Buyer Beware

Website Editor • February 29, 2016

I understand the concerns and needs to cut back, however the fact of the matter still remains, we must grow a crop.  Not only that, we must be profitable while doing so.  This plea is not to raise awareness in efficiencies but to raise awareness with products manufactured as so called “efficient products” that saturate our industry. It seems there is an evermore rush on the producers to get the biggest “bang for their buck” when it comes to fertilizer.  This has driven several competing manufactures to use the method of cold blending while adding commodities to lower the cost of their fertilizer.  While lowering the cost makes it more appealing to the grower, there is always a trade off.  There is a tremendous risk when putting commodities like 10-34-0 and 28% UAN with the seed at planting.  Even though there is an economic supply of Nitrogen and Phosphate, their place is NOT with the seed.  I’m sure we can all agree that placing those products with the seed is exposing us to tremendous risk.  Some of those risks are salt injury and lower stand counts.  But… buyer beware, there is a vast majority of suppliers out there that are adding dangerous products to seed placed fertilizer products.  There is no regard for you or your crop safety; this is simply to sell commodity products at a premium.  NACHURS has driven the 4Rs initiative ever since its conception; we have been at the forefront of placing the proper amount of seed safe plant nutrients with the seed.  This offers producers the most agronomic form of P and K for your crops inputs.  We have always prided ourselves on high quality seed safe NPK, never compromising your crop’s safety.  This is why we do not use high salt commodities in our products, rather manufacturing complete reacted solutions with nearly neutral pH and low salt. I cannot stress enough to read your manufacture label and understand what ingredients are in your product.  If they are unable tell you what is in their product then there is probably a good reason for the lack of transparency.  In order to stay profitable in production agriculture it is your job to make the best-informed decisions.  If you have questions regarding your current program and our products ask your NACHURS representative, or anyone on our NACHURS Agronomy team.-Joe Pflum, Northeast US Sales Agronomist

I understand the concerns and needs to cut back, however the fact of the matter still remains, we must grow a crop.  Not only that, we must be profitable while doing so. 

This plea is not to raise awareness in efficiencies but to raise awareness with products manufactured as so called “efficient products” that saturate our industry. It seems there is an evermore rush on the producers to get the biggest “bang for their buck” when it comes to fertilizer.  This has driven several competing manufactures to use the method of cold blending while adding commodities to lower the cost of their fertilizer.  While lowering the cost makes it more appealing to the grower, there is always a trade off.  There is a tremendous risk when putting commodities like 10-34-0 and 28% UAN with the seed at planting.  Even though there is an economic supply of Nitrogen and Phosphate, their place is NOT with the seed.  I’m sure we can all agree that placing those products with the seed is exposing us to tremendous risk.  Some of those risks are salt injury and lower stand counts.  But… buyer beware, there is a vast majority of suppliers out there that are adding dangerous products to seed placed fertilizer products.  There is no regard for you or your crop safety; this is simply to sell commodity products at a premium. 

NACHURS has driven the 4Rs initiative ever since its conception; we have been at the forefront of placing the proper amount of seed safe plant nutrients with the seed.  This offers producers the most agronomic form of P and K for your crops inputs.  We have always prided ourselves on high quality seed safe NPK, never compromising your crop’s safety.  This is why we do not use high salt commodities in our products, rather manufacturing complete reacted solutions with nearly neutral pH and low salt. 

I cannot stress enough to read your manufacture label and understand what ingredients are in your product.  If they are unable tell you what is in their product then there is probably a good reason for the lack of transparency.  In order to stay profitable in production agriculture it is your job to make the best-informed decisions.  If you have questions regarding your current program and our products ask your NACHURS representative, or anyone on our NACHURS Agronomy team.


-Joe Pflum, Northeast US Sales Agronomist


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We are at the point in the year where things are slowing down around the farm and it is time to reflect on the season to remind ourselves what we learned. Over the last couple of weeks, the District Sales Managers and I have spent some time reflecting on what worked well in the field and the challenges we faced too. Here are the top 5 things we learned from 2024 growing season: #1 Split applying Nitrogen and Sulfur is a practice that should be embraced on a yearly basis when growing corn. Do you remember how the planting season started and what happened in the first 60 days after the planters started rolling? Our field conditions started out dry with some areas of the corn belt showing up on the drought map. Then mother nature blessed us with rain that never stopped in some areas making it difficult to finish planting. Growers that had split applied their Nitrogen and Sulfur were able to avoid nutrient loss from the rain but also apply the nutrients when the crop needed it most. In the end yield was better on split applied nitrogen fields compared to fields that had all the N applied in the fall or spring before planting. #2 For the past 2 seasons in the North region, we have seen the benefits of adding NACHURS Humi-Flex FA to the in-furrow starter fertilizer. NACHURS Humi-Flex FA is our fulvic acid and it is becoming a valuable component in our starter fertilizer for many reasons. We are using it to chelate the nutrients in the starter fertilizer especially phosphorus. Humi-Flex FA also buffers the soil pH to neutral in that nutrient band keeping nutrients available in fields that have less then optimal pH for crop growth. Finally, we use Humi-Flex FA to create a healthy soil microbiome that leads to more root mass and nutrient uptake. #3 Nutrient uptake charts for corn and soybeans have been a great tool for our team to help our customers visualize the crops nutrient needs based on timing during the growing season.
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