strait of Hormuz since early July, layered on top of the Russia-Ukraine war and thin Chinese exports that have kept nitrogen and phosphate supply tight all year.
DTN Progressive Farmer →The math has been rough all year, anhydrous still costs 21% more than it did twelve months ago, and this pullback barely dented that. If you're locking in nitrogen for fall, you're paying close to what you paid last spring, when prices were still climbing. Phosphate is arguably worse off: DAP and MAP didn't just fail to fall, they went up, so any fall starter or broadcast phosphate plan just got a little more expensive, not less. The relief in this report belongs to whoever's buying UAN or urea for spring sidedress, not to anyone filling the tank for fall anhydrous or topdressing phosphate before freeze-up.
Don't delay a fall anhydrous purchase hoping the market catches up to urea and UAN, nothing in this data says that's coming. If phosphate is in your plan, get a number locked with your supplier now rather than waiting on a pullback that hasn't shown up. And where litter fits your rotation, this is a year to lean on it, poultry litter delivers P and K at a fixed, known cost per ton right when the commercial phosphate market is moving the wrong direction. Talk to your sales rep about our input financing options > https://www.returnco.com/news/fall-financing-2027