The spreading season has officially started for a week, but in practice and on the manure market there is very little evidence of this. The supply of manure is increasing now that livestock farmers have to postpone spreading and the pits are full. In the meantime, most stores are also full to the brim. Manure prices are more likely to rise than fall.
Due to the persistent precipitation, the first two weeks of the spreading season are literally and figuratively in the water. On the heavier and higher grounds with grassland, some spreading was possible every now and then, but in total it is not much. Several contractors indicate that it did not happen automatically and was often actually too wet, but the need was great with the manure cellars full. Due to the rainfall of recent days, the manure injectors have virtually come to a standstill.
Manure stores almost completely filled
In recent weeks, the supply of manure has actually decreased slightly, but is now increasing sharply again. Livestock farmers had calculated how much space they still needed in the cellars until the spreading season and removed what was necessary. Now that the wet weather is bothering some livestock farmers, the manure cellars are filling up to the brim again. The offer now concerns many small loads, but the number is rapidly increasing. In addition, manure intermediaries and contractors indicate that their basins and manure storage facilities are almost completely filled and that the filling level reaches 100% in a very short time. Slurry spread on the land in the past week mainly comes from the cellar. There is therefore hardly any extra space in the stores.
Small plus
The inability to spread the manure in combination with the limited storage capacity causes the selling prices for manure to increase rather than decrease. Various manure intermediaries say this. This can also be seen in DCA's weekly fertilizer quotations. After the quotations remained stable in recent weeks, there will be a small plus in some regions this week (week 8). This applies to both cattle and pig slurry. The price difference between these two is very small and some carriers charge the same price. The average price paid for cattle slurry is around €30 per cubic meter, but the spread is wide. Pig slurry averages around €32 to €33 per cubic meter. In some regions more than €35 must also be paid.
The rainfall of the past few days and the millimeters that are still to arrive put riding out on the back burner. However, the weather forecast after the weekend is not necessarily negative and that gives livestock farmers and contractors the opportunity to go onto the grassland at the beginning of March. They agree that prices will drop in good weather in March, but it is difficult to say to what extent. Given the smaller installation space in the coming year, the overcrowded storages and other developments such as fertilizer substitutes, no one dares to make a statement about this.