REGINA – A new fertilizer additive not yet available in Canada has the potential to make one-pass seeding and fertilizing easier.
The additive is a urease inhibitor and an initial review by an Agriculture Canada researcher shows it can reduce the rate at which urea nitrogen fertilizer breaks down into components, including ammonia, which vaporizes into the air, and NH4, which binds with the soil. Both are toxic to seeds.
That means one of direct seeding’s trickiest problems – getting the right opener to separate the seed from the fertilizer – might be eliminated.
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Cynthia Grant, a soil scientist at the Agriculture Canada research centre in Brandon, said if the product is approved and if it’s affordable, it could make a huge difference to direct seeders.
“If you could get it on for $3 an acre with one pass, the increased seed safety of this, even compared to doing a separate pass or compared to a double shoot opener that can really screw up your seedbed, it has a lot of advantages,” she said.
Grant was speaking to farmers at the Saskatchewan Soil Conservation Association annual meeting here last week.
One-pass seeding systems have elaborate seedbed openers that try to place fertilizer about three centimetres to the side of the seed so that when the nitrogen volatizes and gives off ammonia, it doesn’t burn the seed.
With a urease inhibitor the urea won’t break down, so seed and fertilizer can be placed together.
Grant who studied the product in a trial from 1994-96 was surprised by the results.
“I didn’t think it would work,” she said.
The urease inhibitor she used is available in the United States from IMC Global under the name Agrotain. In the corn belt, it costs about $8 (U.S.) to treat 150 pounds of actual nitrogen per acre at a concentration of 0.2 percent.
Prairie nitrogen use on cereals is about half that and Grant’s study indicates the product works at a concentration of 0.1 percent giving a rough cost of $2 (U.S.) per acre here.
The liquid could be sprayed on urea by the farmer or pre-treated fertilizer could be sold.
The product would have the most use where crop yield potential is high, soil nitrogen levels are low and soil and environmental conditions promote extensive volatilization losses or seedling damage.
Because urea volatizes more in warmer temperatures, the inhibitor would be particularly useful in late seeding.
For the same reason, it could also be useful in situations where a farmer wants to top dress fertilizer after the crop has emerged to try to boost yield or protein level.
She said conditions that make a urease inhibitor shine won’t occur every year, but if the product is reasonably priced, its regular use might help even out yield variation.
