Micronutrients 2015: Making Hay In A Down Market

Going into 2015, downward trending commodity prices were identified as a possible threat to sales revenues of micronutrient fertilizer products, and, in a general sense, that theory has been confirmed as the growing season winds down (or does it wind up?) toward fall harvest, says Murray Van Zeggelaar, vice president of marketing, Nachurs Alpine Solutions.

“We have witnessed some pullback (in the market) in a general way,” Van Zeggelaar confirms from his Marion, OH, office at the company’s corporate headquarters. “When crop prices are down growers begin to look very carefully at all of their expenses, and one of the first things to go during cost cutting tends to be things like micronutrients, which is unfortunate because the benefit that you get from them in good times remains the same as during the not-so-good times.”

Still, Nachurs and others didn’t react by slowing down their marketing and development of micronutrient products, suggesting a confidence exists among those in the segment that sales volumes will return to their previously high levels at some point in the near future.

Just this year, Yara North America launched its new oil-based YaraVita Procote line in zinc, copper, manganese, boron and their combinations, Nutra-Flo debuted a new brand of potassium products, NutraK, and H.J. Baker, manufacturers of the well-known Tiger-Sul line of micronutrients, detailed intentions to increase production capacity at all three of its Tiger-Sul manufacturing facilities.

So to call the micronutrient game a faltering industry, as some have done, would not technically be correct just yet.

Deficiencies Remain

Another major player in the symbiotic relationship of plant and environment that doesn’t really pay attention to market trends is the soil itself, along with the annual nutrient requirements of each growing crop. Corn, for instance, requires a steady supply of nitrogen and phosphorus, plus potassium, zinc, iron, manganese, copper, boron and other trace elements in small quantities (aka micronutrients). These needs remain always, no matter if corn is trading at $8 or under $3.

However, even with growers applying fewer micronutrients to their fields in 2015, Van Zeggelaar doesn’t foresee a barren soil nutrient bank becoming a troubling trend anytime soon.

“While there certainly are soil conditions and types which do have micronutrient deficiency, generally speaking it’s more a matter of getting the nutrient into the plant when it’s needed, and the soil can’t always make that happen at the right time or in the right quantity because of nutrient tie ups and so forth,” explains Van Zeggelaar. “But the nutrients are still there, and because they are used in such minute quantities — for instance a corn crop only requires somewhere around three to four pounds of zinc per year — so there’s lots of zinc around in the soil it just can’t always be accessed by the crop.”

Three deficiencies that did pop up in 2015 throughout the Nachurs sales territory (Central Ohio region), according to Van Zeggelaar, are zinc in corn (appeared throughout the Corn Belt), manganese in soybeans and iron chlorosis in beans grown in high pH soils (Minnesota, North Dakota, etc.).

“And these were not so much soil deficiencies, but rather where we saw good yield response, and we’re seeing a very good response to an in-furrow zinc application,” says Van Zeggelaar. “Typically deficiencies result in a visual symptom that you can see, whereas I define a crop response as not so much just solving the visual symptom, but an actual yield response. At the end of the day the grower is looking for extra yield in the bin.”

In early April, Nachurs announced a U.S. marketing agreement with Yara North America for the manufacturer’s new Procote line. Van Zeggelaar says the product line is intended for “folks that don’t put an in-furrow starter down and broadcast their dry fertilizer.”

“These products are designed to be blended with dry fertilizer and applied as coating,” he says. “Certainly we are seeing a trend toward more and more in-furrow application — the most efficient place to put your micronutrients is in furrow — however in the absence of having that system available to you, the Procote micros are a good alternative.”

Another micronutrient manufacturer that formulates its products for dry blends, H.J. Baker & Bro., parent company for Tiger-Sul Products, mixes all of its micronutrient products in with sulfur, which agronomist Wesley Haun says is the company’s flagship product.

“When we mix and process our sulfur products we can add micronutrients into the mix,” explains Haun. “So that way when the end user buys the product and applies it he is getting micros in each of the granules that are being spread. It’s all consistent size and distribution is more consistent compared to a lot of other micro products that don’t blend as well and don’t spread as well.”

Haun adds that there are also some “synergistic effects” that come with blending micronutrients into sulfur.

The Midwest’s record amount of moisture in many regions this season was another factor that influenced micronutrient adoption in 2015, according to Haun.

“One Illinois customer that I spoke with last week said they’d already received 30 inches of rain this year, and a typically year for them is around 35 inches,” he says. “That dramatically influenced the season this spring, particularly when we talk about nutrient deficiencies.”

Haun, like Nachur’s Van Zeggelaar, also received reports of zinc deficiencies in corn this year.

“We have a product called Tiger Zinc 18% — that contains 18% zinc and 65% sulphur,” he says.

Reports of manganese and boron deficiencies, which Haun says tend to show up more in dry conditions, weren’t as prevalent this year with the rainy spring and early summer, but he did receive some early reports of boron deficiency in alfalfa fields.

One way in which H.J. Baker ensures micronutrient availability throughout the growing season is via its oxide formulation.

“We find that micronutrient quality is largely dependent on water solubility, and while oxides are not water soluble we depend upon a chemical reaction when our micros are soil applied to make them available to the plants,” says Haun. “So in that conversion process sulfuric acid is produced. That sulfuric acid than converts the oxides to sulphate form, which is plant available. And this process is gradual — depending on weather and other factors — so those micros are made available throughout the season.”

Haun says that although he cannot discuss any upcoming new products or micro blends in detail at this time, the Westport, CT-headquartered company has had a busy 2015.

“We’ve got plenty of new products under evaluation currently and we’ve been adding people and enhancing the quality of our product at the same time,” he says. “Last year we moved to our new plant in Canada and we’ve doubled the production at one of our facilities and plan to increase another by one-third this year. I’d say things are still going pretty well for us, even with the down commodity prices.”

Meanwhile, worldwide phosphate and potash giant Mosaic’s MicroEssentials SZ has recently been singled out by researchers as a better zinc and sulfur option than some of its competitors, claims the company.

MicroEssentials contains the company’s patented Fusion technology along with nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur and zinc in dry granule formulation.

Aspire is Mosaic’s newest micronutrient product and was released to a select group of retailers in 2013 for hands-on evaluation before its 2014 full commercial launch.

Kevin Kimm, senior director of marketing, Mosaic, says there has been nothing but positive comments on the quality of the product thus far.

“These products (MicroEssentials and Aspire) are considered foundational crop nutrition products in that they’re N, P and K-based, but they also allow for a more balanced crop nutrition plan,” he says.

“Each time we raise the level of yield on an acre, we’re asking for our soils to be able to do more and more,” adds Dr. Kyle Freeman, manager of new product development. “And now I think we’ve seen a point with the new genetics where we are, in some cases, asking more from the soil than it’s able to deliver, so we need to continue to supplement our soil with proper nutrition.”