The importance of urea pricing in farming systems performance

Abstract

Nitrogen requirements are strongly driven by yield potential. As many systems have similar yield potential, they too have similar nitrogen requirements. Pulse crops either reduce or eliminate the need for nitrogen application in year of growth, however, soil nitrogen benefits for following crops have been variable in the Northern Farming Systems. Whilst systems with lower nitrogen inputs (Lower Intensity, Higher Legume) have smaller declines in profitability than other systems due to higher nitrogen pricing, the overall system ranking by profitability at average and peak nitrogen pricing typically remains the same,
suggesting that N pricing should not be a key driver of farming systems decisions.