Latest News From Fertilizer

Farmers are still leaning into the services provided by their trusted advisors. A majority of farmers (69%) turn to a crop consultant or agronomist when making the final decision on crop inputs.

Verdesian’s management team, including President and CEO Kenny Avery, will continue to lead the Company following the close of the transaction.

How is your business going to remain relevant in the coming five, 10 or 15 years? That’s the primary question studied in 2020 in a partnership between Aimpoint Research and The Scoop.

By now, you’re familiar with the idea of the 4 Rs of nitrogen. Is it worth the hype? Test plots indicate these factors, combined with specific hybrid characteristics can have huge yield implications.

By sharing his agronomic practices with fellow farmers, Swartz helps them identify practical, cost-effective ways they can enhance conservation stewardship on their respective operations.

However, the Rabobank team expects the pricing strength to tail off in the second quarter of 2021, when northern hemisphere purchases decline.

Brandt’s Pleasant Plains, Ill., manufacturing facility will increase its storage space by more than 30%.

Research done by Solinftec showed that U.S. ag retailers’ machines were idle 30% of the time and traveling 35% of the time. That left only 35% of the time for the machine to be operating—and generating revenue.

Understand your buying opportunities, risks.

From IFCA: This week is sure to be a busy one with ammonia application in central and northern Illinois. Here are a few reminders to keep foremost in your mind in working with ammonia...

The company says the product provides retailers who are in its distribution network a differentiation point and competitive advantage.

The team at Anuvia has pioneered a technology to take waste and upcycle it into fertilizer, and now they are passing the baton to Mosaic, which is commercializing one of its formulations as the newly launched Susterra.

Susterra will be Mosaic’s first bio-based phosphate fertilizer (14-24-0-10S + up to 15% organic matter). Mosaic Company did a survey showing 86% of farmers are actively looking to improve their soil health.

Anuvia is on the cusp of its commercial production--more than 400,000 tons from its plant in Florida.

The Fertilizer Institute released the Fertilizer Industry Economic Impact Study, highlighting the importance and economic contributions of the U.S. fertilizer industry to the national, state and local economies.

The Fertilizer Institute announced the formation of an international governing body for the 4R Nutrient Stewardship Certification Program – the Global Nutrient Stewardship Certification Council.

When launching this program, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said these challenges intend to spark innovations that will keep fertilizers (focusing on nitrogen and phosphorus) where they are needed.  

Regarding its Source product, the company says it sold out its supply for 2020 and engaged in multiple product trials across the country with ag retailers and farmers

The kit is currently available as an aftermarket option, and for a 70’ boom, it includes tubes for all 28 outlets, spaced at 30” off-center. 

These are highly soluble, carbon-based potassium fertilizers designed to drive bio-activation in soil or as a foliar-applied product.

In 2020, Meristem offers seed treatments, plant growth regulators, drift control agents, water conditioners and surfactants, nitrogen stabilizers, micronutrients, foliar nutrients and diesel exhaust fluid.

“We are bringing a technology solution for some of the manual things shippers and carriers do,” says Roger CEO Jeff Schreiner. “We streamline communication and paperwork.”

Aurora Cooperative, which has 40 agronomy locations in central Nebraska, has made two upgrades to two of its fertilizer facilities this spring.

The selective distribution agreement is a model for the future adoption of Heliae's approach– to provide nutrients to growing crops through accelerated microbial growth while improving the health and structure of soils

Amy Asmus with Asmus Farm Supply, Harold Cooper of Premier Ag, and Henry Holloway of The Mill share their experience and takeaways from helping farmers get off to a strong start in 2020.

Galynn Beer, national sales manager at AgroLiquid, says he’s encouraging ag retailers to take on a consultative role with farmers as they’re making crop fertility decisions for this 2020 crop year.

“On the production side, in advance of the pandemic, we were prepared for a busy spring season,” says Steve Coulter, senior vice president of Koch Agronomic Services.

Nutrien Ltd, North America’s biggest farm retail supplier, moved up shipments of crop supplies by two to four weeks

Starting this year, The Andersons will offer a biological nutrient called BioKick that mixes with liquid starters and is applied at planting.

With a goal of improving preparing to service customers in the Midwest (specifically for corn and soybeans) Trace Genomics has purchased soil processing assets and opened a soil testing lab in Ames Iowa. 

“What happens in China will have profound effects in the short term," says Samuel Taylor, vice president of farm input analysis at Robobank.

The company says the technologies are applied as versatile high potassium-content liquid fertilizers, which are branded in the U.S. as Nachurs Bio-K and in Canada as Alpine K-Tech.

With 45,000 tissue samples analyzed in 2019, WinField United is working use the 600,000 data points generated in the program.

Both are crop fertility products, and both fit into existing practices—no changes to farmer behavior or extra applications.

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.

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.

The addition of Pathway will expand Plant Response’s multi-site operations to Plant City, Florida, Koch Biological Solutions R&D site in Hayward, California, and the R&D and commercial operations in Madrid, Spain.

“We are pleased to be able to bring technology, such as EnzUp to hard working growers such as David Hula who is always working to push yields,” says Brian Haschemeyer, Director of Discovery and Innovation at Brandt.

Based on pageviews, here are the most viewed stories about fertilizer that were posted to AgPro’s website.

Right after Wilbur-Ellis announced its biggest acquisition to-date – acquiring Nachurs Alpine Solutions CEO John Buckley gave AgPro a one-on-one interview.

"By adding the right humic product from a proven ore source to our fertilizer applications, we can put life back into the soil,” Mike Powell, Manager of BioScience Brands at Helena said in the product announcement.

Corey Rosenbusch succeeds Chris Jahn, who left TFI in October to lead the American Chemistry Council.

Moly Shine (1-5-0; 1.5% Fe, 3% Mn, 3% Mo, 10.5% Zn) is a seed finisher containing micronutrients formulated for soybeans and pulse crops.

The world’s largest fertilizer producer plans to temporarily close its biggest potash mine as the impact of a Canadian rail strike continues to spread.

Wilbur-Ellis announced it will acquire Nachurs Alpline Solutions, a specialty liquid fertilizer company with a 72-year history.

“We’ve had guys run 24-hour shifts already applying anhydrous. So far, we’ve applied 25,000 acres, and we’ve got 60,000 acres of custom anhydrous yet to do,” 

If e-commerce adoption continues to increase, and if it matches the intentions of this survey’s respondents, 1 in 7 farmers will buy some of their crop inputs online. Are you ready?

Trace Genomics is pioneering a soil test technology to accurately assess agronomic potential and risks before the growing season begins. It combines genomics, microbiology, and machine learning. 

Anvuia is retrofitting the idled Mosaic phosphate facility in Plant City, Fla., to become its first full-scale production plant with 1.2 million tons capacity.

John Guglielmi, national sales director at Brandt Consolidated, explains how the company maintains its focus on nutrient efficiency provided by its products to a range of industries.