The early, nice weather ensures that the manure market is in full swing. The conditions are ideal, which means that manure is being spread on a massive scale. The demand for manure is currently enormous. Both livestock farmers and arable farmers are fertilizing every plot that can be fertilized. At this rate, with this continuing weather, the spreading will largely be over within a few weeks.
At the moment, more manure is being requested nationwide than is being supplied. Not only are grassland plots being fertilised. Since last Saturday, dairy farmers have also been fertilising plots where corn will be grown. In addition, arable farmers are currently busy fertilising their arable land before the season starts. At the moment, on average (with the exception of Zeeland) arable farmers are being paid between €14 and €18 per cubic metre for delivery to the headland. This can be seen as an attractive rate. In combination with the beautiful weather, this motivates arable farmers to receive liquid manure.
The idea is that a lot of placement space will be filled by the smooth spreading in the spring. This will leave less placement space later this year. For now, the manure pits are quickly emptying, which is often a relief for livestock farmers. Regionally, the pressure on the market is temporarily decreasing, but the nice weather does not detract from the (paper) manure surplus. The question is therefore how the market will develop if sales are less smooth in the summer months, intermediaries warn. However, that is not yet the case.
DCA collection contributions
In the meantime, manure prices in the Netherlands have been falling for 6 weeks in a row. This week we see an acceleration of the decline. The south is still falling faster than the east of the Netherlands. Since this week, the DCA collection contributions for pig manure in the south of the Netherlands are €31,85 per cubic meter. In the middle of the Netherlands this is €34,67 per cubic meter. The collection contributions for cattle manure are respectively €26,83 and €31,17 per cubic meter for the south and middle. The price decline of cattle manure is particularly rapid in the regions of Deurne (-€2,5), Tilburg (-€2) and Uden (-€2,5).