Between 2012 and 2015 Australian growers used more than 1263 kt of nitrogen, 389 kt of phosphorus and 180 kt of potassium from fertilisers.
This enormous investment is designed to extract greater yield and more profit, yet it’s well known that crops don’t use most of the NPK that is applied to the soil.
Enhanced Efficiency Fertilisers (EEF) are specifically designed to improve uptake and reduce environmental losses of NPK fertilisers.
“We can see how they offer growers an opportunity to reduce fertiliser losses and/or improve crop yields,” said Gary Murdoch-Brown, CEO of EcoCatalysts, a world leading company in EEF.
“This enables growers to cut input costs, increasing return on investment.”
“And it’s a growing market,” he added.
“I recently attended the New Ag Congress in Florence, Italy where over 1000 people attended.
“The previous Congress (2013 in France) attracted just over 600 attendees.”
Conference poster presentation
Mr Murdoch-Brown gave a poster presentation at the conference, highlighting a three year research project that increased the efficiency of anhydrous ammonia GAS with the addition of Enhance Max™.
“There was a 15.3% increase in nitrogen use efficiency per bale of cotton,” he said.
“That’s equivalent to an increase in return to the grower of $42/ha.”
EcoCatalysts has been successfully increasing nitrogen use efficiency around the world for many years with their Black Urea® and now for four years using Enhance Max™ with GAS, UAN and liquid urea.
Improving nutrient use efficiency
Mr Murdoch-Brown said nitrogen use efficiency is extremely important, but EcoCatalysts does not just do nitrogen.
“We work across all nutrients with the addition of our Bio-Catalysts to both soluble and liquid fertilisers,” he said.
“It’s about ensuring that we get into the crop as much of the nutrient that the grower applies. Key additions such as technical organic acids, hormones, vitamins, minerals and proteins are helping us achieve this.”
Slow-release fertilisers have been available for over 25 years. However, few of these were available (or designed) for broadacre crops. Instead, their market has been horticulture or turf applications.
EEF are modern formulations designed for agricultural use that control fertiliser release or alter the chemical reactions that cause nutrient losses. The mechanisms or products include: fertiliser additives, physical barriers or different chemical formulations.
Why are EEFs so important?
Australian dryland wheat for example, can in places utilize only half of the nitrogen that growers apply.
This might be marginally better than the estimated worldwide efficiency of nitrogen for cereals, but the reality is that agricultural crops—whether it’s cereals, sugarcane, pasture, horticulture, cotton or oilseeds—seldom assimilate more than 50% of the nutrients added.
Ensure quality and results
As with any growing market segment, there are those looking to take advantage of such growth with a quick fix to make a quick dollar.
Quality is crucial with such technology as not only will growers lose nutrients, but waste money on inefficient additives claiming to be EEFs.
“When selecting an EEF supplier, ensure they have the research—and most importantly the independent commercial field research—showing the agronomic and economic results to the grower,” said Mr Murdoch-Brown.
Ultimately the aim is to raise nutrient-use efficiency. Hence quality, enhanced–efficiency fertilisers give you the option to target increased production, or make it possible to use less fertiliser—and still supply the nutrient plant requirements with a single application, matching soil concentrations of nutrients to crop demands throughout the growing season.
For more information on quality EEFs call EcoCatalysts on1800 244 009
email
www.ecocatalysts.com.au
See this article in Tree Fruit Dec 2015
