Escalating costs take gloss off crop returns

A trio of factors has this year shaping up to be a costly one for crop growers despite solid prices at harvest.

Escalating input costs are making it more challenging to profit from growing crops despite reasonable grain prices this year.

And it’s not just the typical fertiliser costs that are adding up. Farmers are taking into account the fact that poorly maintained roads are ruining machinery and tyres at a rapid rate.

Plus, the diesel fuel price continues to rise.

NSW Farmers grains committee chairman Justin Everitt is currently harvesting his winter crop at Brocklesby in the state’s south.

“Tyres are costing us money because the roads are horrendous,” he said.

“Every piece of equipment (that goes) on the roads is getting wrecked.”

He cited the current price of diesel at 209c/litre and said costs were adding up at an alarming rate.

“When you go through 1500 litres of diesel a day, and for me, I’m a small operator, it can be hard to justify that cost,” he said.

Looking back, he said the 2022 crop would be remembered as a high-input year. But 2023 was shaping up to be costly, too.

“And it doesn’t look like we are going to get the crop yields to match it,” he said.

Fraser Kessling has founded an online selling platform for grains and cropping inputs called iinputs.com. Picture: Supplied

Meanwhile, a South Australian farmer is adopting some of the concepts used in the livestock industry, such as using online buying and selling platforms, to provide more marketplace options.

Fraser Kessling recently founded an internet platform allowing farmers to seek out fertiliser and compare prices.

The website is called iinputs.com and has been implemented to run at capacity in time for the start of winter cropping preparation early next year.

The aim is to allow suppliers to tender their products online, and farmers can compare prices and factor in parameters such as freight costs.

“Once quoted, the farmer can select whatever quote they want to go with, and we take a commission,” he said.

There are already active online tenders, and Mr Kessling expects interest to intensify as farmers prepare to plant next year’s crop.

In terms of data, it was early days, but he estimated savings of around 10 per cent across the board from using the price-comparison platform.

“It’s early days, and we are getting around 5000 visitors to the site a month,” he said.

“Obviously, we expect that to grow dramatically in the next six months,” he said.