Fertilizer Cost $/lb Calculator.

Using the Fertilizer Cost Calculator  

To calculate the $/lb costs of the N, P2O5, K2O, and/or S fertilizers used on the farm, select the $$

button located over the top of the Fertilizer table.

This brings up the Calculate Fertilizer Costs window.

The window will open to the Dry or Liquid fertilizer cost calculation table depending on whether the first fertilizer in the Fertilizer list is dry or liquid.  In the above example, the table lists all of the dry fertilizers planned for the farm in the current crop year.  To calculate costs for liquid fertilizers instead of dry, simply select the Liquid fertilizers button.

Step 1. Nitrogen Costs

The fertilizers are listed in alphabetical order, but it is usually easiest to start the cost calculations with the primary N fertilizer used on the farm.  In this example, we will start by typing in the Cost $ per ton of Urea because it is the only fertilizer listed that contains N without any other nutrients.  Entering $425 ton for Urea results in a cost of $0.46 per lb N.

 

Step 2. P2O5 Costs

The N cost calculated in step 1 ($0.46) can now be used to calculate the P2O5$/lb in the DAP fertilizer. Typing in $310 per ton and $0.46 under N $/lb gives a P2O5 $/lb of 0.16.

 

Step 3. K2O Costs

The primary source of K2O is often Potassium chloride or potash where K2O is the only nutrient in the fertilizer.  Typing in the price of $350 per ton for Potassium chloride gives a cost of $0.29 per lb K2O.

Step 4. Sulfur Costs

Sulfur is usually applied with other nutrients and you will need to enter a cost for each of these to obtain the cost for S.  In the example below, the S is in a fertilizer that contains N, P2O5, and K2O.  Typing in $355 per ton for this blended fertilizer along with the previously calculated N, P2O5, and K2O costs from Steps 1-3 gives $0.52 per lb S.

Step. 5. Save and display $/lb costs

To save the calculated costs, click on the button at the bottom of the Fertilizer cost calculator box.

Then close the box. The $/lb for each fertilizer nutrient will now be shown in the Value of nutrients table located in the upper right quarter of the screen.

Note: Calculating costs for only one primary source for each nutrient may avoid confusion. If per lb values have been calculated for more than one source of N or any other nutrient, the Value of nutrients table will display the average of those values.  If you want to save some of the displayed costs but not others, just enter 0 in the Cost $ column for the fertilizers you don’t want to save.  Liquid fertilzer values saved following dry fertilizers will over-write the dry fertilizer values.