Crop Nutrition: Adding a Little Something to Enhance the Yield
April 1, 2021 When it comes to making decisions, growers must always live with a bit of uncertainty. The introduction of COVID-19 at the start of the U.S. growing season injected a new level of uncertainty, which makes growers reluctant to invest in products that suddenly seem superfluous.
Additives and enhancers are one area that, despite their ability to increase yield, can take a hit when conservative growers question the success of the season’s crop.
Armed with the knowledge and confidence achieved through extensive research, AgroLiquid Agronomists make scientifically based recommendations to sustainably optimize yield potential. Photo Courtesy: AgroLiquid
“Despite the growing interest in additives, the lackluster grain prices that existed the last couple of years have caused growers to question the cost/benefit of all inputs, including nutrient protection,” says Galynn Beer, AgroLiquid’s Product Management Lead.
Like other crop inputs, additives and enhancers continue to evolve.
“There are two areas of new products in the segment,” says Jason Haegele, Agronomy Manager for WinField United. “The first is nitrogen stabilizers that represent either new active ingredients or improvements on established actives such as new plant breeding techniques (NPBT). The second area of strong activity and interest in the last couple years is various dry sources of micronutrients that can be blended with dry nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium applications.”
The rationale driving the interest “stems from the current focus on climate change and environmental sustainability,” says Antony Hand, Chief Commercial Officer, NutriAg. “Greater understanding of soil health and nutrient usage have replaced the reliance on macronutrient levels from soil tests, often taken years apart.
“Additionally, growers have called for targeted nutrient applications as opposed to spray and pray approaches to nutrition,” Hand continues. “To that end, the needs of a crop can be identified by tissue testing coupled with next generation NutriAnalytics technology to prescribe the optimum combination of nutrients. Applying those nutrients as advanced non-synthetic chelates ensures maximum uptake and results in the desired effect on the crop.
And while there is still a significant need for education, many growers and retailers have a better understanding of the importance of these solutions.
“Focus has increased on the importance of micronutrients and their role in healthy plant development, management of abiotic and biotic stress, and reproductive growth,” says. Steve Carlsen, Director of Proprietary Products, CHS Agronomy. “Growers and retailers are continuing to better dissect and understand the importance of micros in reaching their crop production goals.”
That doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges and there are plenty of factors that limit their use.
“From about 2014-20, this segment declined in numbers,” Beer says. “In the face of low commodity prices, the number of growers willing to pay the tuition for learning the value of these products diminishes. This segment doesn’t completely disappear, but it shrinks significantly.”
Expectations are that the declining trend will turn around this year.
“I’m always impressed with the diversity of options available to address crop needs,” says Mike Zwingman, Senior Technical Services Manager, Verdesian Life Science. “While products in this segment often get labeled as “nice to have,” we’re seeing farmer adoption increase, and the menu continues to get longer. We’re hyper-focused on providing scientific rigor for all of our entries in this category and also developing new tools with new partners that share our commitment to improving grower efficiency.”
Despite a half decade of decline, Beer is also hopeful heading into the latest growing season.
“The expansion of this segment will occur for two reasons: 1) Growers will seek ways to make crop nutrition more effective to leverage for higher yields with improved prices and 2) Growers have faced a major spike in the cost of crop nutrition, so there will be a growing segment willing to use additives to see if they can effectively maintain yield with reduced nutrient applications,” he says.
A birdseye view of the AZOMITE mine at work. Photo Courtesy: AZOMITE
Jim Phillips, President of AZOMITE Mineral Products, believes the sustainable angle will help drive the segment forward.
“Farmers have always been the ultimate caretakers of the soil but the tools available to address their challenges is growing at an unprecedented rate,” he says. “The industry’s focus on the sustainability of its production systems and inputs and harnessing the power of nature is exciting. Our products are used within an expanding range of applications, including compost blends, that work directly to support soil’s ecosystems.”
It’s not just growers and retailers starting to pay attention to the category.
“This category of products in the biostimulant arena is being recognized by the growers and major ag retailers to the points that large ag chemical companies are purchasing smaller innovative ag chemical companies, says Huma Gro’s Senior Director of Research and Field Studies, Dr. Mojtaba Zaifnejad.
Of course, as more players enter the market, there are more options.
“It’s much more dynamic,” says Michael Pisciotta, Regional Product Manager, Timac Agro USA. “Five years ago, there were several products that were well recognized and well-defined within their use case such as reducing phosphorus tie-up, increasing nutrient solubility, or increasing microbial activity. Now there are a flood of products that offer multiple technology concepts within the same product.”
Return-On-Investment (ROI)
“This is make or a break factor for the longevity of these products in the market,” Huma Gro’s Zaifnejad says. “Under field conditions in small plot study yield increase might be 20% to 30%. The real-life broadacre production might give a 5% to 10% yield increase. Sometimes this small yield increase (1% to 5%) gives no ROI even generally, like any other ag product, the ones that have a good ROI (~3 to 1) over time will survive the scrutiny of the market and of the wise group, also known as farmers.”
CHS Agronomy’s “Levesol Zn with its increased availability as well as nutrient efficiency effect has a proven track record of strong ROI for growers looking to get more out of their zinc investment,” Carlsen says. “Four seasons of university and third-party replicated data has shown the substitution of Levesol Zn in an in-furrow zinc application pushes yield benefits further, with a plus-8.2 bushel increase over the industry standard 9% Zn. Field scale grower trials in 16 states over two seasons demonstrate similar results boasting an impressive 11.4 bushel increase over standard fertility practices.”
That ROI can sometimes be a challenge to calculate accurately.
“ROI is still the ultimate measure, but I believe we have a newfound patience for the time frame within which ROI is measured,” Phillips says. “This affords us a welcome opportunity to analyze the true return over multiple time frames.”
Ensuring Growth
CHS Agronomy’s Carlsen suggests retailers can support the segment by learning how to read a soil test to be able to understand deficiency vs availability issues. In addition, they need to “understand the close relationship of phosphorus and zinc. These nutrients have an antagonistic relationship, meaning they form bonds and tie each other up. When you take into account that almost all soils have zinc deficiency, adding more phosphorous to the soil via fertilizer will induce a greater zinc deficiency in the crop.”
Retailers can help the sales process along by explaining the importance of additives and enhancements.
“Any retailer selling to a grower should recommend responsibly and set realistic expectations,” Beer says. “There are so many variables involved in production agriculture that 100% success rates just aren’t realistic.”
The Role of the Retailer is Key
“The retailers are not only our primary distribution channel but serve a critical role in the feedback loop to help new products develop and existing products to be improved,” Phillips says. “Communication up and down the supply is key.”
“Retailers exist not just to supply products to the farmer but to help educate, advise and improve growing practices,” NutriAg’s Hand says. “They have a much wider view of the marketplace and what can be done to drive grower profitability, sustainability, and environmental stewardship. Therefore, it is key that they are open to, and assess, new technologies, concepts, and innovations by working with innovative suppliers with established track records of success to drive adoption.”
“All technologies are not created equal,” Timac Agro’s Pisciotta says. “It’s easy to say “well, your label says that you can put it on dry fertilizer, so it has to be the same as “X” product that I have in my warehouse that I also use on dry fertilizer.”
“This is such an exciting time for agriculture,” AZOMITE’s Phillips says. “We have some real challenges but with every challenge comes opportunity. The science and understanding of how products work across the board continues to evolve and really allows us to approach the issues which may range from drought tolerance to pest control — with a laser focus and supporting science.”
“The same issues as facing the rest of farming today; how to grow sustainably, while increasing yields and efficiencies through the application of the right technologies, in the right place at the right time,” says NutriAg’s Hand. “Unfortunately, climate change is making this more and more challenging; wet springs, droughts, early frosts, hurricane damage, and wildfires are all becoming more common.”
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