Strong Demand For Solution To Urea Price Spike And Regulations

This season’s record urea prices, coupled with nutrient cap regulations, have seen a lift in the number of dairy farmers changing their fertiliser programmes to lower their nitrogen footprint and costs.

Donaghys Managing Director Jeremy Silva says the company is working at capacity to keep up with renewed demand for their N-Boost nitrogen booster product. Donaghys N-Boost is a proven addition to a fertiliser programme that helps maintain production, while lowering urea application.

“It’s one of the few options out there that can help farmers maintain or lift production off lower nitrogen inputs.”

“We’ve seen the dual impact of high urea pricing and regulations on N come together. The result has been a wave of dairy farmers turning to foliar applications of urea. When N-Boost is added they can cut back their application rates this way to get under the N-cap, and they’re finding they can cut their urea bill and protect their dry matter production.”

Jeremy says dairy farmers are looking at options where they can maintain milksolids production and their profitability. “They are having a try of the N-Boost system this Autumn to work out how it suits their farm with a view to running it all through next season.”

N-Boost is a patented formulation that contains adenine compounds and amino acids. The N-Boost system is sprayed onto pasture by conventional boom sprayer after mixing it with dissolved urea in a mixing station, which Donaghys supply to farmers.

The company has seen a lift of more than 85% in N-Boost sales this season. “We’ve ramped up our production of N-Boost to keep up with this growth. Additional mixing stations are on order to supply to farms coming onto the N-Boost system. At peak around more than 7% of dairy farmers were regular users of the N-Boost system. That number tapered when the urea price crashed to around $500 per tonne, with the lift in urea prices demand is rapidly heading back towards previous levels.”

While supply chain disruptions have seen fertiliser prices across the board lift, Jeremy says N-Boost is not impacted to the same extent. “The majority of raw materials are made in New Zealand, so there’s limited risk of N-Boost running out, or not being available when a Farmer needs it.”

Donaghys have an online nitrogen use calculator at www.n-boost.com for dairy farmers to see how the N-Boost system could work on their farms.

The calculator shows the N-Boost system cuts urea costs while maintaining production, providing a total financial benefit of $130,000 p.a. on the average farm size of 233ha applying 129kg of nitrogen to their pasture.

“Farmers will be working with their accountants, their bank and advisors to mitigate the impact of these large urea price rises so they can close out the year and achieve budgets,” says Jeremy.

“Cost-control and production are top of mind for dairy farmers. They will look to options that don’t sacrifice production. The N-Boost system is a proven tool to help you reduce your N applications to cut costs without costing dry matter production.”

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