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. 

How 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
  
  

With 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.

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.

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.”

Agricen’s Scott Lay recently spoke with Hoosier Ag Today about how growers can maximize their dry fertilizer investment with Titan XC.

Hoosier Ag Today: One of the first decisions for farmers regarding next year's crop results relate to dry fertilizer. With fertilizer prices surging, growers are trying to find ways to maximize their investment. Lay says that's where Titan XC comes into play.

Fall is a good time to apply dry phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) fertilizers because of lower workloads, drier soils and greater fertilizer availability for the spring planted crop. This fall, in the face of higher fertilizer prices, many who apply fall fertilizer are trying to figure out how they can get the most bang for their buck out of that application, and some are even wondering if reducing their fertilizer rate makes sense in light of the current farm economics.

It's practical to fertilize this fall to meet the anticipated needs of next year's crop, taking into consideration local recommendations based on soil tests. Reducing fertilizer rates can potentially increase an existing problem, namely the limited availability of nutrients from applied fertilizer in the first season after application. Only about 10-30% of applied P and 20-60% of applied K is typically recovered, or used by the growing crop, in that first season.

To get the most utilization out of dry fertilizers, many farms turn to Titan XC as a tool to maximize fertilizer efficiency without requiring a big investment. This is important whether a full rate or reduced rate of fertilizer is applied.

With growers soon to be making dry fertilizer applications after harvest, Agricen’s Scott Lay spoke with Dennis Michelsen on WITY Radio about getting the most efficiency out of dry fertilizer and the role of Titan XC.

Dennis – WITY Radio: It’s not always what you put on your field when it comes to fertility, it’s how those nutrients are used. Can you explain why Titan XC helps you get more out of the nutrients that you’re using on your field?

Scott: Nutrients are a fuel that a crop needs. We all recognize that. But we’ve also come to the realization that sometimes the answer is not more fertilizer. As it relates to Titan XC, essentially what we are doing is employing this technology to increase the breakdown or mineralization of the P and K nutrients that we spread in fall, so that more is available to the crop next year when it needs it. That ultimately leads to very consistent results in terms of early season plant vigor, which leads to better yields.

Grower Wade Hoffman of Dassel, Minnesota has used Titan XC on his dry fertilizer for the last eight years. One of the reasons he keeps coming back to Titan XC is because it helps him make better use of the nutrients in his dry fertilizer, which he typically applies in the fall.

"It gives me more use of the fertilizer and a little more even emergence," says Wade. "It seems like the crops really take the fertilizer up better. We've used it for over eight years now, and it's just real consistent."

Most nutrients in dry fertilizer are not in a plant-available form when applied to the field. This can make nutrient recovery slow and inefficient during the growing season. How can growers improve the availability and uptake of applied nutrients for better plant productivity?

Watch the on-demand webinar, "How to Maximize Dry Fertilizer Efficiency for Greater Yield and ROI," to learn:

• How to improve the efficiency of your dry fertilizer application
  
  
• Why solubilization of dry fertilizer prills is important
  
  
• How utilizing Titan XC on dry fertilizer can lead to greater yield opportunities and a higher return on investment