Supply chain shortfalls hit, miss in ag industry

Supply chain issues have plagued a variety of industries in more than one way and level of disruption. Unfortunately the agriculture industry is no exception, though it seems to be lesser -- for some. 
“I would say there was the potential to have issues,” said Andrew Willis, owner of Diamond J Custom Services in Aurora. “We started getting warnings about products that may be a concern early last fall.”
This came in as a problem for certain products Diamond J is used to using, like RoundUp. 
“They said RoundUp was going to be tight and the price was going to be a lot higher,” Willis continued. “It’s actually four times higher than it has been in the past. So we started looking at, as we’re making plans with our customers, how we could work around that.”
Finding a way to not have to use that product, or others that might be experiencing the same issues, was the plan.
“And then there were a couple of other (products), and we just kind of found ways to get around it, or use substitute products,” he said.
A lot of other products or items that could have been a problem, Diamond J has been lucky enough to get in time.
“We’ve never had to not spray a field because I couldn’t get a hold of a chemical or a fertilizer product that I needed,” he added.

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