Fertilizer costs are up and likely will rise further, so the question for farmers is how to adjust 2026 budgets to pencil out of profit despite those prices.
David Widmar, managing partner at AEI.ag, appears on this week’s Ag Marketing IQ in Depth to talk about fertilizer costs, how to manage nutrient application, and how to zero in on costs and revenue in 2026 crop budgets to find profit in a year market by low commodity crop prices and high input costs.
And those high fertilizer costs are probably the most frustrating.
Fertilizer costs for a corn producer currently are about $170 per acre, Widmar says. “That’s up from $162 back in the spring. It was around $145 last fall,” he says. “But there's a lot of ways you can slice that. … It's a lot less than we saw back in 2022 at $270.”
That said, Widmar points out that $160 was the high in the early 2010s.
“Now we're at $160 to $170 over the last couple of years. And that feels like the low,” he points out. “And so, the highs are now the lows.”
Work high costs into a profitable 2026 crop budget
So, the challenge for farmers is to work these high costs into a budget that finishes with a profit.
Pay particular attention to fixed costs. That’s "the bucket that producers have a lot of control over,” Widmar says.
Use Extension budgets as a benchmark rather than a plug-and-play for your financial plan. “You can get a 10 or 15 or 20% difference between what your fixed costs are and your neighbor's fixed costs,” he says.
Widmar knows these are the line items that are the most emotionally difficult, since they include family living, farmland debt payments and machinery expenses.
Detailed attention to the entire farm budget, Widmar says, is “the effort that allows you to stay in the business.” And that also applies to buying, managing and applying fertilizer.
Intensely manage nutrient applications
Farmers can look at recommendations from every year as a mandate for 2026. Dive into the details and challenge the norm on nutrient management. Here are the headlines on the recommendations Widmar details on Ag Marketing IQ In Depth.
- Look at which products you’re using. Liquid products are up about 25-50% year over year. Anhydrous is up only 1% since spring.
- Check the balances in your soil bank. Yes, that means soil testing. “The return on investment in 2026 for a fertilizer grid sample is going to be the highest we might have seen throughout our careers,” Widmar says.
- Apply products based on results rather than price.
- Use precision applications.
For more details on Widmar’s recommendations for a profitable 2026 on U.S. farms, watch this week’s Ag Marketing IQ In Depth.