Summit Nutrients Aims to Add Maximum Efficiency to Every Blend
On the heels of acquiring R&D-driven AGVNT, LLC., Summit Nutrients announces its portfolio of six categories of technology aiming to elevate fertilizer to new levels of nutrient use efficiency, sustainability, and yes, much lower use rates.
In the last five years, Summit Nutrients and its parent company, Wedgworth’s, Inc., have worked closely with AGVNT to develop more than 100 different bio-nutritional granular and liquid custom-blended products, which have been commercially applied on more than five million U.S. crop acres to date.
“Commercially, we’ve been aligning ourselves with technology-focused channel partners, and we’re ready to expand our reach to companies who are equally committed to making a difference in the marketplace,” says Jeremy Fountain, director of business development for Summit Nutrients.
The differentiator Summit Nutrients is promoting is precision plant nutrition delivered via ultralow use rates and backed with maximum efficiency, efficacy and ROI benefits.
“The industry finds itself in difficult times right now with high and volatile fertilizer prices. We have a solution to this challenge which is proving to be a game-changer,” Fountain says. “To our knowledge, no company in the plant nutrition sector has the caliber of proprietary technology under one roof like we have today - which is allowing us to become a one-stop shop for next-generation solutions.”
Touting one of his company’s unique offerings, he shares the example of farmer customers reducing phosphorus rates in their starter fertilizer applications from 70 lb of phosphorus per acre down to only quarts per acre when Summit Nutrients’ technology is included into a nutrient management program. .
“We aren’t displacing what a grower already does, but we are taking what they use and making it better. our proprietary technology and advanced formulation systems transform conventional fertilizer products by removing nutrient uptake obstacles and improving soil health in order to help plants reach their full genetic potential.”
With the phosphorus product example, the technology targets stabilizing the phosphorus so it’s protected with a neutral charge for 45 days reducing the risk of it becoming tied up in the soil right away.
Summit Nutrients’ technology lineup is being used across fertilizer products for all application types, timing and soil conditions. They can be seamlessly used in liquid or granular formulations, and also through advanced fertilizer manufacturing processes like as sparging.
The six key assets under Summit Nutrients’ technology platform include:
• Nanobubble technology
• Advanced chelation technology
• Biostimulant technology
• Active carbon complex technology
• Nutrient delivery system technology
• Nutrient compatibility technology
“Our process allows the technology to work seamlessly across all customized blends. The sparging process we use distributes the particle greater than anything else available because it is applied as if it’s clinging like a magnet to the granule—each prill has nutrition on it.”
Blended products are showing strong shelf stability. Fountain reports products made 6 months prior still perform in field trials and granule testing of sparged product 100 days later spread with equal performance. Liquid blends show great control of crystallization and maintain their integrity.
With an ambitious growth strategy that includes building the industry’s most robust platform of nutrient efficiency technologies, Summit Nutrient’s parent company, has invested $60 million in capital improvements of its manufacturing and formulation facilities, building its employment roster, and establishing a foundational platform for in-house R&D – all to propel the business forward - faster.
Fountain highlights how Summit Nutrients is highly committed to developing s its own technology, designing and expanding its manufacturing and formulation systems, and is re-inventing ways to deliver greater value to growers and its channel partner.
“Within our plan, we want to become the innovators, not the person buying the innovation,” Fountain says. “ It’s about preparing for the future always. The need to diversify, differentiate and increase production is now.”
In the next 24 months, Fountain and his team are working to expand their technology’s footprint across 15 million acres.
“We’re set to grow and ready to help change the paradigm in making advanced technology in plant nutrition a standard tool for commercial agriculture.
