{"id":225596,"date":"2026-03-18T18:10:51","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T18:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/225596\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T18:10:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T18:10:51","slug":"kern-county-farmers-brace-for-fertilizer-shortages-higher-prices-amid-iran-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/225596\/","title":{"rendered":"Kern County farmers brace for fertilizer shortages, higher prices amid Iran conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 Kern County farmers are bracing for a potential fertilizer shortage and rising prices that could ripple through local agriculture and related businesses, as the conflict involving Iran disrupts global supply lines.<\/p>\n

Pat Klingler, a sales manager for fertilizer supplier Wilbur-Ellis Agribusiness, told CBS News that Central Valley farmers have been calling him with concerns about possible shortages tied to the conflict in the Middle East. \u201cThis whole Iran conflict has changed the whole fertilizer dynamics,\u201d Klingler said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A Kern County orchard is seen in a KBAK\/KBFX file photo.<\/p>\n

Wilbur-Ellis Agribusiness has an office in Bakersfield. The company referred questions to its corporate office.<\/p>\n

Farmers may soon face sharply higher fertilizer costs. The price of urea has risen 30% in the past month, according to the American Farm Bureau. With the Strait of Hormuz shut down, shipments have been left stuck in the Persian Gulf, tightening supply and fueling market uncertainty.<\/p>\n

\"KBAK\/KBFX{p}{\/p}\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you hit a point where it\u2019s not showing up, it puts a scare into the whole market,\u201d Klingler said.<\/p>\n

Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n

BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT<\/p>\n

The American Farm Bureau has sent a letter to President Trump recommending that he use the U.S. Navy to provide transit for fertilizer shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 Kern County farmers are bracing for a potential fertilizer shortage and rising prices that could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-225596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}