DAP continues to lead fertilizer prices higher

Five fertilizers were higher in price compared to the prior month while the other three were slightly lower. For the third week in a row, just one fertilizer had a sizeable move. DAP was 7% more expensive compared with last month. DTN designates a significant move as anything 5% or more. The phosphorous fertilizer has an average price of $904/ton.

This marks the first time DAP has been above the $900/ton level since the second week of December 2022. That week DAP had average price of $902/ton.

That week is also the last time both DAP and MAP were over $900/ton at the same time.

Four other fertilizers had slightly higher prices. MAP had an average price of $921/ton, potash $486/ton, anhydrous $777/ton and UAN28 $420/ton.

Three fertilizers were slightly lower looking back to the prior month. Urea had an average price of $619/ton, 10-34-0 $667/ton and UAN32 $474/ton.

On a price per pound of nitrogen basis, the average urea price was $0.67/lb.N, anhydrous $0.47/lb.N, UAN28 $0.75/lb.N and UAN32 $0.74/lb.N.

In a recent University of Minnesota Extension Nutrient Management podcast, "2025 Fall Fertilizer Outlook: Management Tips During Economic Uncertainty," extension specialists discussed in depth some ways farmers can tighten their fertilizer budgets without giving up yields.

While extremely basic, one of the best ways to make sure you are applying a proper amount of fertilizer would be to do a soil test. More now than ever it is important to test your soils to see what levels nutrients are at in the soil, especially phosphorus.

Jeff Vetsch, University of Minnesota Extension research supervisor at the Southern Research and Outlook Center in Waseca, said so many fields in southern Minnesota are very high in phosphorus. Many fields are over 20 parts per million (ppm) in the Bray soil test and further application is probably not needed, especially considering where phosphorus fertilizer prices are at right now.

"It's certainly time to think about that," Vetsch said. "It's probably the one fertilizer you could save the most money on by either cutting back or not applying at all if your soil test is in the 30 ppm (range) or above."

Vetsch added producers could also look at their liquid fertilizers applications to see what they could cut back on. If you have been a starter fertilizer person and you would like to cut some costs and you are already broadcasting phosphorus anyway, maybe you don't need to use that liquid fertilizer, he said.

All eight fertilizers are now higher in price compared to one year earlier.

The last holdout, potash, is now 6% higher. 10-34-0 is 12% more expensive, MAP is 13% higher, anhydrous is 14% more expensive, DAP is 22% higher, urea is 28% more expensive, UAN28 is 31% higher and UAN32 is 35% more expensive looking back to last year.

DTN gathers fertilizer price bids from agriculture retailers each week to compile the DTN Fertilizer Index. DTN first began reporting data in November 2008.