WYNYARD, Sask. – The irony hasn’t been lost on Harvey Haugen that while sulfur deficiency continues to pose major problems for farmers, large quantities of the stuff exist in the shallow, saline lakes that dot the Prairies.
Haugen is president of Big Quill Resources, which produces potassium sulfate mainly as a strengthening agent for the drywall industry.
While North American farmers use 400,000 tonnes of the mineral every year as fertilizer, Haugen said none of it was used in Saskatchewan last year.
Big Quill is hoping that a plant expansion finished earlier this year will help get more prairie sulfur onto farmers’ fields.
Read Also
Anaerobic digestion seen as possible emissions solution
Cattle manure is one of the feedstocks that can be used in anaerobic digestion systems.
The company sits on the shores of Big Quill Lake, a shallow, briny body of water near the east-central community of Wynyard. It is a closely held company that has common and preferred shareholders.
Haugen said Big Quill is suited to make a move into the agricultural market because its product, which is 99.9 percent pure, is far superior to most agricultural grade potassium sulfate.
The company began as a pilot plant for the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan in the 1980s. It was set up to test an ion exchange method of making potassium sulfate. The process combined sulfate in brine form – from the lake – with potash.
When PCS decided not to proceed with the method and concentrate on other areas of its business, six employee-investors bought Big Quill. They received financing from government sources, while local investors purchased community bonds.
That was in 1991. The plant produced about 2,000 tonnes a year and the employees immediately planned an expansion. Two years later, output had doubled. By May 1994, the plant was producing 10,000 tonnes.
In 1996, Big Quill opened the world’s first commercial processing plant using a production technology called glaserite. This method combines anhydrous sodium sulfate and potash. It reduced pressure on the lake, and allowed production of another 10,000 tonnes per year.
This past May, another expansion pushed production capacity to 50,000 tonnes a year.
The plant no longer takes water from the lake. It trucks in sodium sulfate and potash from other mines.
Soon, Haugen said, the company will again double production with the intent of capturing more agricultural sales.
Big Quill is already selling a small quantity into that market. Potassium sulfate is used on golf greens, by turf growers, in greenhouses and on such chloride-sensitive crops as tobacco, pineapple, potatoes, strawberries, cranberries and grapes.
Haugen said there appear to be advantages over other fertilizers on field-scale prairie crops.
Sulfur has been identified as a “missing ingredient” needed to improve yields, he said, yet it is hard for plants to obtain unless it is in sulfate form.
“Elemental sulfur generally takes a year to become oxidized and available to the plant,” he said.
“It has to be broadcast so it’s an extra operation.”
The common sulfate fertilizer, ammonium sulfate, is highly soluble, susceptible to leaching and has to be carefully placed.
Potassium sulfate, however, can be seed placed in a one-pass operation and provides season-long sulfur, he said.
It may prove especially useful on canola, a crop that is often sulfur-deficient. It needs about 20 pounds of plant-available sulfur to obtain 30-bushel per acre yields.
“Our product is 0-0-50-17,” Haugen said, referring to the nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulfur composition. “If you use our material you get a pretty good application.”
Big Quill is conducting field trials on canola, oats, onions and potatoes. Similar work on canola is under way at the Agriculture Canada’s Melfort Research Centre in Melfort, Sask.
Ken Panchuk, soils specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, said potassium sulfate would likely be most beneficial in northern areas, where the grey and dark grey soil zones are deficient in potassium and sulfur.
“The best fit for Saskatchewan conditions would be to supply both potassium and sulfate to crops such as alfalfa,” he said.
This would provide the nutrients “without adding any additional nitrogen to compromise the nodules fixing nitrogen on these legumes.”
Panchuk said other legumes, such as peas, might also benefit.
Haugen sees other advantages for
farmers.
“We are close to the market,” he said. “Transportation costs are a big issue. We’ll probably be fairly competitive.”
