Reviewed August 2026 against USDA AMS Market News, USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries, and farmdoc daily (University of Illinois).

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As of the first week of August 2026, US anhydrous ammonia was averaging $786 per ton at Gulf/NOLA terminals, urea was at $594 per ton, and liquid nitrogen (UAN) was at $431 per ton, all per USDA AMS spot price data cited in farmdoc daily’s fertilizer decision brief. That marks a pullback from the $865 per ton ammonia price recorded in mid-January 2026 and well below the $998.33 per ton spike USDA AMS Market News reported for March 2026. This article tracks those numbers, explains why ammonia keeps moving the way it does, and gives you the exact government sources to check for a fresher price the next time you read this.

Ammonia Fertilizer Price Today: The Numbers

Three US nitrogen fertilizer prices matter most for a 2026 budget: anhydrous ammonia, urea, and UAN (liquid nitrogen solution). Per USDA AMS spot price data compiled in the farmdoc daily fertilizer brief for the 2026 crop year, the first week of August 2026 showed:

• ✔ Anhydrous ammonia: $786/ton (Gulf/NOLA spot, August 2026)
• ✔ Urea: $594/ton (August 2026)
• ✔ UAN (liquid nitrogen): $431/ton (August 2026)

Compare that to two earlier 2026 readings: ammonia was $865/ton in mid-January 2026 (USDA), then spiked to $998.33/ton in March 2026 according to USDA AMS Market News as reported by the Daily Livestock Report. The August figure of $786/ton is roughly $212/ton below that March peak — a meaningful swing inside a single growing season, not background noise.

Where to check the price yourself, right now

USDA Market News (mymarketnews.ams.usda.gov) publishes anhydrous ammonia, urea, and UAN spot prices weekly, updated every Friday. That is the primary source behind every price cited in this article, and it is the one to check for a number newer than August 2026. If you subscribe to notifications there, you get the update the same day it posts rather than waiting on secondary coverage.

Ammonia Fertilizer Market: US Supply, Demand & Trade

The US ammonia market is concentrated, import-dependent for part of the year, and runs at less than full capacity. According to USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, the United States operated 38 ammonia production facilities across 18 companies in 19 states as of 2025, running at an average 80% capacity utilization rate. Three states — Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas — account for 57% of total US ammonia production capacity, so Gulf Coast natural gas prices and any plant outage in that corridor move the national price disproportionately.

US ammonia production came to 14,000 thousand metric tons (14 million tons) in 2025 per USGS, down from 16 million tons in 2024. Apparent US ammonia consumption in 2024 was 17 million tons — meaning the US imports the gap between what it makes and what it uses in most years. On the export side, the US shipped 1 million tons of ammonia worth $329 million in 2024, per USGS and US Census Bureau data via Statista. Of everything produced domestically, 88% goes into fertilizer rather than industrial or other chemical uses.

Read those two years together and the trend is a production decline of roughly 2 million tons between 2024 and 2025, against a consumption figure that was already running a million tons above 2024 production. That gap is filled by imports, which is one reason US ammonia prices track global gas and shipping costs even though most of the ammonia used domestically is made domestically.

Ammonia News: What Actually Moves the Price

Three factors explain most of the 2026 price swing described above:

1. Natural gas cost: Ammonia is synthesized via the Haber-Bosch process, combining natural gas-derived hydrogen with atmospheric nitrogen under high heat and pressure. Gas is the largest input cost, so ammonia prices move with Gulf Coast gas prices more closely than with any single agricultural driver.
2. Capacity utilization: At an 80% utilization rate (USGS, 2025), the US ammonia industry is not running flat-out. Any unplanned outage among the 38 US plants tightens supply quickly because spare capacity is limited.
3. Seasonal demand timing: Fall pre-plant ammonia demand (ahead of the following spring’s corn crop) and spring sidedress demand both concentrate buying into short windows, which is a large part of why the January-to-March 2026 run to $998.33/ton happened during pre-plant season.

For anyone monitoring this as ongoing news rather than a one-time check, the USDA Market News weekly release (Fridays) is the fastest primary source, and it is the same feed farmdoc daily and USDA itself draw from.

Fertilizer News Today: Urea, UAN & the Nitrogen Basket

Urea and UAN move on the same natural gas and plant-utilization drivers as ammonia, but they are not identical trades because they carry different nitrogen concentrations and different transport/storage costs. As of the same August 2026 reading: urea sat at $594/ton and UAN at $431/ton, against ammonia’s $786/ton. Because urea contains roughly 46% nitrogen and ammonia contains roughly 82% nitrogen, a straight per-ton comparison understates ammonia’s nitrogen-cost efficiency — a per-unit-of-nitrogen comparison is what actually determines which product is the better buy for a given farm’s application system.

For global urea benchmarking against rice production economics, see our detailed current global urea price per tonne report, which tracks urea against rice price per kg across producing regions.

Nitrogen Application Rates & Efficiency on US Farms

USDA NASS’s Agricultural Chemical Usage Program put the trend value for US corn nitrogen application at 151.8 pounds per acre in 2024. USDA/farmdoc daily’s 2026 crop year estimate puts total per-acre fertilizer cost for corn — across all nutrients, not nitrogen alone — at $166 per acre. Separately, USDA NASS data shows nitrogen use efficiency, measured per bushel of corn produced, improved by 20% between 2002 and 2024 — meaning US corn growers are extracting more grain per pound of nitrogen applied than they were two decades ago, even as absolute application rates have not fallen sharply.

USDA NASS QuickStats (quickstats.nass.usda.gov) is the tool to pull a fresher application-rate figure than the 2024 trend value above — filter by crop = corn and data_item = fertilizer applied to get per-state, per-year rates as new survey years post.

What determines actual field-level conversion efficiency

• Volatilization losses: surface-applied ammonia or urea can escape to the atmosphere if not incorporated or if soil is dry and warm.
• Leaching: nitrate can move below the root zone in sandy or waterlogged soils.
• Immobilization: soil microbes can temporarily tie up available nitrogen.
• Timing and placement relative to crop growth stage: nitrogen applied close to peak uptake (V6–V8 and tasseling for corn) is captured more completely than nitrogen applied weeks ahead of demand.

None of these mechanisms are new data points — they are the standing agronomic reasons application rate and effective nitrogen delivered to the crop are two different numbers. The 20% efficiency gain USDA NASS measured from 2002–2024 is the outcome of US growers managing precisely these four factors better over time, primarily through split applications, deep placement, and stabilized formulations.

Fertilizer Price & Production Comparison Table

Full citations: farmdoc daily, Fertilizer Decisions for the 2026 Crop Year, USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 — Nitrogen, and USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2024 — Nitrogen.

Calculator: Your Nitrogen Cost Per Acre

Enter your own acreage, application rate, and current per-ton prices (defaulted to the August 2026 USDA AMS figures above) to see actual nitrogen cost per acre and per pound of nitrogen for ammonia, urea, and UAN side by side.

From Production Facilities to Farm Fields: Safety & Management

Ammonia moves from 38 US production facilities (USGS, 2025), concentrated 57% in Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas, through pressurized storage and transport to farms. It is caustic and hazardous, so handling is restricted to trained personnel at every stage — storage tank, transport vessel, and field applicator.

• 🛢️ Storage: pressurized tanks on-site and in transit.
• ⚗️ Handling: trained personnel only; accidental releases are dangerous to people and the environment.
• 🚜 Farm delivery: pressurized tanks for direct field injection, or diverted upstream into urea and other nitrogen product manufacturing.
• 🌾 Row and forage crops: direct anhydrous application is most common for corn, wheat, and grass-based systems.

Connections to Mining & Soil Management

In regions where agriculture sits near mining activity, nitrogen management has to account for soil chemistry disturbed by extraction — trace mineral shifts, altered pH, and contamination risk alongside the ordinary nutrient math above. Ammonia and other nitrogen sources support vegetation reestablishment on reclaimed land, but over-application near disturbed soils raises groundwater risk rather than lowering it.

• ✔ Soil remediation: nitrogen and organic amendments support vegetation reestablishment post-mining.
• 📊 Contaminant monitoring: identifying heavy metals and nutrient imbalances before setting an application plan.
• ⚠ Sustainable practice: over-application risks groundwater pollution on reclaimed or mining-adjacent land specifically.
• ✔ Precision mapping: see our satellite-based mineral detection service, which uses satellite imagery and AI to map soil composition and mineral anomalies without ground disturbance.

Technology & Monitoring Tools

The durable way to keep this article’s numbers current is to monitor the same three government feeds it draws from, rather than re-searching for news coverage each season:

1. USDA Market News (mymarketnews.ams.usda.gov): weekly anhydrous ammonia, urea, and UAN spot prices, updated every Friday. This is the primary source for every price figure in this article.
2. USDA NASS QuickStats (quickstats.nass.usda.gov): fertilizer application survey data, updated quarterly. Filter by crop = corn, data_item = fertilizer applied for per-acre rates by state and year.
3. USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries — Nitrogen (pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs-current-year/mcs-nitrogen.pdf): published every January, covering US production capacity, imports/exports, and consumption for the prior year.

On the farm-management side, satellite crop monitoring platforms (including Farmonaut’s own tools) track crop growth stage, canopy vigor, and soil moisture — the field-level signals that determine whether a given nitrogen application actually lands during peak uptake, independent of whatever the ammonia spot price happens to be that week.

Farmonaut: Satellite-Based Mineral Detection for Modern Exploration

Farmonaut is best known for satellite observation in mining, forestry, wildfire monitoring, and traceability. Our satellite-based mineral detection platform is directly relevant to soil assessment and fertilizer planning in mining-influenced agricultural areas.

• ✔ Non-invasive mapping: assess mineral profiles and subsoil chemistry to guide targeted fertilizer use and remediation.
• 📊 Cost savings: replace slow ground surveys with rapid geospatial intelligence.
• ✔ Actionable data: mineral prospectivity and exploration-target reports for investment and risk decisions.
• ⚠ Reduced fieldwork footprint: fewer unnecessary ground surveys.
• ✔ Global applicability: mapping delivered across 18+ countries to date.

FAQ: Ammonia Fertilizer Price & Market

What is the ammonia fertilizer price today?

Per USDA AMS spot price data, US anhydrous ammonia averaged $786/ton at Gulf/NOLA terminals in the first week of August 2026. Check USDA Market News (mymarketnews.ams.usda.gov) for the current weekly figure, since this price is republished every Friday.

Why did ammonia prices spike in early 2026?

USDA AMS Market News recorded ammonia at $998.33/ton in March 2026, up from $865/ton in mid-January 2026 — a run tied to pre-plant seasonal demand concentrating into a short buying window, against a US ammonia industry running at 80% capacity utilization (USGS, 2025) with limited spare supply.

How much ammonia does the US produce and how much does it import?

USGS reported 14 million tons of US ammonia production in 2025 (down from 16 million tons in 2024), against 17 million tons of apparent US consumption in 2024. The US exported 1 million tons worth $329 million in 2024 (USGS/US Census), and imports fill the remaining domestic supply gap.

What is the fertilizer market news today on urea?

USDA AMS put US urea spot price at $594/ton for the first week of August 2026, alongside UAN at $431/ton. For global urea-to-rice price benchmarking, see the current global urea price per tonne report.

How much nitrogen do US corn growers apply, and how efficient is it?

USDA NASS’s trend value for 2024 was 151.8 lbs of nitrogen per acre for corn. Nitrogen use efficiency per bushel of corn produced improved 20% between 2002 and 2024 (USDA NASS), meaning growers extract more yield per pound of nitrogen than two decades ago even where application rates have stayed roughly level.

Conclusion: How to Keep This Data Current

The figures anchoring this article — $786/ton ammonia, $594/ton urea, and $431/ton UAN as of the first week of August 2026, against a 14-million-ton 2025 US production base spread across 38 plants in 19 states — will be out of date within weeks, because USDA republishes the price series every Friday and USGS republishes production data every January. That is not a flaw in the article; it is the nature of a commodity market. What does not expire is the method: check USDA Market News for price, USDA NASS QuickStats for application rates, and USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries for production and trade, then run your own numbers through the nitrogen cost calculator above with whatever price you find that day.

• ✔ Ammonia, urea, and UAN prices move independently and should be compared per pound of nitrogen, not per ton.
• 📊 57% of US ammonia capacity sits in three states, so regional supply disruption has outsized national price effects.
• ✔ Nitrogen use efficiency has genuinely improved — 20% per bushel of corn since 2002 — independent of price volatility.
• ⚠ A single price snapshot ages fast; the USDA/USGS refresh sources above are the durable part of this page.
• ✔ Mining-adjacent farmland carries its own nitrogen-management constraints — see Farmonaut’s mining solutions for site-level mapping.

Explore precision fertilizer planning and mineral exploration tools at Farmonaut Contact — or take action today:

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