Posted March 13, 2023 | By: Jordan Howe

At Nutrien Financial, especially in today’s market, we’re always looking for ways to help growers save on their input prices. We recently worked with a corn and soybean grower in Wisconsin to lower his costs, which enabled him to expand his operation.

Prices were increasing as an expansion opportunity arose

Jason Rowe farms a diversified corn and soybean operation in southwest Wisconsin while maintaining full-time employment in agriculture. Fertilizer prices began to skyrocket just as Jason was looking to expand his operation. He wanted to mitigate risk by locking in fertilizer prices before they increased even more, but he wasn’t certain the economics would be in his favor due to the interest rate environment.

Jason knew more and more growers were balancing rising interest rate expenses with the savings they usually got from early discounting, and he found himself in the same dilemma. Crop consultants and financing experts at the Mineral Point, Wisconsin Nutrien branch presented Jason with Nutrien Financial options to secure pricing at the lower fertilizer rate.

“Working with Nutrien’s in-house financing team gave me an opportunity to get discounts that I couldn’t get through a credit line at the bank,” Jason said. “Using this program, I got in before Nitrogen prices creeped up. I wasn’t totally ahead of the game but also wasn’t at the back end and I know people who paid 30-40% more than I did.”

Financing can help give growers flexibility

Because of the financing deal Jason had with Nutrien Financial, his financial picture was more flexible, which put him on solid ground to make the split-second decision to acquire more land. Instead of using cash to prepay his inputs, he used that cash to acquire land, a decision that had to be made quickly due to the real-estate market atmosphere.

Due to the inflationary environment, prices for fertilizer were very volatile. We looked at all the Nutrien Financial programs to work out the best option for Jason that would create savings to mitigate financial risks and help him react quickly when opportunity knocked.

Financing can align with crop cycles

With added financial flexibility from Nutrien Financial, Jason also revised his marketing strategy to capitalize on the most opportune time to sell. Farmers earn revenue once a year at harvest time, so it’s critical to maximize the return to cover expenses throughout the year. Otherwise, growers risk having to sell off grain immediately, versus waiting for a higher sale price. Because Jason’s financing aligned with his crop cycle, he had more room to sell when he would earn the highest profit.

“Lately, farming has been a lot of fun,” Jason said. “I’ve lived through some years that have not been fun and I don’t want to go back to those. Working with a company like Nutrien that can help you line up your agronomics and your financial picture takes some of the stress out of decision making so you can focus on the fun part of farming.”

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