Utah Company Wants to Help Farmers Maximize Fertilizer Investment
June 30, 2022
As record high fertilizer prices continue to put the squeeze on profitability in farm and ranch country, Live Earth Products wants to help producers maximize their investment. Russell Taylor is the company’s vice president and explains how the organic acids they mine near Emery, Utah work to enhance traditional fertilizers.
"The fun part about the products we manufacture is they're natural," said Taylor. "We're not reliant on energy to create them other than the mining process. Humic and fulvic acid are found in every soil and every environment in the world. The products that we're mining are just rich in those organic acids. Humic and fulvic acid helps store nutrients, water and improve soil conditions. We're able to add these organic acids to your fertilizer and let the plant get a longer look at those nutrients. So, just a couple of years ago, we did several tests with the University of Tennessee, and they were applying our humic acid in conjunction liquid nitrogen fertilizer . And what we found was adding these organic acid makes the nitrogen last longer. This year after all these years, we're finally in the cool group. We've been around since 1980 and we're saying, look, you can actually take these products, add it to your fertility and make that fertility last longer. So, it's not a new technology, but it's a way of stretching those ingredients you've got."
He explains some of the reasons behind the rising fertilizer prices.
"We're seeing kind of a triple witching effect, where you had supply come offline, you had a hostile policy towards fossil fuels, which increased the cost of fossil fuels," said Taylor. "Then you also have conflict in Ukraine and Russia, which took more supply offline. As fossil fuels go up, so does the cost of fertilizers. And the other issue is a lot of supply come offline. China did some self regulating where they didn't allow some of the fertilizers out of the country. Obviously Russia did the same thing during the Ukraine conflict. There were other problems occurring here in the United States. Last year we had a big freeze in Texas that actually ruined a lot of the some of the ammonia plants down there. And so there was just a lot of supply that came offline and then fossil fuels went up and then you had the war on top of it. So it just kind of a things that compounded on each other and just drove up the price."
He says Live Earth Products are used by both organic and conventional farmers and the results speak for themselves.
"Since these products are naturally mined, they're certified organic" said Taylor. "But a lot of our producers are actually conventional producers. A lot of people look at that and pigeonhole a product. Well, that's an organic product. I can't use it on my conventional farm. Ninety percent of our sales are conventional producers. They're mixing our humic acid with their traditional fertilizers and spreading it out. They're letting that plant get a longer look at that nutrient. That's the whole reason for using these products. You're going to use less because you lose less."
To learn more about how Live Earth Products can help you maximize your fertilizer investment, you can call them at 435-286-2222 or visit them online at www.LivEarth.com.
Source: Western Ag Network
