The spreading season for manure has started and a lot of manure is being spread. Dairy farmers have taken full advantage of the good weather conditions in the first week to spread manure on their own grassland again. For arable farmers it is still too early to think about spreading manure, although they are following the market closely. Just like last week, we see that the decline in DCA collection contributions for cattle liquid manure in particular continues.
In the past period, a lot of manure has been spread on grassland, according to the market. This has caused the initial pressure on dairy farmers to decrease somewhat. In the past week, we have had to deal with precipitation that stagnated the spreading. At the end of February, the soil can still withstand little, but the expectation for the coming period is that there will be stable dry weather. If this continues, arable farmers will usually also start with the land work around mid-March.
Price relief continues
But also at the beginning of March there are plenty of opportunities for spreading, because the manure can be spread directly on grassland. This reduces the pressure on storage capacity. This has consequences for the price formation, whereby the downward trend of recent times continues. However, the price development differs per situation. Over short distances, manure is cheaper to spread due to lower transport costs and a large local supply. Over longer distances, the prices remain higher, because transport costs play a greater role there.
The idea of intermediaries is often that prices can fall further if the favourable spreading possibilities continue. However, there are also concerns about the amount of manure that will come onto the market in the near future. Arable farmers follow the manure market closely and also know that high prices are being paid. Livestock farmers have retained manure in the winter that would normally have been removed. As a result, an enormous amount of manure will soon come onto the market that has to find its way.
DCA collection contributions
The average price of meat pigs in the South of the Netherlands is €35,67 per cubic meter and in the Central Netherlands it is €35,83. The collection contribution for cattle manure is €30,83 and €33,50 per cubic meter for the South and the Center respectively. The decrease in the price of cattle manure in the South of the Netherlands is partly due to the fact that the regions of Deurne and Tilburg show a price decrease of €2 and €1,50 respectively. In the East of the Netherlands, the prices for cattle manure also continue to decrease cautiously.