03/29/07 Getting more from your fertilizer

Making sure that your crops are getting enough fertilizer can be tricky. Testing the soil is one way, but that only shows how much phosphorus fertilizer is actually in the soil. Producers are finding they get better results with a fertilizer enhancer like AVAIL. Jake Sanders, International Sales Coordinator and Marketing Manager for SFP explains the problem. SANDERS: It's important to note that 75 to 95% of applied phosphate is unavailable to the crop because it gets fixed or what we call tied-up in the soil. And that happens in any soil. So 75 to 95% would be like 75 to 95 cents on the dollar is left in the soil and is unavailable to the crop during the growing season. Now this is not a new problem. This is new solution to a problem that has existed for over 100 years so what we're doing is solving an inefficiency that we didn't have the ability to solve before AVAIL. Phosphorus is very important early in the growing season in determining crop yield. SANDERS: So if you can get a lot of phosphorus into your crop early in the growing season, it can have a dramatic effect on your yields at the end of the season. According to Sanders, AVAIL works with your fertilizer SANDERS: It is a water soluble additive for granular or liquid phosphorus fertilizer, Now AVAIL acts as a shield and what it does is it protects that phosphorus in the soil from the elements that would typically render it unavailable to the crop so it just acts as a shielding mechanism and makes that phosphorus available to the crop all the way through the growing season. Getting more benefit from your fertilizer ultimately can lower your cost and Sanders says there is another added benefit to the product. SANDERS: There is no negative environmental impact, there's no footprint left behind. The product is biodegradable, it's water soluble, it's non-toxic and there's nothing bad that can be left in the soil from AVAIL and again, all AVAIL is going to do is get more phosphorus into that crop which is going to leave less phosphorus in the ground which can run off into streams and rivers and cause utrification and things like that so what we are seeing is really a fantastic environmental impact from AVAIL. As with any fertilizer or additive, Sanders recommends following the recommended application rates. AVAIL can be used on key crops, including potatoes, wheat, corn, soybeans, rice, onions, cotton and sugar beets. USDA and private research plots demonstrate a 10 percent to 15 percent increase in phosphate uptake in AVAIL-treated plants, resulting in higher yields and improved plant quality. AVAIL is being distributed exclusively by the J.R. Simplot Company. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.