The manure spreading season finally kicked off this week. However, a large number of cubic meters of manure are not yet being spread immediately. The winter weather is forcing livestock farmers to limit themselves to spreading only the strictly necessary loads for the time being. The precipitation expected for the coming period also suggests that a real turnaround in the market will not occur any time soon.
Meanwhile, livestock farmers are busy emptying the pits and primarily applying the manure to their own land. In arable farming, there's still little to be done on the land. Winter wheat is often not yet ready for manure application, it's said. The soil's bearing capacity, in mid-February, is also a frequent reason for arable farmers to wait a bit longer. Prices for manure still being transported to storage have often already been agreed upon. An annual recurring phenomenon at this time of year is that livestock farmers are frantically disposing of manure, hoping for lower prices later in the year. Only the bare minimum is removed.
A logical assumption is that this will result in a large amount of manure entering the market. Whether this will actually happen in large quantities, however, remains to be seen, according to a manure intermediary. With milk prices under pressure and an arable farming sector strongly committed to higher manure rates, it is uncertain to what extent dairy farmers are willing to go along with this.
Price relief in the south
Although little land is being used yet, collection fees for cattle manure in the southern Netherlands are declining this week. For now, this is mainly a symbolic signal, according to a manure intermediary. "If conditions had been better, prices could have fallen further," the market is saying. Much will therefore depend on the weather conditions in the coming weeks.
This doesn't directly apply to manure prices in the central Netherlands. An intermediary indicates that manure can be applied to the fields starting this week, but that this doesn't change the amount that still needs to be removed on paper. Several contractors also agree with this situation. The fact that more manure needs to be removed this year (again) than last year underscores this. "Your regular customers get priority and are served sooner. We can't serve everyone at once," says one contractor.
DCA collection contributions
The average collection fee for pig manure this week in the South of the Netherlands is €31,17 per cubic meter and in the Central Netherlands it is €37,17 per cubic meter. For cattle liquid manure, the fees are €29 and €36,67 per cubic meter, respectively. In the Leeuwarden region, the DCA collection fee for cattle liquid manure this week is €39,50 per cubic meter.