April starts off like the entire month of March: with very dry and sunny weather. The end of the spreading season is approaching, because many livestock farmers have fertilized their own grassland and arable farmers have often already used it extensively. Now that the collection contributions for livestock farmers have been decreasing for a while, arable farmers are increasingly having to accept less when they take manure. What can they gain?
Many (dairy) farmers have mainly spread the manure on their own land this spring, which means that their manure pits are now largely empty. In the meantime, manure prices are falling further and in more and more regions the amounts are below €30 per cubic meter. Arable farmers are also noticing that the price is falling, as indicated by various intermediaries. Manure storages are becoming empty more often, which means that manure has to be transported over longer distances.
The amounts to be paid have been roughly between €14 and €18 per cubic meter delivered to the headland in recent times, but the question is whether the top of this range can still be easily achieved now that the spreading season has been underway for a month and a half and supply is less oppressive.
Problems surrounding placement space
On the side of the arable farmers, available placement space is often largely used before the summer begins, partly due to the relatively high amounts. Due to the beautiful spring, every day was suitable for fertilizing. The trend around the running out of manure is now turning back a bit. In a 'normal' spring, when there is an occasional shower of rain, the spreading of manure was better distributed, it is indicated.
The only possibility for additional sales to arable farmers is when soil samples have been taken, which show that the phosphate levels in the plot are low; this then gives the opportunity to supply some extra manure, provided that the rules regarding nitrogen placement space allow this.
DCA collection contributions
The price decrease of the manure prices is starting to enter a more stable phase. In general, the manure prices are still decreasing this week, but intermediaries indicate that the price is increasingly moving towards a stable position. The DCA collection contribution for pig manure in the South of the Netherlands is €30,50 this week. In the Central Netherlands this is €33,17. The collection contributions for cattle manure are respectively €25,33 and €29,83 per cubic meter for the South and the Center.
A striking region that still shows a significant price drop this week is the Uden region. Compared to last week, the price for cattle manure here this week drops by €1,50, which is the largest drop.
Click here to view the DCA collection contributions by region.