Developing BMP's for Enhanced Non-nitrogen Fertilizers.

Fertilizer materials are an essential part of the overall success of production agriculture on a global perspective. Fertilizers are also recognized by growers, politicians as well as the environmental community as part of an overall Best Management Practice (BMP) for sustainable farming. These are recognized across global boundaries and because of their importance in self sustaining of third world markets, are in part contributing to the increase in fertilizer costs.

Improving nutrient performance has always been of keen interest to production agriculture. Practices for improved performance have included adjustments in timing, rate, placement and sources of fertilizer materials. All of these practices need to be validated across various soils and geographic boundaries to be accepted as a new or improved BMP that can be accepted within a given farming setting.

New advances in enhanced fertilizer materials or those fertilizer products that improve efficiency are of increased interest. This is due to increased costs of fertilizer materials as well as an increased awareness of environmental consequences when fertilizer materials are not used properly. Fertilizer efficiency benefits everyone involved, including the fertilizer industry, growers, governments and communities in which we all operate.

This paper reports on improved phosphorus, sulfur and some micro-nutrients that fall under the heading of enhanced fertilizer materials. Improved formulations in association with advanced polymer chemistry have made it possible for P fertilizer to be more readily available for a growing plant and to be accessed in higher concentrations compared to non-polymer treated P. Research validation is impressive with university experiments across a wide range of growing conditions and years indicating strong correlation between yield and quality improvements where this enhanced fertilizer formulation has been incorporated.

Sulfur has also been enhanced with advanced chemistry by influencing the micro-environment surrounding the individual fertilizer granule that changes soil pH improving utilization of S in many soils. These advances when used across large geographic settings are improving the utilization of this important element and are reflected in improved yield and quality of many crops. The same is true for improving micro-nutrients. Advances are such that improved formulations of micro-nutrients are being developed that allow these essential nutrients to be moved across plant tissue or more easily accessed by the developing crop.

This paper will explore in more detail these topics and enable the participant to judge the value of including these enhanced formulations into the BMP’s of their existing cropping systems.