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At our world-class biochemical production facility in Denton, Texas, we make some of Loveland Products’ fastest growing brands—Accomplish, Extract and Titan—as well as Agricen’s SoilBuilder, SoilLife and NutriLife brands. Completed in September 2011, the Denton plant was built to accommodate growing demands for these products, which were formerly only produced at our Pilot Point, Texas location.

At Denton, our products are produced through a patent-pending fermentation process using a new, state-of-the-art manufacturing platform. This process yields a highly concentrated extract that contains a diverse community of naturally occurring microorganisms and their biochemical byproducts (e.g., enzymes, organic acids). The end product is a biological and biochemical product that can be used as part of an integrated nutrient management program to improve plant nutrition.

Learn more about our products and their role in sustainable agriculture by downloading our Growing for the Future Booklet.

Plant scientists from the University of Kentucky will present a poster session on research involving SoilBuilder at Plant Biology 2012, the annual meeting of the American Society for Plant Biologists (ASPB):

What? Plant Biosensors: Monitoring changes in the phenlypropanoid pathway in response to microbial based soil additives (Poster 16 - Gene Regulation and Molecular Biology)
Who? Mohammad Babar Ali & David H McNear, University of Kentucky
When & Where? Plant Biology 2012, July 20-24, 2012, Austin, TX

Agricen presented data on SoilBuilder at the 2011 ASA, CSSA and SSSA International Annual Meetings. SoilBuilder is Agricen’s base biochemical fertilizer catalyst technology for the agriculture industry.

In a 3-year field study conducted at Arise Research and Discovery (Martinsville, IL), SoilBuilder reduced nitrate leaching from soil applications of urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) – in addition to improving nitrogen use efficiency and corn yields – when incorporated into an integrated nutrient management program on corn. The data was discussed during an oral presentation: Increased Nitrogen Use Efficiency and Reduced Nitrate Leaching Using SoilBuilder AF in an Integrated Nutrient Management Program on Corn (Abstract #387-3).

Data from a separate study on SoilBuilder, conducted by researchers from Auburn University, was also presented: Microbial Inoculants as Tools for Reducing Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Soil (Oral presentation; Abstract #288-4).

Reducing a fertilizer’s leachable nitrates allows the fertilizer to act more efficiently. It also helps protect our water resources.

In a three-year lysimeter study, we evaluated the ability of SoilBuilder™, our base fertilizer catalyst platform, to increase corn yields by converting fertilizer nitrogen (N) into a less leachable form. The study was conducted at the field research facilities of Arise Research & Discovery, Inc., in Illinois.

SoilBuilder-treated fertilizer was compared to untreated fertilizer (control) over three growing seasons. Corn yield and nitrate leaching were evaluated. Each treated area (SoilBuilder vs. control) included four rows of field corn (row length: 30 ft; row spacing: 30 in; seed rate: 30,000/acre. The volume of leachable water and nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N) concentrations in the water were determined six times during each season following pumping of the lysimeter wells.

In each of the three seasons, adding SoilBuilder to fertilizer increased yields over the control (Table 1). It was also associated with a significant reduction in nitrate leaching compared to the control (Table 2).

The average rate of nitrate leaching during the 2008 growing season is shown in Figure 1.

Overall, this field trial shows the ability of SoilBuilder to convert fertilizer nitrogen into a less leachable form that is more available for crop nutrition.

It is just one of the many projects we do at Agricen to demonstrate that our biologically sourced tools can effectively increase crop yields.