It is now almost May, but the wet spring continues to hinder the spreading season. The time to spread manure is getting shorter, while the need remains sky-high. This is clearly reflected in the weekly fertilizer quotations from DCA, which on average across the board even increased slightly this week.
The riding season is now becoming somewhat monotonous with the wet weather of recent months. It is a lot of running and standing still for manure transporters, but really making big progress with sales has hardly happened yet. As soon as it finally started to look like something in the field, rain showers prevented the riding and it was wet again. A manure transporter from the southeast of the country indicates that he has hardly been really busy. "We are normally used to being busy all day at this time of year, but now we can easily manage between 8:00 am and 17:00 pm. We have really not been able to do much while the supply keeps coming from all sides. "
Used space
If you add up everything that has been rolled out, then something has really happened this spreading season, especially in the center of the Netherlands. By far the least has been done in the southern regions, according to various manure intermediaries. In the meantime, time is ticking and that only makes the use of the placement space for manure worse. The placement space has already decreased due to, among other things, the expansion of nutrient-contaminated (NV) areas and the phasing out of derogation, but with wheat that grows quickly despite the low temperature and with the haste that will soon be involved in arable farming, even less space will be used this spring.
In the meantime, the supply of manure just keeps coming. Manure transporters indicate that the storages will quickly be full again, provided that something has gone out. "The pressure continues to increase. Many livestock farmers had expected to be able to do something in the country this spring, but that continues to be disappointing. The manure cellars are now filling up again and they now have to look for space to store it again. We can provide that space do not always offer," says a manure transporter.
Manure prices slightly increasing
The weather problems of recent weeks are reflected in DCA's weekly fertilizer quotations. There is little space in the warehouses and the land can only be spread to a certain extent. While there is supply from all kinds of sources, from both cattle and pig slurry. Pig slurry is clearly more difficult to find its way into sales, which is explained by the fact that cattle slurry simply yields more per hectare. On average, fertilizer prices increased slightly this week in some regions. The bandwidth is large and varies per region, but on average, approximately €29 to €30 per cubic meter is paid for the disposal of cattle manure, according to the DCA manure quotations. The average price paid for pig slurry is around €32 per cubic meter. The bandwidth is also large.