As corn growers in the Midwest wrap up harvest and eye the 2026 planting season, the last thing they need is another gut punch from the fertilizer cartel. Yet here it is: anhydrous ammonia prices have spiked 8% in the past month alone, hitting an average retail of $843 per ton in the first week of November 2025. That’s no small jump. It means an extra $161.59 in fertilizer costs per acre for corn this year, a 44.8% climb since 2020. For family farms barely scraping by on razor-thin margins, this is adding insult to injury.
Consider the timing. November marks the frantic rush for winter application, when fields lie fallow and budgets are stretched thin over Thanksgiving dinners and heating bills. Farmers like those in Iowa and Illinois, who rely on anhydrous for 80% of their nitrogen needs, are staring down barrels of debt just to keep the soil fed. One Illinois producer told DTN Progressive Farmer last week that locking in at $850 a ton feels like “signing your own foreclosure notice.” Meanwhile, the big players peddling this poison are toasting record profits. CF Industries, the nitrogen behemoth controlling a third of U.S. production, just reported third-quarter earnings of $353 million. That’s a 28% bump from last year, with adjusted EBITDA swelling to $667 million. Their CEO, in a glossy earnings call on November 6, called it a “strong performance” driven by “favorable market dynamics.” Translation: They jacked prices while farmers rack up loans.
This isn’t bad luck or supply chain hiccups. It’s a pattern of profiteering baked into a market dominated by a handful of giants. CF and rivals like Nutrien have consolidated control, with mergers swallowing up independents and leaving retailers with few options but to pass on the hikes. Add in lingering tariff wars from the Trump era, which have inflated import costs by 10-15% on key components, and you’ve got a perfect storm engineered for executive bonuses. Fertilizer expenses overall have ballooned 37% since 2020, outpacing crop revenue gains and fueling a USDA forecast of $467.4 billion in total farm production costs for 2025, up $12 billion from last year. Small operators, who make up 88% of U.S. farms but produce just 20% of output, bear the brunt. They’re dumping equipment, leasing land to conglomerates, or worse, walking away altogether.
Lawmakers are starting to sniff around. A recent Senate hearing put fertilizer execs on the hot seat, with farmers’ groups like the National Farmers Union blasting the “monopoly squeeze.” But talk is cheap when anhydrous is over $800 a ton for the first time since spring. Projections for 2025 show another 8% creep upward, thanks to global disruptions from Trinidad plant shutdowns and Brazilian export booms. If unchecked, it could wipe out any net farm income gains and push more families into the red just as holiday lights flicker on.
Enough venting. Time for fight-back strategies. First, form buying co-ops. Groups like the Ohio Farmers Union have slashed costs 15% by pooling orders and negotiating directly with suppliers, bypassing the middlemen markup. Second, scout alternatives: Liquid urea or manure-based nitrogen can cut reliance on anhydrous by 20-30%, especially with USDA conservation grants covering the switch. Third, hit the phones. Flood your senators with calls for antitrust probes into CF’s empire; reference the DOJ’s ongoing expense scrutiny as leverage. And track prices weekly via free tools from DTN or Farmdoc to time your buys.
AgroWars stands with the growers getting gouged so suits can celebrate on their yachts. This holiday, let’s turn that “gift” back on Big Chem. Share your story below, tag #FertilizerFraud on social media, and let’s build the pressure until prices crack. Your farm, your fight.