After a favourable spring with falling prices, the manure market currently appears fairly stable. Although prices have hardly moved in recent weeks, traders point to signals that could indicate a turnaround. The uncertainty about the sales opportunities in the summer remains high, partly due to the limiting influence of NV areas on the placement space. At the same time, arable farmers want to make maximum use of the remaining placement space in order to boost the balance as much as possible. What effect does this have on pricing?
After a spring in which an exceptionally large amount of manure was spread, the supply is gradually starting to pick up again. In terms of pricing, the bottom has been reached in the market for a while now. While traders have been indicating for a while that they are taking price increases into account towards the summer, this is also not yet reflected in the DCA collection contributions. In the meantime, there is a lot of speculation in the market about the sales opportunities for the rest of the year.
Manure remains popular
Especially on arable land, a lot of fertilization has been done this spring, partly due to the dry weather and attractive rates. A lot of the placement space has already been filled. The new policy regarding the NV areas is the big (new) unknown factor. In parts of the country, this will cause significant restrictions in the nitrogen placement space, which will make spreading manure more difficult this summer. At the same time, there are also sobering sounds that not the entire country is an NV area.
According to these traders, there is still plenty of room available for manure placement in various places, especially after the grain harvest. The attractive rates also make it extra important for arable farmers this year to ensure that extra bit of balance, especially now that the potato prices are under considerable pressure. With futures market quotations of around €200 per tonne, grain prices are also not something to write home about. In short: the demand from arable farming for manure is not the problem.
For livestock farmers, a large part of the available space on their own land has already been used in the spring. Many manure pits are empty, which means that what is still available is now being used more carefully. Some livestock farmers consciously choose to temporarily save manure to remove it later this year. At the moment, there is therefore no question of an abundant supply of manure, although there are rumours that the supply is starting to come in slowly. At the moment, this is being spread on grassland plots, where the land is the second cut. Manure is also being driven to the silos, which are almost empty.
DCA collection contributions
In a stable manure market, a wait-and-see attitude currently prevails. The DCA collection contribution for pig manure in the South of the Netherlands amounts to €30,17 this week. In the Central Netherlands, this is €34,17. The collection contributions for cattle manure for the South of the Netherlands amount to €26,50 this week. In the Central Netherlands, this is €30,83. There is currently little visibility of falling prices, but an improving market is also not in sight in the coming weeks. When the grain harvest starts, activity will probably increase again.