There are plenty of old wives tales like if it rains before seven, it is done by 11. Another agriculture one is, which I did not believe was true at first, when farmers start making money, everyone else in the ag industry makes good money. I am also a numbers person. I was phenomenal with multiplication tables in fifth grade, and I graduated from UNI with a finance degree.

Because of this number love, it led me to the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service report. This report provides fertilizer price information which is collected remotely through phone communication, email, and company websites. For corn, you need Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium to have a successful crop. This report lists these three average input prices. I have also written down the daily market price from a local co-op for almost the last nine years.

Using the reports and prices from October 11, 2017, to April 19, 2024, yesterday, here is what I found. From 2017 to 2024, the price of nitrogen went up 109.7%, phosphorus went up 99.1%, potassium went up 77.5%, corn prices are up 42.4%, and beans are up 26.3%. If someone wants to poke holes in this logic, that is fine. I did get a C+ in my business statistics class freshman year of college, but this price gouging in this consolidated industry makes it harder for farmers to make money with few other options to go.

This consolidation hurts farmers and rural economies as four companies control at least 75% of all nitrogen fertilizer production according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Between 1984 and 2008, nitrogen fertilizer producing firms shrunk from 46 to 13 firms. When so few firms control this large of a market share, they can exert control over their customers. They do not have to change as much to fit the needs of their customers. It does not get better in the potash (phosphorus) market where two companies supply most of this fertilizer in North America.

To put a bow on this, there used to be four farmers living on a square mile but once I am done, no farmer will live on the square mile I grew up on. This has been felt at North Tama where my mom’s class size was 67 students when she graduated in 1978, to 50 students when I graduated in 2010, and 31 in 2023, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Once the school goes, the town will go. While this consolidation has helped these big companies’ bottom lines, it has not helped the bottom line of Traer.

Sean Dengler is a writer, comedian, farmer, and host of the Pandaring Talk podcast who grew up on a farm between Traer and Dysart. You can reach him at sean.h.dengler@gmail.com.