Good-Bye 2014!

By the time this column hits inboxes, 2014 will be only hours away from coming to a close. But before turning the calendar to 2015, it’s probably a good idea to look back at the year that was.

For agricultural, 2014 was filled with ups and downs. At the beginning of the year, the industry was riding high coming off a fifth straight year of near record commodity prices, growing input sales and healthy crop demand, both domestically and overseas. The year promised more of the same at the start.

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There were signs of something of a slowdown, however. Harvests during the fall of 2013 were better than in previous years and commodity price futures began to fall. Coupled with higher than expected planting intentions by the nation’s corn growers, this situation became the new normal well into the summer months.

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Ag retailers began feeling the pinch in early fall, particularly in fertilizer application work for macronutrients such as potassium and phosphates. This reduced fertilizer sales significantly for the nation’s top ag retailers and convinced many fertilizer suppliers to reduce their workforces accordingly.

But even with less fertilizer being applied, environmentalists and some lawmakers fingered agriculture for causing one of the nation’s worst algae outbreaks in Lake Erie during the summer, capped off when the city of Toledo, OH, issued a warning against using water to its residents that lasted for several days.

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Despite all these challenges, the ag retail marketplace still enjoyed a successful year. According to the CropLife 100 survey, the nation’s top ag retailers still managed to record sales revenue just short of $30 billion in 2014. While much of this growth came via acquisitions, a sales increase in such a challenging year was still something to be celebrated.

So as 2015 dawns, agriculture can look back at 2014 and smile. It was another good year!

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