Primaries signal move to liquid nutrients

Nearly 20 years ago, the focus was on liquid nitrogen, as CSBP pioneered Flexi-N as the optimum way to play the season with N inputs.

Flexi-N remains the most-used liquid product on the market but small steps have been taken for more than a decade, experimenting with liquid nutrient mixes and the chemistry of tank mix compatibilities.

Farmers have access to an increasing range of liquid nutrient products to replace bulk fertilisers along with a range of trace elements.

Primaries CRT wants to be one of the main drivers in introducing specialised liquid management for best practice crop establishment and techniques to enhance crop health.

Primaries CRT merchandise manager Fred Lyon last week announced a major collaborative effort with specialist liquid nutrient company Nutrian Liquid Fertiliser and Jandakot manufacturer Ausplow Farming Systems, to develop a “synergistic approach to in-furrow crop establishment and to enhance crop nutrition”.

“There has been a lot of discussion about the use of liquid products,” Mr Lyon said.

“But what has been lacking is a focused research and development effort designed specifically to cater for the needs of WA farmers.

“We are enthusiastic about developing a new approach involving new liquid products with new chemistry and a delivery system that optimises the benefits.

“We’re working with independent consultants to get independent views, so it’s a new world and a new attitude exploring crop nutrition and the use of liquids nutrients.

“That’s why we have been working with Nutrian and Ausplow for the past four years in replicated trial work to assess the right products and delivery systems that can give farmers more confidence in using liquids.

“There is a lot happening in this space and I believe in the future liquids will become a dominant management decision for broadacre crop establishment.

“We’re talking about seed dressings, fungicides, insecticides, nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and trace elements.

“So our trial program will be focused on how best we can help farmers improve crop establishment and nutrition.”

Ausplow general manager Chris Farmer said collaborative research work on liquids was a fit with company’s strategy.

“We’re excited to be involved with people at the coalface because that’s where we started,” Mr Farmer said.

“Our aim has always been to improve the soil for the benefit of crop and pasture production.

“We were very keen to build a fit-for-purpose trial seeder that provided multiple methods of efficient product delivery to see what works in terms of all the liquid nutrients available.”