As farm budgets have tightened, many producers are looking for places to trim expenses. One area Tim Laatsch, Koch Agronomic Services director of agronomy for North America, warns against making cuts is in nitrogen stabilizers.
“There can be a temptation to cut stabilizers out of the mix, and I would tell you that’s a bad idea,” Laatsch says. “The consistent response we see with stabilizers means not only are we doing the right thing from an environmental stewardship standpoint by preventing nitrogen loss, but we’re also taking that retained nitrogen, getting it into the plant, and making yield with it. We’re generating a positive return on investment for these stabilizer products.”
Laatsch says Koch has found an average of 6 bu./acre increase on fall-applied anhydrous ammonia treated with its Centuro stabilizer compared to non-stabilized acres across a three-year study in Nebraska, Illinois and Missouri.
“That’s potential bushels you’d be giving up if you make the short-sighted decision to not stabilize your ammonia,” he says.
Two Types Of Loss
While some operations may not have seen a need for stabilizer products in the past, there’s potential for that to change as the number of extreme weather events in the U.S. increase and bring the need for a change in management practices.
“When we have above average precipitation between the application and the time it’s used by the plant, you see a lot of nitrogen loss. But we can also lose a lot when it’s hot and dry due to volatilization with a surface application,” Laatsch says. “Adding a urease inhibitor will buy you time by slowing down the urea breakdown until you get an incorporating rainfall event to move it deeper into the soil.”
He explains warm, humid conditions can lead to a 30% to 40% loss of untreated urea applied above ground and below-ground losses due to leaching could add up to a 25% to 30% loss.
“Nitrogen is far too expensive of an input to just allow 30% to 40% of it to disappear in the first three days after you put it on the field,” Laatsch says. “I’ve seen enough of our data over the years to know a quality stabilizer will protect my nitrogen and also generate positive return on investment for my farm.”
Choose The Right Product
While using a stabilizer has potential to positively impact farmers’ bottom lines, Laatsch warns all products on the market are not created equal.
“You need to be able to answer two questions for the product,” he says. “No. 1: Does it have an active ingredient that is scientifically proven to have activity on the nitrogen loss you’re trying to manage? Oftentimes, that answer is yes, but the second question is tougher. Does it have enough of the active ingredient to actually be effective?”
Laatsch explains farmers should look for a urease inhibitor to control above-ground losses and a nitrification inhibitor to control leaching and denitrification. To decide if there’s enough active ingredient in the product, he recommends enlisting the help of an agronomist to dig into the label and compare pounds of active ingredient in a ton of finished fertilizer.
“Many products on the market fall short of what is actually needed to get the job done,” he says. “The worst-case scenario is selecting a low-quality product and investing money in an input that is not going to provide economic return.”
