LIQUID nitrogen fertiliser supplies are to remain tight as CSBP works around the clock to keep up with demand.
As growers go hard chasing high yields this season fertiliser companies are struggling to keep up with demand, with some growers waiting for up to two weeks for products to be delivered.
CSBP Fertiliser sales and marketing manager Ben Sudlow said it was manufacturing its urea ammonium nitrate product Flexi-N 24 hours a day at its locations in Geraldton, Esperance and Kwinana.
He said the demand equated to every farmer in WA applying an additional 30 per cent of nitrogen on their crops to take advantage of favourable seasonal conditions.
"Farmers are applying the same amount of nitrogen in one month than they would over a three month period," he said.
Mr Sudlow said due to conditions there had been an earlier and far greater demand for nitrogen top-up fertilisers this season, with about two thirds more nitrogen used in May and June 2016, compared with the average of the past five years.
Farm Weekly spoke to a number of farmers and distributors who said they had experienced delays of up to two weeks.
However, they were pragmatic about the delays and many had either applied additional nitrogen at seeding or had allowed for additional Flexi-N storage on farm.
Nungarin grower Ron Creagh said he and son Kim had experienced some delays in accessing Flexi-N during the season but it hadn't affected their operations too heavily, as they could store Flexi-N in four 43,000 litre tanks.
The father and son team have cropped 10,000 hectares of wheat, barley and canola, with extra area used for sheep feed this year.
"We did hear stories of people having to wait, but we haven't been let down," Mr Creagh said.
"The longest we had to wait for Flexi-N from the Merredin depot was a week and CSBP did a good job of keeping up."
Mr Creagh said his season was "one of the best I have ever seen", however he remained very wary of frosts.
"It looks like it is shaping up to be a frost prone year this year, but that hasn't stopped us from gearing towards a good year."
