TULSA, Okla. — As the war in Iran continues, local farmers are feeling the ripple effects of supply disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. The American Farm Bureau reports that approximately 50% of global fertilizer exports pass through the Strait, impacting farmers as they prepare for spring planting.
2 News listened to one Green Country farmer, Tommy Salisbury, who is scrambling to stay afloat as fertilizer prices rise.
"This is the time we use the most fertilizer," Tommy Salisbury said.
"We grow soybeans, Milo, and wheat," Salisbury said.
Prices for urea fertilizer, the most common crop nutrient, climbed almost overnight. Before the war, Salisbury said fertilizer cost around $625 per ton. When the war started, it shot up by $150, making it almost $800 a ton.
"Urea fertilizer has gone up roughly about $150 a ton, and we immediately saw it, after the conflict in Iran," Salisbury said.
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While the U.S. does not import heavily from the Middle East, the Farm Bureau says fertilizer is a global market. This means international shocks still drive prices here at home.
"Most of the fertilizer exports in the world do come through the Middle East over there, but for us locally, it's very confusing and almost discouraging as farmers when we can't even make ends meet the way it is, and as soon as something happens, we're the first ones to get the brunt of the change," Salisbury said.
Salisbury farms 3,200 acres in northern Green Country.
"So you know a ton would get us 10 acres," Salisbury said.
That would bring Salisbury's total to almost $248,000 in urea fertilizer alone. He said his costs soar while farm income stays flat.
"When inflation goes up, the retail businesses increase their commodity prices or what have you on the end to make up for that price difference in farming, we don't have that option," Salisbury said.
He worries that if prices keep climbing, the future of agriculture will be on the line.
"It's not sustainable for the next generation to continue farming unless something changes," Salisbury said.
Still, giving up is not in a farmer's DNA.
"Overall, it's just hard to make ends meet, but we're farmers, we're not going to give up, we're going to keep going. The world needs to eat," Salisbury said.
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