USDA Announces Availability of New Fertilizer Transportation Data

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) today announced the launch of a new enhancement to the Fertilizer Transportation Dashboard on its Agricultural Transportation Open Data Platform (AgTransport). The enhancement adds anhydrous ammonia pipeline rates (measured in dollars per ton) to complement existing fertilizer data. Anhydrous ammonia is used as a fertilizer but is also the precursor to all nitrogen-based fertilizers, with most ammonia moved by pipeline in the United States.

The new pipeline dataset includes five origins (three in Louisiana, one in Arkansas and Iowa) and 25 destinations (mostly in the Corn Belt). In addition, new charts will show pipeline rates from Donaldsonville, La. (the largest nitrogen-producing plant in the world); Taft, La. (a deepwater import facility); and Garner, Iowa (a facility that receives ammonia by rail, from Canada).

The Fertilizer Transportation Dashboard

The Fertilizer Transportation Dashboard offers a variety of important, regularly updated fertilizer transportation indicators. These indicators include fertilizer production, inventory, and disappearance data for each primary nutrient (i.e., nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium); U.S. fertilizer imports (both by primary nutrient and by individual fertilizer commodity); and fertilizer price data by region for key fertilizer commodities (i.e., ammonia, urea, UAN, DAP, MAP, and potash). The dashboard also includes rail volume and shipment characteristics from the Surface Transportation Board's public-use carload waybill sample; weekly rail carloads of fertilizer; a collection of rail tariff rates (i.e., fertilizer freight costs) for key routes by fertilizer commodity; and monthly barge volumes for key locks on the Mississippi River System.

These enhancements to the AgTransport Platform support USDA's strategic priority to protect and expand American agriculture by strengthening the resilience of our nation's food and agricultural systems. For more information visit, AgTransport.

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