AgPro Readers Name Crop Fertility Products 2019's Best New Offerings

With online voting, the AgPro audience made its choices for the top new products introduced in 2019. The winner and the runner-up have two things in common. Both are crop fertility products, and both fit into existing practices—no changes to farmer behavior or additional application passes in the field. 

It’s described as “an easy button.” Launched in January of 2019, Compass Minerals brought to market Rocket Seeds, a seed treatment product for crop nutrition. 

“It seemed like an obvious fit on the farm and why not put something that adds agronomic value to the seed,” says Dr. Ryan Bartlett, vice president, innovation and product development at Compass Minerals. “The farmer can apply the product just as they have with traditional seed lubricants or graphite—it’s a simple change out that gives crops that early boost they need.” 

In all, there are five products in the Rocket Seeds lineup:

• PMZ Dry: 1-10-0; 8% Zn, 2% Mn
       For corn, wheat and other row crops
• PMZ Liquid: 2-16-0; 3% Mn, 11% Zn
       For corn, wheat and other row crops
• Moly Dry: 1-5-0; 1.5% Fe, 3% Mn, 3% Mo, 10.5% Zn
       For soybeans and pulse crops
• Moly Liquid: 0-0-2; 9% Mo, .45% Co, .9% Ni (Not labeled for Nickel in all states)
       For soybeans and pulse crops
• Moly Shine: 1-5-0; 1.5% Fe, 3% Mn, 3% Mo, 10.5% Zn
       For soybeans and pulse crops

Bartlett explains the company has a good yield story with three years of data showing a 4.2% yield increase and a 75% win rate. 

The high return on investment is what helped the team at Cooperative Producers Inc. (CPI), find success with the product in 2019 in their territory across central Nebraska. 

“You can show growers the research and then it’s only 60 cents more than traditional graphite applied in the seed box,” says Nick Autry, agronomy sales lead with CPI. “And we saw a 3 to 4 bushel increase in corn.” 

Autry says 100% of the treated soybeans will include the Moly Shine product in 2020. 
“This product has shown us it can help get plants out of the ground uniformly and on time,” he says. “We’re happy with the benefits it gives in providing the plants with nutrients at a critical time with a different delivery method.” 

Compass Minerals offers Rocket Seeds branded products for ag retail as well as partnership opportunities to develop specialty formulations aimed at specific geographies to meet unique grower needs. 

“There’s a renewed interest in innovating in the crop nutrition space,” Bartlett says. “It’s exciting to be on the forefront of changing how growers think about plant nutrition.” 

New Application of Technology. CHS Agronomy applied 17 years of in-field experience with Levesol chelating technology it to broadcast fertilizer with the introduction of Trivar fertilizer.

Trivar was named runner-up in the New Product Award. Trivar has three modes of action to make crop nutrients more available to the plant and is designed to be impregnated on dry fertilizer for fall or spring applications. Its benefits include: 

• Protecting the key micronutrients in the soil from binding with phosphorus.
• Using a nutrient-focused enzyme to convert organic phosphorus to plant available inorganic phosphorus. 
• Adding zinc and boron to every one of the product’s granules

"To test the efficacy of the chelating technology, CHS Agronomy has conducted countless trials in over 25 states, Europe and South America. Those trials have shown that products powered by the Levesol ortho-ortho EDDHA chelate unlock these micronutrients from active molecules like phosphorus, increasing yields and ensuring growers aren’t throwing away valuable dollars,” said Steve Carlsen, Levesol and Crop Enhancement Portfolio Manager for CHS Agronomy.

Related Articles: 

Rocket Seeds Wins AgPro Readers’ Choice New Product Award

Trivar Fertilizer Additive Is Runner-Up For Top New Product