CapitalPress.com
Friday, January 21, 2022
Aerial imaging becomes
popular with orchardists
to help farmers make faster
management decisions and
maximize their yields.
SALEM — From inside
Infrared sensing is capa-
Cascade Hall at the Ore- ble of spotting healthy ver-
gon State Fairgrounds in sus stressed plants based
Salem, Dustin Gargas was on the light each refl ects.
able to access online aerial It can do this 7-10 days
maps of a hazelnut orchard sooner than what might be
in Chile, zeroing in on one seen with the naked eye.
corner where it appears
“It’s more of a proactive
trees are undergoing mod- approach than a reactive
erate to high water stress.
approach,” Gargas said.
Gargas, an account
Once a fl ight is com-
manager for Ceres Imag- pleted, the raw imagery data
ing, compares data
is then separated
showing a 37%
into fi ve catego-
stress
increase
ries — water stress,
from Nov. 10 to
canopy vigor, can-
Jan. 7, with each
opy density, chlo-
tree represented by
rophyll and tem-
a color-coded red
perature. Ideally,
or yellow dot.
Gargas said farm-
Dustin
“This is some-
ers can see where
Gargas
thing that might be
areas of their fi elds
worth scouting or
go in and out of
getting in front of,” he said, stress throughout the grow-
indicating it might be due ing season, and diagnose
to a previously undetected problems before they make
problem with the orchard’s a larger dent in harvest.
irrigation system.
For example, he said a
Ceres Imaging, based in corner of the fi eld experi-
Oakland, Calif., uses aerial encing higher stress could
imaging to map poten- indicate a faulty irrigation
tial issues in agricultural setup, clogged drip lines or
fi elds. Rather than drones, a blocked manifold. Hav-
the company fl ies fi xed- ing this information up
wing aircraft fi tted with front can save signifi cant
fi ve infrared sensors and time and labor costs down
a thermal camera to cap- the road, Gargas said.
ture layers of information
John Bourne, vice
about a crop’s health and president of Ceres Imag-
productivity.
ing, estimates that grow-
Gargas gave a demon- ers managing 20% of all
stration of Ceres’ web- specialty crop acres in the
based platform Jan. 12 Pacifi c Northwest are now
during a presentation at the using Ceres on a weekly
52nd Annual Northwest Ag basis, according to a pre-
Show, and explained how vious article in the Capital
the data may be interpreted Press.
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
Nitrogen prices have started to drop
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Soaring prices for nitro-
gen fertilizers appear to have
hit their limit and are drop-
ping in early 2022.
Unless there’s major geo-
political turbulence, nitrogen
prices are expected to face
downward pressure this year,
experts say.
However, it’s not clear
that relief will come in time
to help farmers reduce their
expenses during the upcom-
ing growing season.
“Everyone was expecting
a correction,” said Deepika
Thapliyal, senior editor at the
ICIS market analysis fi rm.
“The market was too hot and
it had to come down.”
The price of urea — a
benchmark nitrogen fertilizer
— roughly doubled between
the spring and autumn of
2021.
After peaking at about
$800 per ton in mid-Novem-
ber on the Gulf of Mexico’s
wholesale market, though,
urea prices have fallen to
about $600 per ton.
The reversal in urea prices
began with India’s govern-
ment capping the amount of
the fertilizer it planned to buy
this winter, Thapliyal said.
Traders who’d hoped to sell
urea to that market abruptly
had to fi nd other buyers.
Meanwhile, there’s not yet
much demand for the fertilizer
in early 2022, so buyers have
held off on major purchases
and sent prices falling, she
said. “They don’t know what
the bottom will be so they’re
not stepping in to buy.”
That dynamic is refl ected
along the U.S. whole-
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press File
A front-end loader scoops up urea. Prices for the sta-
ple nitrogen fertilizer have been falling in 2022 after
roughly doubling last year.
sale market, centered in
New Orleans, where buy-
ers judged urea prices to be
“overinfl ated” last year, said
Mark Milam, a senior editor
with ICIS.
“It was bound to come
down because we’re well
ahead of the U.S. season,” he
said. “Nervous sellers push
down the prices until they
can see a buyer take a bite.”
Speculation about U.S.
farmers reducing their nitro-
gen usage and switching to
less nitrogen-intensive crops
spooked traders with large
urea inventories, Milam said.
There’s also been more
urea imported into the U.S.
than traders had taken into
account, he said. “There’s
plenty of supply right now.
It isn’t about supply but what
people are willing to pay.”
Urea is a staple global
fertilizer and generally sets
price trends for other forms
of nitrogen, such as urea
ammonium nitrate or UAN,
Thapliyal said. “Eventually
they all tend to follow urea.”
Lower wholesale prices
have not yet fi ltered through
to the Pacifi c Northwest, said
Tom Wimmer, chief operat-
ing offi cer at Marion Ag Ser-
vice, an Oregon-based farm
supplier.
“We haven’t seen much of
that up our way. We hope it
comes our way,” he said.
The problem is that
Northwest grass seed farmers
will begin
using nitro-
gen in Feb-
ruary, which
doesn’t give
the
com-
pany much
time to wait
Tom
for prices to
Wimmer
drop, Wim-
mer said.
“You’ve got to as a sup-
plier make a decision and
bring product in,” he said.
“We’ve got to have product
for our customers here when
they need it.”
Farmers who can wait
until the second quarter
of 2022 for nitrogen may
do best to hold off on pur-
chases, Wimmer said. Those
who need it in the fi rst quar-
ter must “get their ducks in a
row” or risk missing out on
supplies.
It’s uncertain how quickly
the “global tone” of soften-
ing urea prices will aff ect the
Pacifi c Northwest’s fertilizer
market, said Doug Kuenzi,
agronomy division manager
at the Pratum Co-Op, another
Oregon-based farm supplier.
“When it’s going to hap-
pen and how it’s going to
happen, we’re not sure,”
Kuenzi said.
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