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See the latest news, innovation updates, trial results, grower stories and more from Agricen. 
[Interview] Helping Dry Fertilizer Overcome Cool Weather Challenges
December 13, 2023 — Posted By Agricen

AgriTalk podcast 1200pxRon Calhoun, PhD, Senior Manager for Plant Nutrition at Loveland Products, sat with AgriTalk’s Chip Flory to discuss the challenges that cool weather can bring when growers add dry nutrition to the soil during the fall.

Ron - Loveland Products: As we put our dry fertilizers like MAP, DAP, potash, and MESZ in the fall to get ready for next year, those dry materials need to be mineralized by the microbial communities in the soil for the nutrients in them to be available to our plants. Cool conditions in the fall and spring don't really propel that process forward, so that can limit the efficiency of those products. The mineralization process needs assistance to overcome the depressed microbial activity.

Chip - AgriTalk: Where does that assistance come from? Is it biochemistry?

Ron - Loveland Products: You're exactly right. We have a dry fertilizer enhancement product called Titan XC, and it is using that biochemistry from the soil microbial community to make the nutrition more available. We take that biochemistry and we'll actually sparge it onto the dry fertilizer ahead of time. 

That way, when you're putting the treated dry fertilizer out, the biochemistry that would typically be provided by soil microorganisms is already on the fertilizer prills, so that we can start the mineralization process and have the nutrition ready to go when the crop season hits.

Chip - AgriTalk: How effective is Titan XC in boosting fertilizer efficiency?

Ron - Loveland Products: We have probably 300 trials from the last 12 to 15 years, and we're closing in on 100 million acres on which Titan XC-treated fertilizer has been applied. I would say, in general, we're looking at probably around a 15 to 20% improvement in nutrient use efficiency.

Designed for use with dry fertilizers, Titan XC contains concentrated biochemistry to help growers maximize the yield potential of their crops by increasing nutrient availability and uptake. It is compatible with a variety of dry fertilizer blends, including phosphate and potash (P & K) blends, MESZ, MES10, sulfate of potash and ammonium sulfate. Titan XC is available from Nutrien Ag Solutions.

This interview was edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the original interview below or on Agricen's YouTube channel.

Learn more about Titan XC by visiting cropfertility.com or downloading the Titan XC product booklet.

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Lifelong Friendship Leads to Advice a Grower Continues to Count On
November 6, 2023 — Posted By Agricen

Jason Jaggers Illinois - Doing More with LessJason Jaggers is a third-generation corn and soybean farmer in Wyanet, Illinois. When it comes to getting advice from his Nutrien Ag Solutions agronomist, Chad Taylor, he knows he has someone he can count on. Chad is not only his agronomist, but also his childhood friend. 

"Chad and I grew up together. Now he's my Nutrien agronomist. If he brings a product to me, he knows it better perform," says Jason. "He's also a grower himself, so he understands that."

Two of the products that Chad has introduced to Jason are Titan XC and Extract PBA. They are biocatalyst technologies that help growers "do more with less" by enhancing nutrient use efficiency. 

"As he's brought Titan, Extract and multiple other products to the table, they've all performed very, very well," says Jason. 

In the fall, Titan XC on dry fertilizer is a particularly important part of the equation. 

"If you're making a fall application of fertilizer, it needs Titan XC," say Chad. "Titan brings multiple levels of benefit...being able to take a grower's fertilizer dollar and increase it by upwards of 20 percent."

On Chad's recommendation, Jason has used Titan XC on his fall dry fertilizer for the past decade.

"We've used it for probably the last 10 years in the fall," says Jason. "We tried it on a couple of farms the first year and instantly saw good results. Now I use it on 100 percent of my acres."

Titan XC fall fertilizerGetting ready to spread Titan XC-treated dry fertilizer.

Extract PBA is another product that Chad commonly recommends for corn and soybean producers. He has seen some outstanding results.

"I had a couple of growers say 'I can't raise beans on this farm.' We started utilizing Extract on the solution for corn years and on the residue for bean years. Now they're like, 'Wow, I never thought I would take 80+ bushel beans off this farm.' It's just been a tremendous turnaround in farm production," explains Chad.

On Jason's farm, Extract PBA is being used as a residue management tool on his corn stubble prior to planting soybeans.  

"We're going to apply it on standing corn stalks that are going to go to soybeans next spring just to try to break down the massive amount of residue that we have," Jason says. "It seems that the residue is tying up more and more nutrients, so we're trying to get it to breakdown to get them into the soil profile for next spring."

One of the newer products that Chad is able to bring to the table for his grower customers is Accomplish MAX, which is designed for use with liquid starter fertilizer programs and combines the nutrient availability technology found in products like Titan XC and Extract PBA with a marine-based technology for stress mitigation.

"Everyone who's used it that I've talked to is seeing results. The stress mitigation factor of the kelp extract paired with the Accomplish technology has been a tremendous fit. Now you are getting a healthier, stronger seedling that's encountering less stress— whether it be from cold weather, starter fertilizer salt or salinity within the soil profile," Chad says. "There couldn't be a better coupling of what a new planted seedling needs trying to get up and out of the ground fast and uniform."

You can watch the video below, here or on our YouTube channel, to hear more from Chad and Jason.

Learn more about Accomplish MAX, Extract PBA and Titan XC by downloading the Frequently Asked Questions booklet.

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[Interview] Put Your Chips on Titan XC This Fall
October 18, 2023 — Posted By Agricen

Wity-radio-down on farmAgricen's Scott Lay recently spoke with Dennis Michelsen of WITY Radio about using Titan XC on fall-applied dry fertilizer blends.

Dennis - WITY Radio: In the fall season, we always talk about Titan XC. Talk a little bit about how it helps growers get the most out of fall fertilizer applications.

Scott - Agricen: Titan XC is applied on dry phosphorus and potash to help mineralize and break down those fertilizer prills, making them more available for next year's crop.

Dennis - WITY Radio: Ag producers don't want to have an extra trip across that field because that's money that they're spending. Titan XC does not require an extra pass.

Scott - Agricen: Titan XC is applied on the dry fertilizer. So whether the local Nutrien retail facility is applying the dry fertilizer or the farmer himself is applying it, putting on the Titan XC doesn't make that job any more difficult, and it also provides a benefit. In terms of a yield impact, we're looking at about an +11-bushel average yield response in corn and about a +4.2-bushel average response in soybeans. So the economics stack up very favorably.

Dennis - WITY Radio:  We're talking more than a 7 to 1 ROI when you add the cost of the product.

Scott - Agricen: That's correct. Farmers are obviously interested in the potential for yield response. But they also ask, "How many additional bushels do I need to produce to pay for that additional input?” In soybeans, a farmer would only need 0.6 additional bushels to pay for Titan XC. In corn, it’s a bushel and a half. Farmers are all riverboat gamblers at heart, and they put their chips behind reasonable propositions. With a high probability of payback, Titan XC is one of them.

Dennis - WITY Radio: Lab tests have shown a 22% increase for the first year use as far as available nutrients in those soils. That's a huge advantage.

Scott - Agricen: It is. If we think about a dry fertilizer prill, we're applying rocks to the surface of the ground, albeit small rocks. So the objective is to mineralize those fertilizer prills into a plant-usable form. If we can increase that rate of mineralization by 22%, that translates to a benefit in next year's crop, and that translates to yield.

Titan XC is available from Nutrien Ag Solutions.

This interview was edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the interview below or on Agricen's YouTube channel.

 

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[Watch] Enhance Dry Fertilizer Efficiency to Maximize Yield & ROI
September 27, 2023 — Posted By Agricen

09-23-Dry-Fertilizer-Webinar-archive

How can growers enhance the efficiency of their fall-applied dry fertilizer blends to maximize yield and return on investment? 

Watch our on-demand webinar, "How to Enhance Dry Fertilizer Efficiency to Maximize Yield & ROI," to hear:

  • How to enhance the efficiency of your fall dry fertilizer application

  • What you can do to improve nutrient recovery after applying dry fertilizer blends

  • How to increase yield and return on investment in any crop production system with Titan XC on your dry fertilizer blend

The nutrients in dry fertilizer prills are not highly available to the crop as applied. To become available for crop use, they must first be converted into a plant-available form. 

Titan XC is a fertilizer biocatalyst designed to expedite this process and unlock the potential of dry fertilizer programs. When applied to fall- or spring-applied dry fertilizer blends, Titan XC can expedite nutrient availability and uptake, enhance nutrient use efficiency and improve nutrient recovery from the applied fertilizer and from the soil. 

In an analysis of 125 third-party and side-by-side trials conducted over the past decade, the average yield increase gained by treating dry fertilizer blends with Titan XC was +10.9 bu/a in corn (73 trials), +3.9 bu/a in soybeans (30 trials) and +4.0 bu/a in wheat (22 trials) as compared to yields with untreated dry fertilizer.

By giving crops greater access to the nutrition they need, Titan XC can help boost crop yields and increase a grower's return on investment.

Titan XC is exclusively available from Nutrien Ag Solutions.

Watch the webinar today to learn how to maximize dry fertilizer efficiency this fall with Titan XC.

Watch the Webinar

 

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Enhancing Fall Dry Fertilizer Efficiency & Grower ROI with Titan XC
August 24, 2023 — Posted By Agricen

Fall can be a good time to apply dry phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) fertilizers because of lower workloads and drier soils. A fall dry fertilizer application can also increase P and K availability for crops planted in the spring by giving the fertilizer prill more time to undergo natural weathering and breakdown in the soil compared to spring applications.

However, just because you apply 300 pounds of P and K this fall, it doesn’t mean that all 300 pounds will be available to next season's crop. Soil physical, chemical and biological properties combined with weather conditions all play a role in fertilizer availability. Even under the best conditions, an application of dry fertilizer on its own is usually not very efficient. In the first season after application, only about 10-30% of applied P and 20-60% of applied K is typically available for use by the growing crop.

For a higher rate of fertilizer efficiency, Titan XC can be applied to dry fertilizer blends, increasing the efficiency of applied P and K fertilizers by an estimated 30%. This contributes to a number of benefits, including improved plant performance (as seen in the photos below from Dassel, Minnesota), as well as a positive yield response.

Titan Dassel MN Corn 2023 4 pics

In the corn trial below from Ohio, a fall application of Titan XC-treated dry fertilizer led to an average yield increase of +8.3 bushels per acre over 6 replications as compared to untreated dry fertilizer.

Titan-Corn-Northern OHIn a corn trial from Nutrien Ag Solutions’ Hopkinsville, Kentucky research farm, treating dry fertilizer with Titan XC led to a yield increase of 6 bushels or more per acre compared to untreated fertilizer. This was true whether the fertilizer was applied at the full rate (300 lbs/acres) or the reduced rate (270 lbs/acre). What is most notable here is that there was no real difference in corn yield between the two different rates of untreated fertilizer (270 or 300 lbs/acre).

Titan - corn_KY

Sometimes the answer is not more fertilizer, but rather greater efficiency. By employing Titan XC to increase the breakdown or mineralization of the P and K nutrients spread in fall, more will be available to the crop next year when it needs it, which can lead to better yield results. 

Learn more about Titan XC by downloading the Titan XC fall fertilizer booklet.

Download the Fall Fertilizer Booklet

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Alabama Grower Sees Impressive Corn Yield Gains in Titan XC Trial
October 25, 2022 — Posted By Agricen

Chad Henderson, an XtremeAg farmer in Madison, Alabama, trialed Titan XC-treated dry fertilizer on his farm in 2022. He saw impressive results in both his irrigated and dryland corn. 

"We can't wait to try this again," says Chad. "We had great results with this product."

In the trial, Chad compared his standard strip till fertilizer blend to the same fertilizer blend treated with Titan XC at 1 pint per ton.  Both treated and untreated fertilizer blends were applied at 180 pounds per acre. Two different hybrids were in the planter, and each treatment (treated vs untreated dry fertilizer) was replicated 3 times for each hybrid in both irrigated and non-irrigated parts of the field.

In irrigated corn, Chad's average corn yield was 276.7 bu/a with his standard fertilizer blend and 293.8 bu/a with the Titan XC-treated dry fertilizer, for a yield advantage of +17.1 bu/a compared to the check. 

TitanXC-irrigated-corn-IL-01

He saw similar results in his dryland corn, where his average corn yield was 89.8 bu/a with his standard fertilizer blend and 106.0 bu/a with the Titan XC-treated dry fertilizer, for a yield advantage of +16.2 bu/a compared to the check.

TitanXC-dryland-corn-IL-02

"It was the same results through irrigated and non-irrigated," says Chad. "We're looking forward to doing some more trials with this. We were really pleased with it."

You can hear about the trials directly from Chad in this video.

Titan XC is an innovative biocatalyst that is formulated for application on dry fertilizers to increase nutrient efficiency and provide a yield response across diverse crops. It contains a range of beneficial biochemistries, including enzymes, that help mineralize the applied nutrients to make them more available for plant uptake and utilization.

Learn more about Titan XC by downloading the Titan XC corn bulletin.

Download the Bulletin

 

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[Watch] How to Make Your Dry Fertilizer Work Harder & Go Farther
October 3, 2022 — Posted By Agricen

09-22-CropLife-dry-fertilizer-webinar-archive-1How can growers make the most of every nutrient they apply, especially with high fertilizer costs? One way is to focus on improving the efficiency of dry fertilizers that are spread in the fall or spring.

Watch our on-demand webinar, "How to Make Your Dry Fertilizer Work Harder and Go Farther," to learn:

  • Why the amount of fertilizer you apply doesn't always equate to the amount of fertility available to your crop

  • How next-generation technology can enhance your fall dry fertilizer program for better nutrient availability and uptake in the spring

  • How Titan XC can help you get more out of every prill you’ve paid for by giving your crop greater access to applied fertility

Hosted by CropLife and presented by Agricen's Director of Applied Sciences, Dr. Brian Cornelious, the webinar explains how Titan XC can help growers maximize their yield opportunities by improving nutrient availability and uptake from treated dry fertilizers.

Fertilizer prills as applied to the field are not available to the plant or soil until they have gone through a conversion process that transforms them from organic forms into inorganic, plant-available forms. For example, applied phosphorus (P205) must be converted to the inorganic forms HPO4 or H2PO4 before the crop can use it.

Titan XC expedites this process. As part of the investment in next year’s crop, it helps deliver maximum yield and return on investment by making every Titan XC-treated prill go farther and work harder, including in corn, soybean and cotton crops.

Watch the webinar today to learn how to get the most out of your fall dry fertilizer application. 

Watch the Webinar

 

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A Cutting-Edge Technology for Fall Dry Fertilizer
September 13, 2022 — Posted By Agricen

Wity-radio-down on farmWith fall fertilizer season approaching, Agricen’s Scott Lay spoke with WITY Radio about using Titan XC to get more efficiency and return on investment out of dry fertilizer applications. 

Dennis - WITY Radio: I think Titan XC is going to be a great addition to producers' game plans here in the fall.

Scott - Agricen: Titan XC has been available for about 10 years now. With each successive fall, use increases as folks better understand the benefits of what a fertilizer efficiency technology can provide for their operations.

Dennis - WITY Radio: You guys have a track record now of treating so many acres.

Scott - Agricen: We will treat nearly 10 million acres’ worth of dry fertilizer in the calendar year 2022. In the University of Illinois trials that we’ve conducted since 2011, the average yield response to adding Titan XC to a dry fertilizer program is about 4 bushels per acre of increase in soybeans and nearly 10 bushels per acre of increase in corn. With those types of results, we continue to find new farmers who recognize the value of Titan XC, and we’re happy to provide a cutting edge technology for their operations. 

Dennis - WITY Radio: Titan XC is about using your fertilizer input more efficiently. But if you’re using it more efficiently, you might be able to reduce the amount of fertilizer you’re applying without hurting your bottom line.

Scott - Agricen: Imagine you go to the grocery store to purchase orange juice, but all that’s available is oranges. You need to convert the oranges to orange juice. Think about that in terms of dry fertilizer. We’re applying oranges to the field, but what that crop needs is orange juice. Titan XC increases that efficiency—that conversion of dry fertilizer prills to a plant-available form—and it really adds up.

Dennis - WITY Radio: You have done testing to see what the effect of a reduced fertilizer rate is with Titan XC.

Scott - Agricen: In 2017 and 2018, we conducted on-farm trials in Sydney, Illinois, where we reduced the fertilizer rate intentionally by 10 percent and added Titan XC to that reduced-rate application. The average yield response in corn was 7 bushels per acre greater compared to the full rate fertilizer alone. Now, fertilizer lasts in the soil for longer than a year. It doesn’t just simply quit. That next crop year, when soybeans were planted after the corn, there was another 1.2-bushel response on the soybeans without additional fertilizer.

Dennis - WITY Radio: This might be better for your soil health as well. 

Scott - Agricen: We’ve tracked a number of different farmers’ fertility tests over the last 17 years in Illinois. Where Titan XC has been employed, the actual P and K levels in the soil are increasing. So there is a positive long-term benefit for the producer and for the environment as well. We are creating a more productive soil environment for that corn or soybean crop to grow.

Titan XC is available from Nutrien Ag Solutions.

This interview was edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the full interview below or on Agricen's YouTube channel.

Learn more about Titan XC by downloading the Titan XC corn and soybean bulletin.

Download the Bulletin

 

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Titan XC Plays a Big Role on Indiana Grower's Farm
January 31, 2022 — Posted By Agricen

Evan Matlock, a farmer from Greenfield, Indiana, first started using Titan XC on his farm about five years ago. In his first year of testing it, he applied Titan XC-treated dry fertilizer on a partial field of soybeans and a partial field of corn. There was an obvious difference between the parts of the field where Titan XC had and had not been applied.

“You could see it visually and we saw it on aerial imagery throughout the year,” he says. “When we took it to harvest, the corn stood out about 4.8 bushels better (with Titan XC) and the soybeans were 2.8 bushels better.”

With those results, Evan had a feeling that Titan XC might be a product he wanted to implement on a broader scale at the farm. That next year, he tested Titan XC-treated dry fertilizer on about half of his acres.

“The next year, we continued to see a yield increase,” he says.

Five years later, he uses Titan XC-treated fertilizer on every acre at Matlock Farms.

“We use it on corn, soybeans, wheat, alfalfa, sorghum and sudan grass,” says Evan. “It works great.”

Today, Evan spreads Titan XC with his fall dry fertilizer application in front of wheat and spreads his corn and other crop acres in the spring.

“We mix the Titan XC in with potash, MESZ 10, elemental sulfur and ammonium sulfate,” he says. “We’ve built up our soil profile over the last couple of years by using Titan XC. We’ll continue to use it here on every ton of dry fertilizer that’s spread from here on out.”

In the five years he has used Titan XC, Evan calculates that his corn yields have increased by anywhere from 4.8 to 7.1 bushels per acre and his soybean yields have increased in the range of 2.2 to 3.9 bushels per acre. He has recently gone back to growing wheat and saw a 7.1 bu/a yield increase with Titan XC-treated fertilizer compared to check in his latest wheat trial. 

“That really helps out your bottom line at the end of the year,” he says. “Titan XC will be a product that will be used here at Matlock Farms from here on out, and I would highly suggest everyone take a look at it.”

You can hear him talk about his experience in his own words by watching the video below or visiting our YouTube channel.

Learn more about Titan XC and dry fertilizer efficiency by downloading the Titan XC corn bulletin.

Download the Bulletin

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Illinois Farmer Sees Consistent Corn & Soybean Increase with Titan XC
November 17, 2021 — Posted By Agricen

When Illinois farmer Benjamin Rice first heard about Titan XC, he thought it sounded too good to be true. But he was trying to find a way to increase the efficiency of the dry fertilizer he was spreading on his farm, so he decided to take it to the field and try it.

Benjamin took two different 80-acre fields, split them in half, and spread the north half of each field with Titan XC-treated dry fertilizer and the south half with untreated dry fertilizer in the fall. He also took two different 40-acre fields and did the same, but spread the treated and untreated dry fertilizer in the spring.

He wanted to commit multiple years to the trial to see if Titan XC consistently worked. For three years, he repeated the side by side trials on the same fields.

“We’re on a corn and beans crop rotation. After the first year I saw a yield increase consistently on the side of the field treated with Titan XC,” he says. “After all three years, both spread in the fall or spread in the spring, my field averages made 6.8 bushel better on corn and 2.6 bushel better on beans.”

Benjamin was also conscious of costs, and wanted to make sure he was really getting value from the Titan XC when applied to his MAP and potash.

“I knew that Titan XC was going to be an additional cost,” he says.

On the parts of the field where he spread Titan XC-treated fertilizer, he pulled back on his fertilizer by 10 percent to offset the cost of the Titan.

The results showed him just how well Titan XC can help drive dry fertilizer efficiency.

“Every field, every application where there was Titan XC, it had 10 percent less MAP and potash spread and yet we consistently, every time, made more corn and beans where we used Titan XC,” he says. “After I saw that on my farm, I will never spread another acre without Titan XC.”

You can hear him talk about his experience in his own words by watching the video below or on our YouTube channel.

Learn more about Titan XC and dry fertilizer efficiency by downloading our fall fertilizer booklet.

Download the Booklet

 

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