Helping farmers save on fertilizer inputs

Farm and Ranch May 7, 2009 When Willamette Valley farmers came to Wilco asking what could be done to reduce input costs Dennis Roth, sales manager at Mount Angel, Oregon, says they began looking at Specialty Fertilizer Products, SFP’s Avail, which helps to keep more phosphorous available for plants rather than being tied up in the soil. Roth: “With the Avail we have been able to reduce 25%. Even had a customer do up to a 50% reduction and not having any adverse effects. We had just as good of crops if not better. Then also the petioles we are doing we are seeing some really good results on phosphorous levels. So we have been monitoring all these crops after the fact to make sure we have adequate levels also. That is the other portion we have seen good results on.” In fact, Roth says Avail seems like a slam dunk for the Willamette Valley. Now he says Wilco and its customers are looking at SFP’s NutriSphere-N, a nitrogen fertilizer manager, which is out on a lot of acres in the valley this spring. They are looking at a 15% reduction in nitrogen rates or eliminating one application. Roth: “We are actually seeing in these grass crops that we have utilized, we normally put three shots on and we see the dip in the color. We are not seeing that this spring so we are pretty excited about what we are seeing.” Roth says the proof will be when yield results come in. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.