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Spring
2018
Grains
West
26
Andrew Lawson, Alberta and B.C.
ESNmarketing rep for Nutrien, said
demonstrating the value of the EEF
products to farmers is important. “ESN
is a premium nitrogen product that does
cost more than conventional nitrogen, so
producers need to be able to see value in
the product.”
Lawson said ESN is a polymer-coated
urea and can be fall applied and ideally
incorporated, or spring banded right in
the seed row or beside the seed as part
of the fertilizer blend. Once the product
is applied in or on the soil, moisture will
move in through the polymer coating
and dissolve the urea inside. As the soil
warms, the nitrogen—being temperature
sensitive—diffuses out through the
porous polymer membrane. As moisture
levels and soil temperatures change,
nitrogen is gradually released for up to
80 days.
“We are positioning it as a broad-acre
product that can be used with all cereals
and oilseeds including canola and flax,”
he said. “Some producers have used it,
for example, with wheat crops on sandy
soils with the intent of boosting protein
yield. And that does have a fit, but it can
be used with all crops and provide an
economic return.”
Lawson said on-farm trials have
consistently shown every dollar spent on
ESN can produce a $3 net return through
higher yield with canola. In wheat, he
said it similarly produces a 2.5-to-one to
three-to-one return on investment while
protecting against all three nitrogen-loss
mechanisms.
He also points out ESN’s flexibility. If
applied in fall, it won’t release into cold
or frozen ground. If wet soil conditions
prevail, the polymer coating reduces
nitrogen leaching. And under drier
conditions, it conserves nitrogen until
sufficient moisture is available.
Lawson said seed safety is also one of
the benefits of ESN when banded in the
seed row with the fertilizer blend, and
added that ESN can be applied at a rate
up to three times higher than provincial
recommendations for straight urea,
depending on the opener and seeding
tool.
Rory Degenhardt, Dow AgroSciences
research scientist, said nitrogen-
stabilizing products such as eNtrench
and N-Serve have the best fit in areas
where moisture and environmental
conditions are most conducive to
nitrogen loss. “In higher rainfall areas,
leaching and denitrification can be an
issue,” he said. “And it can also be a
concern on irrigated land in the brown
soil zone. Losses can vary from area to
area and from year to year, but losses
in the 10 to 50 per cent range are not
uncommon.”
With the novel micro-encapsulated
formulation of eNtrench, it can be
impregnated on urea or mixed with
UAN or liquid manure. Both eNtrench
and N-Serve products are designed to
do the same thing, which is to slow the
conversion of ammonium nitrogen to the
nitrate form. Product research shows the
use of N-Serve or eNtrench can reduce
leaching losses by 16 per cent, and
denitrification losses—which produce
greenhouse gases—by 51 per cent.
Field-scale trials in 2015 found, on
average, 44 per cent more positive
ammonium was available for the crop
two weeks after emergence when
N-Serve or eNtrench nitrogen stabilizers
were used, compared with unprotected
nitrogen. Keeping more nitrogen in
the positive form protects it from loss.
Yield data showed that crops grown
where nitrogen was protected yielded
higher—3.8 bushels more per acre for
canola and 3.7 bushels more per acre for
spring wheat and durum.
Enhanced efficiency fertilizers (EEF) such as ESN, a polymer-coated urea product, allow nitrogen to diffuse through a porous membrane as temperature andmoisture
conditions change.