Potash at 10-Year Lows Couldn't Move Frozen Eastern Growers

Maryland growers sat on potash priced at 10-year regional lows last winter and still refused to commit — the clearest symptom of what Ben Hushon, Certified Crop Advisor at The Mill, calls a spring of "paralysis" across the Mid-Atlantic agronomy business.

Speaking with CropLife Editor Eric Sfiligoj on CropLife Retail Week, Hushon said 2026 ranked among "the wilder years" in The Mill's 24 years in fertilizer and ag retail. The feed side of the business has run closer to 70 years.

Growers entered 2026 off a strong 2025: good harvests, good yields, and a regional basis edge. The Eastern Shore's cattle, poultry and swine demand keeps basis positive — Chicago is currently 40 cents over basis, Hushon noted. Still, farmers held nearly every purchase decision until planting.

What did the paralysis cost?

Plenty. Winter potash spreading, routine in the region, simply didn't happen — even at the lowest potash prices in a decade. On the retailer side, The Mill's purchasing calls cut both ways:

• Sulfur: the retailer got it wrong, with ammonium sulfate at the highest prices Hushon has ever seen; volumes were greatly reduced.
• Phosphorus: approaching $1,000 a ton, pushing farmers to haul poultry manure down from Pennsylvania or find other options.

Harvest bailed the year out. Roughly 50% through harvest in that part of the Mid-Atlantic, corn and soybean yields are among the best farmers have ever seen, dry pockets excepted.

Making growers' own data pay

The Mill got serious in technology about nine years ago, starting with the Adapt nitrogen model. In 2021 it launched Decision Ag Solutions, moving Hushon's son from agronomy into the role full-time after Hushon kept staring at "three-ring binders of yield maps" and asking, "What in the world are we doing with it?"

The unit compiles a farmer's own three or four years of data — not university trials or "some trial in South Dakota" — into decisions by field, ideally subfield. Entry needs no GPS: no yield monitor, no problem, nitrogen modeling still works. From there, the path runs to calibrated yield monitors, then variable-rate fertilizer and variable-rate seeding.

Small fields aren't a barrier. In a typical 10- to 12-acre Mid-Atlantic field, rolling hills mean a minimum of three soil types. Many farmers already own the capability: John Deere and Case IH planters that can change rates on the fly, combines with yield monitors never connected to GPS.

"We know you're smart enough. Let us help you through this process," Hushon said — comparing it to a friend coaching you through your first smartphone.

What's the 2027 play on AI and fertilizer?

One 2027 focus is connecting platforms that don't speak to each other — say, a Kinze planter hooked to a John Deere tractor and a Case IH combine. The Mill is using AI to speed those connections, so when the inevitable spring call comes — "I'm planting in a couple of days, remember that variable-rate seeding talk from February?" — staff can pivot fast without turning newcomers away.

On fertilizer, Hushon is blunt: "You can't sell what you don't have." Much Eastern fertilizer is imported, and The Mill is taking possession now and filling bins rather than gambling that prices hold for 60 days.

On financing, he sees retailers — The Mill and most nearby competitors — offering in-house terms at prime-like rates, sometimes below prime, versus the old 14% hard-money option.

His 2027 outlook is optimistic. A July dry spell spooked some growers out of fungicide flights; then gray leaf spot arrived, tar spot came late, and an August grain price bump left growers wishing they'd covered more acres. His takeaway: "$3.80 corn could happen, but it pretty rarely does" — and attentive marketers will find windows to lock solid prices during the year.