"New" Fertilizer Boosts Yields With Less Nitrogen

"New" Fertilizer Boosts Yields With Less Nitrogen FERTILIZER APPLICATION Fertilizer Application (58f) 28-2-33 A new form of an old fertilizer will reduce nitrogen application rates and increase yields, says inventor Dick Hartmann. Chips containing nitrogen, lime and coal are implanted in urea granules to make a new product called "Stabl-U." As the chemical combination interacts in the soil, it stabilizes the nitrogen for slow release. This means more nitrogen available for the plant and less released into the air or leaching into ground water. "It has been reported that up to 50 percent of applied nitrogen is unaccounted for when the crop is harvested," says Hartmann. "When Stabl-U is applied, it breaks down slowly enough that the plant is able to utilize more of it instead of it being lost. Applied preplant, it appears farmers won't have to sidedress their corn." Years ago lime nitrogen (LN) fertilizer was the first high analysis (24 percent N) commercial fertilizer, but it was expensive to make, dusty and hard to apply. Hartmann has spent the past 15 years developing a process to solve those problems. More than 500 field plots carried out in 2002 suggest he has succeeded. "The trials showed increased yields for a return of $180 per ton of Stabl-U compared to ordinary urea even though it cost $90 more per ton," he reports. "That worked out to an average net profit increase of $25 per acre." Hartmann explains that low cost urea would normally convert quickly to a nitrate form subject to leaching. The LN chip converts it instead to an ammonic form that binds to soil particles. This form is also preferred by newly emerging seedlings, especially grass crops like corn. As the soil warms, "friendly" bacteria convert the ammonic form to the nitrate form readily taken up by the faster growing plant. The result is 25-60 percent more nitrogen being used by the plant and not leaching into groundwater or being released into the air. "Farmers will get better yields, and the extra initial cost qualifies for Best Management Practices cost sharing under the 2002 Conservation Security Act," says Hartmann. Stabl-U is currently only being made in a small urea plant operated by Royster Clark. Hartmann suggests that if larger plants adopt the process, the current cost will fall, increasing returns even more while still reducing pollution. "From our standpoint, American fertilizer can be clean water fertilizer," he says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Royster Clark, Inc., P.O. Box 229, East Dubuque, Ill. 61025 or Dick Hartmann, 1827 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy., Portland, Ore. 97239 (ph 503 246-0750).

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