News
Dow AgroSciences in final stages of bringing nitrogen stabilizer to the market

July 29, 2008 – This new
product uses a patent-pending microencapsulation process that allows it
to be applied much like a foundation herbicide.

July 29, 2008 – This new
product uses a patent-pending microencapsulation process that allows it
to be applied much like a foundation herbicide. “This product can be
tank mixed with your favorite product, so growers who combine a
foundation herbicide application with 28 or 32% UAN [urea ammonium
nitrate] in the spring can use this product to stabilize the nitrogen
in UAN,” says Adam Manwarren, product manager with Dow AgroSciences.

The
product contains the same active ingredient that is in N-Serve nitrogen
stabilizer — nitrapyrin. When applied to the soil, the stabilizer helps
control Nitrosomonas soil bacteria, the bacteria that begin
the conversion of ammonium-N to nitrate-N. This process, called
nitrification, changes nitrogen from the positively charged ammonium-N
to a negatively charged nitrate-N, which can contaminate groundwater
through leaching.

“The
product sits on the surface but, once incorporated, starts to work by
preventing the conversion to nitrate and keeping the nitrogen available
to the corn plant,” Manwarren says.

He
predicts the product will be popular with producers during spring UAN
and manure application. “While nitrogen stabilization is often viewed
as a way to keep nitrogen in the root zone that can be used by the corn
plant, we also see this product as helping to control nitrate problems
in groundwater,” he says. “That is especially beneficial for growers
spreading manure on the soil.”

Under
a special use exemption, growers in Iowa are using the product this
season on approximately 2,000 acres. “We will have demonstration plots
out this summer and fall in both the UAN and manure application
markets,” Manwarren says. The product should be available for sale
throughout the Midwest in spring 2009, pending federal and state
registrations.