1. Unbelievable!  Fertilizer $1200 per ton($30 a bag, $120/acre x400acres=$48,000 dollars) translates into $48,000.00 for enough 18-46-0 to put a 100 lbs of  real nitrogen(normal rate for Fraser Fir Christmas Trees) on 400 acres of Christmas Trees.  Five years ago the cost was $14000.00 dollars for 400 acres ($300 dollars per ton for 18-46-00).   This is an inflation rate of 400% and sounds like we are living in a Third World Country.  This 400% inflation price not only affects Fraser Fir Christmas Trees it affects all food production and is driving food prices throughthe roof and has only begun to be factored into food prices.  This rise in fertilzier cost was caused by using corn for producing ethanol for bio-fuel, rising fuel costs, huge demand from China and India, the past shutting down of phosphorus mines in Florida which are now having a difficult time reopening because of government regulation and then finally a consolidation of fertilizer producers which have no competition to hold prices down.  This perfect storm caused a quadrupling of fertilizer costs if gas had done this we would be paying $8 dollars a gallon for gas.

Cool Springs Nursery a Premium Grower of Fraser Fir Christmas Trees has reacted to this through the roof inflation in two ways.  First we have quit using 18-46-0 and are now injecting 0-46-0 into the ground when we plant the trees at a rate of 700lbs/acre at a cost of $400 per acre this hopefully will supply all the phosphorus that the tree needs for the next 10 years.  We then use 0-0-50 at a rate of 200lbs/acre at $120 dollars an acre, this should be a one time application.  All this would be done the first year in addition to the lime application.  Having done this in the first year we would then use 46-0-0 ($700 per ton for the next 10 years at a cost of a $70 dollars per acre per year or $28,000 per year per 400 acres.

How can we cut these costs even more?  Clover can be depended on to supply 50lbs of real nitrogen each year to Fraser Fir Christmas Trees.  This is half the nitrogen requirements of a Fraser Fir.  If you use White Clover which is one of the best nitrogen fixers it costs $200 per 50lbs.  The rate is 8lbs per acre at a cost of $33/acre.  This $33 dollar per acre clover investment would yield the same amount of nitrogen as a $35/acre 46-0-0 application(half of what is needed per year for Fraser Fir Christmas Trees).  The beauty though is that this clover would continue to supply nitrogen over the next 10 years.   This would save $350 dollars of nitrogen cost over a ten year period.  For a 400 acre farm this would be a cost savings of  $140,000 on the effort to supply nitrogen to trees.

Down side to this scenario is the manual labor to sow this clover.  One worker could do 10 acres per day at a cost of $100 dollars.  The labor to do 400 acres would be $4000 dollars.  The other downside is that there is no guarantee that one will get the rain to make the clover grow after spending a total of $13,000 for white clover for 400 acres and $4000 for the labor to put it down for a total cost of $17,000.  One upside is that this clover may dramatically reduce weed control costs.  In summary this  $17,000 would theoretically save $140,000 over a ten year period  In addition if you put this $140,000 in the bank over this period it would it would grow into at least $300,000 dollars at the end of the ten year fertilization period.

Technorati Tags: clover, Fertilizer, Fraser Fir, Fraser Fir Christmas trees, inflation, North Carolina Fraser Fir Christmas Trees, run away inflation

Tags: clover, Fertilizer, Fraser Fir, Fraser Fir Christmas trees, inflation, North Carolina Fraser Fir Christmas Trees, run away inflation

This entry was posted on Friday, September 5th, 2008 at 7:36 am and is filed under Christmas Trees. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.