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SFP, formerly Specialized Fertilizer Products, wants everyone to know that wasted fertilizer is wasted money, and naturally, they have products for growers that can help them see a higher return on investment when added to their current fertilizer mix.
The first product is AVAIL, a phosphorus fertilizer enhancer that when added to the fields in the fall before they are plowed, will help plants absorb phosphorus more effectively. NutriSphere-N is a nitrogen fertilizer which is a key component to a successful nutrient management program.
“Both can be added to what you are normally putting on fields,” said Melanie Acklin with SFP. “Blend it in. Mix it in. Farmers can really see added efficiency from these fertilizers and ideally increased in yield potential and increased return on investment.”
The fertilizers can be applied in spring or fall but Acklin noted that as farmers are getting ready to plant winter wheat, adding AVAIL can help the crop in the spring, especially since a lot of things can happen over the winter like early frost.
Growers can learn more about the products by contacting their local fertilizer dealer or on SFP’s website.
You can see all our pictures from the Ag Media Summit in the IFAJ/AMS 2009 Photo Album.
You can listen to my full interview with Melanie Acklin here.
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No forum on world food security issues would be complete without a session on climate change and that was how the World Ag Congress concluded its roundtable discussions Wednesday.
While the issue may be debatable, there is no question that agriculture should be taking every opportunity to decrease greenhouse gas emissions – including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Panalist Jerry Hatfield with USDA’s National Soil Tilth Laboratory talked about how nitrogen stabilizers can make a major difference in nitrous oxide emitted from the application of nitrogen fertilizer. “Nitrous oxide is 320 times more powerful than CO2, so one molecule of nitrous oxide saved is like saving 320 carbon dioxide,” Jerry said. “So we can have a major impact on total greenhouse gas emissions by reducing nitrous oxide.”
Jerry told me that USDA-ARS has found that the use of stabilized nitrogen not only reduces emissions of nitrous oxide, but it is also better for plants because it makes nitrogen more available later in the season when the plant really needs it. “So, its a win-win – a win for the plant and a win for the environment simultaneously,” he said.
He says nitrogen stabilizers are readily available in various forms for farmers from companies like Dow and AGROTAIN.
You can listen to my interview with Jerry here:
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Download the interview here: Jerry Hatfield
Flickr Photo Album for World Ag Forum
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It should be no surprise that sustainability is the most often used word here at the World Agricultural Forum’s World Ag Congress in St. Louis since the agriculture industry as a whole remains under the microscope when it comes to environmental issues.
Another company making a difference in that arena is St. Louis-based AGROTAIN International and I talked with president Mike Stegmann today about some of the ways they are helping. “Sustainability means different things to different people but at AGROTAIN International we’re talking a look at fertilizer specifically,” Mike said. “We truly believe there’s ways to use fertilizer, be more efficient, get more, cost less and still do the right thing for the environment.” AGROTAIN is the world’s largest producer of StabilizedNitrogen™ fertilizers.
Along those lines, AGROTAIN has been participating in a study with USDA’s Agriculture Research Service on the impact of nitrogen fertilizer on climate change. “We wanted to understand what the climate change benefit is of using a product like AGROTAIN to using conventional fertilizer or no fertilizer at all,” Mike says.
In fact, the study has found there is a dramatic reduction in nitrous oxide emissions when nitrogen fertilizer is applied with AGROTAIN. More on that will be revealed tomorrow here at the Congress by Jerry Hatfield with USDA’s National Soil Tilth Research Laboratory.
You can listen to my interview with Mike here:
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“Rolling on the River” was the theme of the grand opening event this week in St. Louis of AGROTAIN International/Lange-Stegmann’s new stabilized nitrogen production facility and urea storage center. To drive that home, they even had a Tina Turner look-alike to kick off the celebration, which also featured a riverboat themed luncheon.
This company is most definitely on a roll that has a global focus and the river is their highway to the world. Vice President of Global Marketing Jeff Whetstine says they are selling AGROTAIN technology in 68 different countries. “We started here in the United States, expanded to South America and now we’re going around the world,” Jeff says. “It was a regional fertilizer company up until the year 2000 when Lange-Stegmann purchased the AGROTAIN technology and started AGROTAIN International, their subsidiary.”
Jeff says they anticipate rapid growth with the expansion. “Frankly, we’ve had trouble keeping up with the demand for our product and that’s why this stabilized nitrogen center is so important,” he said. “And the Urea Center will help us with the efficiency of bringing urea from around the world to the farmers in the heartland of America and into Canada.”
And that is why the location on the Mississippi River is so strategic for the company. “It’s been a very fortunate thing that we’ve had this location and we are exploiting the advantages of it,” Jeff concluded.
Listen to an interview with Jeff here:
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AGROTAIN Grand Opening Photo Album
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Several members of the Stegmann family are actively involved in the operation of Lange-Stegmann and AGROTAIN International, following in the footsteps of grandfather Henry Lange who started the company with his brother, and father Rich Stegmann who serves as chairman of the company. Rick Stegmann is Operations Manager for the new granulation production facility and urea storage warehouse that opened this week in St. Louis.
Rick explained the river station barge unloading operation portion of the facility. “The majority of urea comes in from New Orleans by barge and St. Louis is the northernmost lock-free, ice-free port on the Mississippi River,” he said. “And so we are able to bring barges up and off load them either into storage, into truck or into rail.”
The operation is extremely efficient, handling in excess of 500 tons an hour. “We can do four barges a day, a barge is average of 1500 tons, so that’s 6,000 tons in 24 hours,” Rick said.
Rick says the new facility is the future of Lange-Stegmann and AGROTAIN International. He attributes the success and longevity of the company to the core values that his grandfather and father instilled in not only the family members involved in the business, but also the rest of the employees, who are treated like family.
Listen to an interview with Rick Stegmann here:
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AGROTAIN Grand Opening Photo Album
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Media got the first look at the Allen R. Sutton Stabilized Nitrogen Center prior to the official grand opening on Tuesday in St. Louis and our tour guide was Dan Kuttenkuler, project manager for Lange-Stegmann and AGROTAIN International.
Dan explained how the center uses a falling curtain granulation process for quality control and production efficiency. The process allows finished products to be manufactured to a specific size for different markets. “By varying the size of the holes in the screens we are able to control the final size of the product,” Dan says. “We have an agricultural market which is used to grow corn, wheat and cotton, we have a turf and ornamental and we also serve the golf industry which is very specific in terms of types and height of grasses.”
The Center is designed to meet the increasing demand for stabilized nitrogen fertilizer, with a production capacity of 125,000 tons annually.
Listen to an interview with Dan here:
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AGROTAIN Grand Opening Photo Album
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The statistics for the new Richard W. Stegmann St. Louis Urea Center are pretty amazing.
Lange-Stegmann Director of Operations Rich Diffley says the facility has a capacity for 63,000 tons in 15 bins, ranging from 800 to 20,000 tons, which can be turned four times a month. “We can unload barges in approximately five hours, we can load truckloads in approximately six minutes and we can load a full rail car in approximately 17 minutes,” Rich says. “It allows us the ability to load a full unit train up to 80 rail cars within a 24 hour period.” That’s about a million tons a year, if you do the math.
Diffley explained that the fully automated system makes it the most efficient way to move large volumes of urea quickly and easily.
Diffley showed the media through the storage facility prior to the AGROTAIN International grand opening on Tuesday and impressed us with the mountains of urea in the bins. This photo shows the largest bin – at 20,000 tons – from above. It was maybe a third full and just looked like a pile of freshly plowed snow. Check out the photo album for more shots of the nation’s largest urea import terminal.
Listen to an interview with Rich Diffley here, conducted by myself and Tom Steever with Brownfield Network:
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AGROTAIN Grand Opening Photo Album
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When Lange-Stegmann acquired AGROTAIN eight years ago with that acquisition came Allen Sutton, vice president of business and product development. You could say the Stabilized Nitrogen Center that opened in St. Louis Tuesday was his brain child. Because of that, it will now bear his name – the Allen R. Sutton Stabilized Nitrogen Center.
Making that announcement, Lange-Stegmann president Mike Stegmann explained that five years ago he asked Allen to find a way for customers to make their SuperU product at their own locations. “After a little while, he came back and said ‘I don’t think there is a way, but I found something better’ and that something was the stabilized nitrogen center that you see here today,” Mike said. They made the decision to name the center after Allen because of his “commitment and dedication to the technology, the company and the industry as a whole.”
Allen’s enthusiasm and excitement for the fertilizer industry was evident when he talked to the media prior to the opening ceremony and proudly displayed and discussed the company and products they offer for the agriculture, turf and ornamental and golf course industries.
Listen to an interview with Allen here:
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AGROTAIN Grand Opening Photo Album
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The brand new urea center in St. Louis received its official name at the grand opening ceremony on Tuesday – the Richard W. Stegmann St. Louis Urea Center.
Lange-Stegmann president Mike Stegmann (left) surprised his father Rich, who is chairman of the company, by naming the center after him. “It was really humbling,” Rich said in an interview after the ceremony.
Lange-Stegmann, the parent company of AGROTAIN International, was started in 1926 by Rich’s father-in-law Henry Lange and his brother Dewey. “At that time, it was meat scraps and tankage and steam bone meal that was fertilizer,” said Rich.
The reason the plant was first located at the site near the Mississippi River was because it was next to the stockyards. “At that time a lot of livestock moved by rail and they had to unload it every 24 hours,” Rich explained. “People would come in with trucks and they would haul back fertilizer.”
Stegmann celebrates his 48th year with the company on Friday and he is proud that this global corporation is still very much family-owned. “And our employees are like family too,” Stegmann says. “And that is very gratifying.” A whole line of family, friends, employees and business associates lined up to cut the ribbon opening the urea center and the adjacent Stabilized Nitogen Center.
Listen to an interview with Rich here:
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AGROTAIN Grand Opening Photo Album
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AGROTAIN International and parent company Lange-Stegmann today celebrated the grand opening of a $20 million expansion project in St. Louis.
The Stabilized Nitrogen Center and the St. Louis Urea Center represent the country’s first urea plant using phase modification and the nation’s largest inland urea import terminal – or as one AGROTAIN official called the project, a “Cathedral to Fertilizer.”
The grand opening was a glorious event and I have lots of interviews to share later when I get back to home base. Meanwhile, enjoy the photos – I took a bunch of them!
AGROTAIN Grand Opening Photo Album
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