Rising fertilizer prices, disrupted by the conflict in Ukraine, are forcing North American farmers to change crops. Specifically, costs have pushed some dairy farmers to rely more heavily on soybeans.

Jeff Winton, a dairy farmer in upstate New York who grows much of the feed for his own cattle, stopped planting corn in 2022 when fertiliser prices spiked. “We just couldn’t afford the input costs,” he recalled. The surge began after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted exports of nitrogen, urea and other key fertiliser nutrients, with Russia, alongside its ally Belarus, among the world’s leading suppliers. As the war in Ukraine entered its fourth year, a separate conflict involving the US,...