About 70% of farmers say in a survey conducted by the American Farm Bureau Federation that they cannot afford all the fertilizer they need this growing season.

Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins has said 75-80% of farmers pre-booked their spring fertilizer needs, but AFBF’s survey of more than 5,700 producers found lower percentages, depending on the region.

In the Midwest, for example, two out of three respondents (67%) said they got what they needed ahead of time, but in the South, only 19% had.

Thirty percent of producers in the Northeast, and 31% in the West, said they had prepurchased.

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The situation that now faces producers “puts a lot of focus on whether or not they're going to reduce the amount of planted acres or they're going to reduce the amount of fertilizers that they apply,” AFBF President Zippy Duvall said on a call with reporters Tuesday.

Tommy Salisbury, who grows soybeans, milo and wheat and raises cattle in Oklahoma, said on the call that he plans to reduce his milo acreage this season. 

“We're very grateful for the bridge program that came out and tried to assist us from the losses of last year, but those fertilizer and inputs have totally ate that up, and then then some,” he said.

The administration made $11 billion available for row crop producers, but Congress is contemplating a supplemental aid package that could top that figure.