The expected reduction comes amid disruptions to global soil-nutrient supply chains triggered by the Middle East conflict and China’s fertilizer export restrictions.

OCP, the world’s top producer of phosphates-based fertilizers, was proceeding “bringing forward planned Q3 and Q4 maintenance activities into the second quarter,” one of the sources told Reuters, requesting anonymity.

The maintenance works have been advanced “as part of normal operational planning and asset optimization, in a context of increased market uncertainty,” the source said.

The output reduction is temporary and OCP does not expect a significant impact on its annual production profile, a second company source said, adding that the expected drop was discussed during a recent investor call.

OCP is particularly exposed to fluctuations in the prices of ammonia and sulphuric acid, two key fertilizer inputs whose supply has been severely affected by disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.

OCP’s sulphuric acid imports nearly doubled to $1.6 billion (C$2.2 billion) in 2025, driven by higher consumption and prices, while ammonia imports fell nine per cent to $840 million (C$1.17 billion) as production of nitrogen‑based fertilizers declined, according to OCP’s annual report.

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Fertilizer Canada has been tracking farmers’ uptake of 4R Nutrient Stewardship since 2014. Most farmers are by now aware of this set of management principles that can be tailored at the farm level: right source, right rate, right timing and right placement.

While 64 per cent of the survey respondents believe they are compliant with 4R strategies, the reality suggests differently, the report noted.

Nearly 80 per cent have no formal plan in place. That doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t using some 4R tactics, but it is an indicator of general buy in. As well, based on what survey respondents reported, only about 28 per cent or 13 million acres across Canada currently meet the 4R criteria.

Industry observers have also cautioned that practices, such as broadcasting using stabilized urea, may meet the 4R criteria, but still result in overuse.

Why high prices might succeed where advocacy hasn’t

Ironically, the cost-price squeeze of fertilizer might help accomplish what environmental and climate change lobbyists have been advocating for years when it comes to crop fertility management. Current economics may drive adoption of different technologies, both new and old, to improve how efficiently farmers feed their crops. If they get it right, farmers save money, still hit target yields and reduce how much fertilizer is lost to the environment through leaching into waterways or to greenhouse gas emissions.

That said, 4R isn’t automatically a slam dunk. The potential rewards from more refined nutrient management are far from the current reality.

There are a host of practical reasons for this outlined in the Fertilizer Canada report. Some of it, though, stems from the growing disconnect between farmers and the rest of society.

The so-called “best management practices” underpinning the 4R approach have evolved over the past four decades as understanding of soil fertility dynamics has grown and new technologies such as soil mapping and variable-rate application have matured.

However, the underlying production politics have changed too.

In the 1970s and 80s, the message was about “feeding the world.” Focus was on high-yield agriculture, at almost any cost. In the 1990s, we entered the “save the planet” era. Focus shifted to reducing negative effects of modern agriculture on the environment. Issues such as nutrient loading in Lake Winnipeg shifted more to the fore.

Lately, it’s been the climate change agenda driving the push for better nutrient management. The early best management practices were reorganized around the 4R approach partly as a strategy to demonstrate how the industry can voluntarily curtail greenhouse gas emissions before regulators feel the need to move in.

Why farmers aren’t buying the sustainability pitch

Societal efforts to frame environmental stewardship as farmers’ obligation have met with an indignant response from the farming community, so much so that “sustainability” has become a dirty word in some circles. Net zero? Not a chance.

Of course, farmers care about the environment. The cold hard truth though is that, while protecting the soil and water or fending off climate change are laudable long-term goals, they are impractical if they hurt the bottom line.

In the survey, respondents cited lack of equipment, cost, education and time as the main reasons for the slow pace of adoption of 4R overall.

There was also another factor though, and it’s a biggie.

“In Western Canada, a lack of proven benefits was also stated as a barrier to adoption,” the survey report says.

Much of the research focus surrounding these principles has been measuring how well they achieve environmental sustainability goals. Research into whether they make more money for farmers and how has been scant and inconclusive.

The soil testing gap

The survey says that the biggest barrier to achieving the first tier in the 4R-compliance process is the “right rate,” because growers are not setting field-specific nitrogen rates.

That’s unsurprising, considering only about 25 per cent of farmers annually test their soils for nitrogen and phosphorus reserves. About 55 per cent test every one to three years. But there are about one-quarter of producers who test less often than four or five years, or not at all.

A high proportion of the fertilizer used in Western Canada is still applied using generic recommendations and “guesstimates” of crop uptake. How much of the applied nutrients reach the crop and how much gets lost remains a mystery on many farms. Farmers have historically compensated by over applying, which worked — at least for the farmer — when fertilizer was relatively cheap.

To be fair, even die-hard advocates say soil test results are best used as a reference rather than a prescription. However, annual sampling does offer insights into what’s going on below the surface. If it saves a few pounds of fertilizer, it pays for itself, plus it forms an important data point that feeds other decisions that could pay even bigger dividends.

A price signal farmers can’t ignore

With fertilizer prices now soaring alongside those drones criss-crossing the Middle East, now would be a good time to review the assumptions driving your on-farm nutrient management.

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Planting of wheat, canola and other crops is set to gather pace this month across much of Australia and farmers need ample supplies of crop nutrients to support early growth.

The price of urea in Australia was quoted around A$1,350 (C$1,298) per ton this week, up about 60 per cent since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, analysts said. Australian diesel prices are up 88 per cent over the same period.

“Farmers are trying to reduce fertilizer application and switching planting from nitrogen hungry crops like wheat and canola into feed barley,” said Dennis Voznesenski, an agricultural analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

“Some are also reducing planted area, but this so far is minimal,” he said.

Australia’s wheat planting could drop by 10 per cent to 12 per cent given the current conditions, from 12.4 million hectares a year ago, an agricultural broker and an analyst said. Cultivation of canola is also likely to decline despite higher returns, they said. Both declined to be named.

Australia is the world’s fourth-largest wheat exporter and No. 2 supplier of canola, selling to importers across Asia, the Middle East and Europe. It also sells crops such as barley, chickpeas and pulses.

Straight of Hormuz is fertilizer choke point

Farmers worldwide are struggling to secure fertilizer supplies as planting season in key countries gets underway, with the Strait of Hormuz, which carries 30 per cent of globally traded fertilizers, severely disrupted by the Iran war.

Bank of America warned that the conflict threatens 65 per cent to 70 per cent of global supplies of urea, a key nitrogen fertilizer, with prices already up 30 per cent to 40 per cent.

U.S. farmers plan to plant less corn and more soybeans in 2026 than last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said this week. China has curbed fertilizer exports, while India is tapping alternative sources to boost supplies for summer-sown crops.

Corn, wheat and canola usually require higher application of urea than barley and pulses.

“Australia typically relies on China for urea, but export curbs have limited shipments,” said StoneX analyst Josh Linville.

“Buyers turned to Indonesia, only to face further constraints there and by the time they sought supplies from the Middle East, the war had already started and the Strait of Hormuz had closed.”

Crops need fertilizer at the start of planting as well as in development and pre-maturity stages. Crops planted in April and May are harvested in November and December.

“It is a big issue as the cost of farming has risen sharply in the last one month,” said Tobin Gorey, founder of commodities consultancy Cornucopia in Sydney.

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The NL710 is a single-bin fertilizer spreader the Iowa company says is comparable in productivity and profitability to its dual-bin NL720.

“It’s a high-precision, high-output, wide fertilizer spreader that is user-friendly and low-maintenance,” says Benjamin Boelter, director of product development with New Leader.

WHY IT MATTERS: Given the slow-release fertilizer products available today, the new and higher-tech broadcast spreaders are again finding favour among some Prairie farmers.

The machine’s 120-foot spreading capacity is a rarity in the U.S. market, he says, with most manufacturers opting for 90 feet.

“We also increased the throughput … so you don’t have to slow down to get a wider pattern, so we have more material that can go through the machine.”

The applicator features a spread pattern “wizard” that makes automatic output adjustments.

“You don’t have to make manual adjustments on the machine to change the spread pattern. That’s all taken care of internally for you,” says Boelter.

The machine’s variable rate spreading capability includes four options: 120, 90, 80 and 70 feet.

Boelter uses turn compensation as an example of its variable-rate capabilities — say, when “spreading on the left hand side of the spreader needs more material than the right hand side. Our machine can adjust for that,” he says.

“As you spread with VRT, as you’re going through the field and your rates are changing and your speed is changing, the amount of product dropping on your spinner is changing. So we have built into our software (the ability to) make the adjustments as you’re going through those rates to keep your spread pattern at a very good precision.”

According to the company, the NL710 also features:

• A 33 per cent more efficient high-output design.
• Uniform spread pattern with advanced swath width control.
• Tool-free maintenance and zero grease points for reduced downtime.
• Ability to pattern test and set the machine using only three pans.

The applicator was designed for productivity, efficiency and low maintenance, says Boelter, but the fundamental goal was simplicity.

“We tried to make it very simple for the operator to use. So one of the, I would say, most unexpected things from an operator standpoint is we added a lot of capability, but it’s actually easier to use from a control standpoint than what’s in the field today.”

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The issue of high-yielding genetics with low straw strength was a particular problem in 2010, 2012 and 2014, when barley and wheat had high production that coincided with severe lodging.

“We had very high production years, lots of moisture and lots of conditions that promoted lodging,” Mitchell Japp, research and extension manager at SaskBarley, said at the recent Top Crop Summit in Saskatoon.

“So at the time, we had relatively poor genetics for lodging, and the straw strength wasn’t there, and so our fertility management was one of the few things that we had to be able to control lodging.”

Controls were promoted, such as increased potassium to improve straw, reduced seeding rates and lowering nitrogen to ensure plants stayed standing and protein stayed low enough for malt barley.

But farmers also started turning to another class of products to help solve the issue: plant growth regulators.

In 2014, Manipulator PGR, with the active ingredient chlormequat chloride, was registered for wheat. Today, products containing that active ingredient include registrations for other cereals crops like barley and oats.

Researchers at the Indian Head Agricultural Research Farm in Saskatchewan performed trials on barley for application timing and effect of the product. Their results were promising.

“They found that it decreased height, decreased lodging and even in the absence of those, sometimes led to a yield increase,” Japp said.

“And certainly if lodging was present, there would be a yield increase.”

However, in 2021, chlormequat chloride was labelled yellow by Keep it Clean for barley, meaning that farmers should be informed when opting for it, and should check with their grain buyer to avoid potential marketing pitfalls. As of its 2026 product advisory, Keep it Clean maintains it as yellow status for malt, feed or food-bound barley.

The use of chlormequat chloride in oats has also sparked considerable controversy in recent years between advocacy groups and millers who have discouraged it and some farmers, who maintain the product has been useful.

Currently, Keep it Clean does not have a caution attached to chlormequat chloride in either oats or wheat.

New PGR products, mixed early results

Also in 2021, a newly released PGR — Moddus, active ingredient trinexapac-ethyl — was trialled. It was found to be effective, although any PGR’s influence on a crop varies depending on location, environmental conditions and variety.

“In 2020, ‘21, and ‘22, there was a lot of really low-producing sites,” Japp noted.

“Very low yielding, high stress, which is not the conditions to use a plant growth regulator in. And so what they saw was a significant yield decrease from the control treatment.”

Other sites had higher yields, but agronomic control methods like lower nitrogen, lowered seed rate and additions of potassium largely seemed to do the same job against lodging.

In 2023, they ran an enhanced growing project with six varieties and four management packages. The third package focused on plant height and included a PGR.

However, it was another dry year, which meant mid-range yield and no “real” lodging pressure , although the PGR did help reduce height.

Pushing nitrogen to force the answer

To really trial the efficacy of the PGR though, Japp wanted to induce lodging.

To do this, they applied nitrogen alongside the PGR at the Indian Head site in 2024 and were granted a cool wet spring, good heat in July and wind and rain in August. These results offered some of the best insights of the project, with clear differences between treatments.

A full rate of Moddus had a notable decrease in lodging compared to the untreated control. Both varieties, CDC Fraser and AAC Connect, responded the same.

In comparison, the other trial sites at Melfort and Prince Albert saw nearly no effect on yield or lodging because they were dealing with dry conditions.

Japp said the key is to start with good genetics and find a good balance between products, whether it’s the right amount of nitrogen for a good yield alongside a PGR, or not using a PGR at all.

Seeding rate should also be considered because a higher rate is good for weed management. Staying economical with the rate is important for yield and lodging.

“I think we can say comfortably that a timely PGR application, in really good growing conditions, can improve both harvest operations and increase yield,” he said.

“If the conditions aren’t optimal, there’s may be no benefit. Maybe you get a slight lodging decrease but not likely yield (improvement). And in the poor conditions, it does remain a (yield) risk, so we’re trying to avoid those risky conditions.”

More information is yet to come because a project is currently underway to predict risk of lodging at an early stage for better indication of the potential benefit in using a PGR in a barley crop.

What Manitoba growers should weigh

Back in 2024, cereal growers in Manitoba had a hard time with lodging and PGR questions flew.

The products’ use is a financial gamble, provincial cereal specialist Anne Kirk said at an agronomy event at Brandon’s Assiniboine College that fall.

“It’s a big input,” she said. “Especially when you’re making that decision if you want to be applying them or not fairly early on in the growing season, when you don’t know if you’re going to have, you know, a large hail event or drought in July or whatnot.”

Producers may consider applying strategically, she noted: on only their best wheat crop, or select acres, although she doesn’t see a lot of producers choosing only patches of their fields to apply.r5ui8

PGRs are not, she cautioned, a product to turn to if your crops are already strained by weather, insects or disease.

“Any sort of like plant stress, you wouldn’t want to be applying a plant growth regulator, because it is a hormone, and it can negatively interact with those other stress hormones,” she said.

Instead, she suggested, they might be a better fit for those crops that are intensely managed, seeded densely and generously fertilized with nitrogen.

— With files from Alexis Stockford

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Granted, if they had the forethought and storage capacity to buy fertilizer in the fall or top up their farm fuel reserves, they’re not taking mortal financial blows right before seeding — but with every new gas field struck, fertilizer plant shuttered or country shutting down fertilizer exports to protect their slice of the global pie, it seems less likely that supply chains will get back to status quo anytime soon.

According to an FCC web post, released in early March and recently cited by our reporter Miranda Leybourne, a 2022 study suggested about half of Prairie farmers have their fertilizer by late March. That’s more than in Eastern Canada (only 10 per cent of Ontario farmers had done the same), but it still leaves a lot of producers potentially eating big bills this spring.

Cycle of uncertainty for farmers

As our executive editor Laura Rance noted a few weeks ago, this kind of chaos has become all too familiar.

COVID-19 threw international supply chains into a blender. Inflation has ballooned far more for farmers than even other Canadians. Manitoba Agriculture staff puts the farm inflation rate in the last five years at up to 50 per cent. Canada picked another fight with China, and canola took the brunt. Then there’s the second era of Donald Trump, whose policies have helped throw more uncertainty and market volatility into the mix than the world has seen in decades.

Farmers have become unfortunately used to waking up one morning to find their market gone or input prices spiking due to events impossible to anticipate and which often have nothing to do with them.

A system can only take so much before people start looking for alternatives. If farmers are shopping for innovations though, they’re going to have to wrestle with the reality that many of those technologies have the word “sustainable” associated with them.

That’s the tone of society; and it’s often the buzzword that attracts either public or private investment enough to get those ag tech concepts over the finish line.

Many farmers resent the “green” mandates being imposed upon them by government and public pressure. The federal goal to reduce fertilizer emissions by 30 per cent under 2020 levels by the end of the decade is a prime example.

Farmers’ were first and foremost worried that it would turn into a hard limit on nitrogen fertilizer use. The federal government has always denied that, saying that it’s going to be more about encouraging efficiencies.

If urea futures are going to start spiking 30 per cent though (as they did within two days of the intensified conflict in Iran), maybe less natural gas derived fertilizer isn’t a bad thing.

A case for self-sufficiency

Most of the farms that I’ve seen who have bought into regenerative or “sustainable” practices have a financial reason, rather than just an ideological one. They want long-term viability and to be able to absorb shocks they’ve observed in the field or have suffered in the bank account.

Such was the case with R&L Acres near Sperling, home to Manitoba’s first on-farm green ammonia plant.

Yes, government and researchers had an environmental interest in the initiative. It uses hydro power and electrolysis to get hydrogen from water, rather than natural gas. Combined with nitrogen from the atmosphere, it becomes on-farm manufactured ammonia.

Researchers have even suggested that green ammonia could one day become an alternate fuel source for machinery.

Farm owner Curtis Hiebert, though, also talked about a desire for self-sufficiency, to decouple from the whims of the fertilizer market and save money, especially when regular ammonia prices were up. The numbers presented in 2024 put final cost of a 500 tonne per year system at $948 per tonne for the farmer.

That may not always offer huge savings, but it will be consistent, and that certainty is also worth something. At the time the system was being installed, the fertilizer market was in turmoil because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Today, there’s a whole new set of world affairs mucking things up.

One plant doesn’t mean green ammonia is about to roll over conventional ways of farming, nor is it clear how much our renewable energy infrastructure would be able to support. Manitoba Hydro has already warned about its looming capacity limits. The up-front cost of the system is also big: an estimated $4.5 million in 2024.

Green ammonia is, though, an example of the kind of farm-focused innovation that could offer legitimate solutions and resiliency in an increasingly uncertain world.

We shouldn’t get so caught on the word “green,” and any complicated feelings that word comes with, that we dismiss the equally real impacts for self-sufficiency, sovereignty, stability and, in the best of cases, cost savings.

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The long-term effects of the war on grain and oilseed markets remain to be seen, with day-to-day volatility the likely feature in the near-term.

Against that uncertain backdrop, the underlying supply/demand fundamentals have not disappeared. A quick resolution to the war seems unlikely at this time, which means kneejerk reactions in the markets to the latest developments could subside.

Spring planting

Fertilizer and fuel costs are high, but crops will still be planted this spring. While rotational considerations generally take precedence, there’s always room for some adjustments on the margins.

For canola, the early call from Statistics Canada was for a one per cent increase in canola area on the year, to 21.8 million acres. That survey was conducted before China loosened its import restrictions, leading some analysts to predict actual area will end up even larger.

However, the rise in fertilizer costs due to the war and reduced traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has also led to speculation that high input costs may see some intended canola area go to other less input-intensive crops. In Manitoba, that could mean more soybeans, which were already forecast to see a 12.9 per cent increase in area in the province.

The United States Department of Agriculture releases its much-anticipated prospective plantings report on March 31. The trade sentiment is that corn area will be cut by three to five million acres from the 98.8 million acres planted in 2025, with that area shifting to soybeans, which are expected to see a similar increase from the 81.2 million grown last year.

Old-crop stocks

There is no shortage of old-crop canola after a bumper harvest in 2025 and slow exports for most of the marketing year. Soybean and corn supplies in the U.S. are also very comfortable. That should be limiting the upside potential in the nearby futures.

Statistics Canada will release their March 31 stocks report on May 6. Given the usage numbers so far, there could be about three million more tonnes of canola on hand at this time of year compared to the 6.5 million tonnes reported as of March 31, 2025. Domestic crush margins are very profitable, but the processors are generally thought to be covered for the time being. In addition, it remains to be seen how much extra canola China will purchase.

Biofuel

New U.S. biofuel blending mandates have been in the works for months but are apparently close to being announced. At the time of writing, President Donald Trump was expected to hold an event celebrating farmers at the White House on March 27. Faced with mounting animosity from farmers dealing with Trump’s tariff policies and the fallout from the war in Iran, the National Agriculture Day meetings could present a prime opportunity for the president to appease a key segment of his voting base.

Most analysts don’t expect the blending rules to differ substantially from volumes proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency before the war, but added clarity would be supportive for corn and oilseed prices. That would also support canola.

South America

While the North American growing season may be just around the corner, harvest operations are underway in the south. Brazil is expected to be bringing in a record-large soybean crop, which should be a limiting factor for oilseeds as they respond to the larger war-related moves in the energy and financial markets.

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About one quarter of global nitrogen trade and nearly 20 per cent of natural shipments, both essential for nitrogen production, move through the Strait of Hormuz. The ongoing conflict in Iran has kept the strait mostly blocked, causing supply headaches for fertilizer and input deliveries.

Across the province and KAP’s districts, fertilizer availability was a recurring concern. While many producers have already sourced or prepaid for their fertilizer, the ones who haven’t are facing challenges, said producer Colin Penner.

Shannon Pyziak, a producer from District 10 in Manitoba’s Interlake, agreed.

“Fertilizer costs, as well as fuel costs, continue to be a concern for farmers in our district,” she said.

KAP focused on rural development and policy

Meanwhile, KAP’s policy manager Neil Van Overloop and others on the board have been busy with regional planning and rural development consultation, aiming to ensure agriculture’s role in rural Manitoba is front and centre in political discussions.

“Our comments focused on rural connectivity, rural infrastructure, immigration and population program delivery and action, as well as community safety,” he said.

A 2024 report from Statistics Canada found 34 per cent more reported criminal incidents in rural areas based on population rate, and the Prairies had the biggest disparity.

Those numbers alone may not tell the whole story, however. Northern parts of the province were included in those rural numbers, and Statistics Canada suggested most of the rural-urban divide could be attributed to that. The same report noted that crime in northern areas was about three times higher than in the southern parts of the provinces.

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Fertilizer shortages may lead to lower grain output through delayed or suboptimal nitrogen application and encourage farmers to plant less fertilizer-intensive crops such as soybeans, the report noted.

In the U.S., where farmers import up to 50 per cent of urea fertilizer in some years, spring planting could face challenges as supplies remain around 25 per cent below typical levels, according to The Fertilizer Institute.

WHY IT MATTERS: Nitrogen fertilizer prices have risen around 40 per cent since the onset of the conflict in the Middle East, intensifying financial pressure on farmers

Nitrogen fertilizer, which accounts for roughly 20 per cent of grain production costs, has seen prices rise 40 per cent since the onset of the conflict, Goldman said. A quarter of global nitrogen trade and about 20 per cent of LNG shipments — key for nitrogen production — transit the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively blocked since the war in Iran started.

Supply disruptions could tighten availability and increase production costs elsewhere, the bank warned.

“Spare fertilizer production capacity outside the Middle East appears limited,” Goldman added, citing production constraints in Russia, which typically accounts for around 15 per cent of global nitrogen fertilizer exports due to facility attacks and export limits, as well as China’s likely extension of fertilizer export restrictions beyond August.

While U.S. farmers remain relatively insulated for now due to advanced procurement ahead of planting season, disruptions in Europe, Australia and the Southern Hemisphere could bolster demand for U.S. grain exports and raise U.S. grain prices, the bank said.

However, delays to March fertilizer shipments might affect April availability, compounded by the lack of U.S. strategic reserves or quick domestic production scalability.

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In reality, fewer growers are meeting the standards of the nutrient stewardship program.

Less than 13 million acres were 4R compliant in 2024, said the 2024 Fertilizer Use survey from Fertilizer Canada, which was published in March.

The online survey, conducted from November 2024 to March 2025, asked 1,258 farmers about fertilizer use.

Many of the questions focused on the 4R program, known as Right Rate, Right Time, Right Place and Right Source.

By following 4R nutrient stewardship practices, farmers can optimize their use of fertilizer.

The large gap between growers who think they’re using 4R and those who are meeting the requirements is often explained by two things:

• Many growers aren’t satisfying the Right Rate criteria.
• Many farmers don’t have a formal 4R plan.

Soil testing gaps drive the shortfall

To meet the Right Rate standard, growers need to regularly test their soil for nitrogen. Without data on residual nitrogen, it comes down to guesswork when trying to apply the appropriate nitrogen rate.

However, the frequency of soil testing on Canadian farms isn’t all that frequent, the survey found:

• Sixty-one per cent of growers test their soil for nitrogen every year, every second year or once in three years.
• The remaining 39 per cent will test every four to five years, or less often or never.

Too much nitrogen on canola acres

The data explains why some growers are using the wrong rate of nitrogen for a particular field. Agronomists in Saskatchewan have noticed that some canola growers are applying too much nitrogen.

They are trying to “bludgeon” the crop with fertility, said Mike Palmier, an MNP agronomist in Plenty, Sask.

“In lots of cases, I’m seeing upwards of 140 to 160 pounds of nitrogen (applied) to produce 50 bu. canola,” he said.

“That math just doesn’t add up.”

• READ MORE: How to succeed at 4R fertilizer management on your farm

Fertilizer Canada doesn’t have field specific data on rates in order to know if farmers are applying too much nitrogen.

In an email, Fertilizer Canada said only 34 per cent of canola acres met the Right Rate criteria in 2024, which means those growers followed all the necessary steps to determine the rate.

Other farmers could be using the proper rate of nitrogen, but they “omitted one or more of the formal steps” to identify the right rate, said a Fertilizer Canada spokesperson.

So, there’s room for improvement to match nitrogen rates with crop demand and specific field conditions.

More growers turning to enhanced efficiency fetilizers

The Fertilizer Canada survey found that more growers are using enhanced efficiency fertilizers.

The products can cut nitrogen losses, through leaching or to the atmosphere, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fertilizer.

For most cereal and oilseed crops, the percentage of acres with an EEF jumped in 2024 compared to 2023.

• For feed barley: use went from 9.8 per cent to 46 per cent.
• For most other crops: the increase was three to eight per cent.

The adoption is likely related to a federal program that pays farmers for trying EEFs.

Federal dollars cover the extra cost

The On Farm Climate Action Fund provides $300 million in funding, from 2025 to 2028, to farmers who try cover crops, rotational grazing in livestock and new ways to manage nutrients.

Those payments are needed to encourage use because EEFs cost more than urea and other nitrogen fertilizers.

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