By Clint Thompson
A new bio-based fertilizer from Anuvia Plant Nutrients provides row-crop farmers with a more efficient nutrient application while feeding the soil.
SymTRX™ was the focus of a field day hosted by Anuvia in Chula, Georgia on July 19. Anuvia specialists talked about its impact on cotton, corn and peanuts; three high value crops in the Southeast.
“Because it’s bio-based, it does a couple of really important things for farmers. It provides more efficient nutrition, so we get more nutrient efficiency which translates into yield for the grower,” said Hugh MacGillivray, chief commercial officer for Anuvia Plant Nutrients. “We’re providing it back to the soil in a clean concentrated form. That feeds the soil microbiomes, the microbes in the soil. Our bio-based product not only feeds the plant but it helps with the soil.
“It is the future. I think bio-based nutrition, it’s novel, it’s new technology but it’s really important in not only feeding the crop but feeding that soil system.”
More Bang for Your Buck
MacGillivray estimates that cotton growers will see 7 to 10 times the return on investment, while corn producers should experience a 3 times return on investment.
“Cotton responds well to nitrogen and sulfur and our product contains nitrogen in the best form for the plant. It also provides sulfur in the best form for the plant. They work together,” he added.
Farmers with SymTRX™ technology also lose less nutrition because of delivery. Growers will lose 50% less nitrogen compared to urea and 40% less compared to ammonium sulfate, MacGillivray estimates. There is also a smaller carbon footprint because of the way it is manufactured.
“If you compare our product to conventional nutrition, we’re reducing the carbon footprint by about 25% depending on the crop,” he said. “It’s all about efficiency. It’s about doing fertility better than what we’ve been doing it. We lose a lot of nutrition into the environment so how do we do a better job of presenting nutrients to plants?”
Also on Display
Anuvia’s core technology has been on the market about five years and used on more than 2 million acres.
The field day highlighted SymTRX™ XP. SymTRX™ XP, which includes Novozymes, provides a mechanism that will further increase nutrient efficiency. Anuvia will launch the product this fall.
“We’re going to use advanced microbial technology which will make the phosphate that’s used on the farm more efficient to the tune of about 10 units. If a farmer is putting on 10 units of phosphate normally, with the SymTRX™ XP, you would cut that back about 10 units of phosphate and get the same or even better outcome. Our goal is to introduce a series of products that will use these advanced microbials and will deliver nutrition to the crop differently than what we’re currently doing with conventional nutrition,” he added.