Hold onto your wallets and tighten your belts. Union Pacific Railroad (UP RR) had announced what is apparently a 'selected' force majeure announcement (aka FM announcement) on April 8 which may be allowing UP RR to selectively discriminate against certain industries.
CF Industries (one of ... if not THE ... largest producers of selected fertilizers [ammonium nitrate, urea, etc.) has been 'ordered' by Union Pacific to reduce by 20% the sending of rail cars to UP RR.
CF Industries is a major supplier of ammonium nitrate and urea to growers in TX, IA, IL, NE, KS, and CA.
This terrible news comes at the time when growers need fertilizer the most. This 20% reduction in supply of fertilizer to much of the USA's 'breadbasket' will lead to meaningfully worse crop yields.
(*) It is hard to imagine that UP RR's force majeure could come at a worse time. (We're all aware that, with the Ukraine's agricultural infrastructure being highly impaired by the RUS/UKR war, there were pending food shortages for much of the world.)
(*) Hold onto your hats; if this UP RR FM declaration stays in effect for more than a few weeks, then we're likely to see food inflation and food shortages at a level which many TNetters had never thought possible.