TRIPLEX - Nutrition done differently
The more you fertilise, the more you lose!!
The inefficiencies of soluble, salt-based synthetic fertilisers have been well known for many years but largely ignored due to them being (relatively) cheap commodities that deliver yield.
Just bung some more on.
Over many years of trialling, Agro-Vital have investigated nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) with independent trialling organisations. The classic way of calculating NUE is to compare the grain nitrogen take-off at harvest to the amount of nitrogen applied as fertiliser expressed as a percentage. Here are some examples from recent wheat and spring barley trials:
Recent wheat & spring barley trials
In each of these trials, though, there were untreated plots that received no synthetic nitrogen fertilisers. These plots yielded and all of the grain had protein and therefore nitrogen content. This grain nitrogen was provided through mineralisation of soil organic matter and was, therefore, also available to the plots receiving synthetic nitrogen fertilisers.
The grain nitrogen take-off for these untreated plots was calculated and, when added to the nitrogen fertiliser inputs, give a realistic value for the total amount of nitrogen available to the crops. Comparing the grain take-offs of treated plots to the total amount of nitrogen available to the crop gives the actual NUE:
Comparing the NUE values from the two alternative methods of calculation show a significant drop in the efficiencies of nitrogen fertilisers:
Comparing the NUE values
On average the NUE of the fertilisers used are actually 28% lower than would be calculated through “classic” NUE calculation.
Just bung some more on? …Still?
These few trials show the clear trend that the more nitrogen that you put on your crop; the more money you are wasting to the field drains, the atmosphere or, more troubling, the groundwaters. Money wasted in these trials is the cost of the nitrogen lost from the crop root zone.
It is time to stop being a “More-On” farmer and cater to each field according to what the soil has on offer to supply the crop. Triplex is designed to give bespoke crop nutrition field by field, crop by crop, according to soil and tissue or sap analyses. Triplex provides all the nutrients and trace elements needed in a “complexed” form which is readily available to the plant but resistant to leaching or volatilisation.
To find out more about ‘nutrition done differently’ come along to one of the Triplex open days in Chepstow – 19th or 20th February:
09:30 - Arrive for coffee and pastries
10:00 - Introduction by Andrew Sincock
10:15 - Joel Williams (Nutrient uptake and NUE?)
11:30 - Triplex Technology - Jan Feersma Hoekstra
12:30 - Lunch & Landwrx Drill Demo
13:30 - A water company's perspective - Nutrient leaching & the true cost of fertiliser!
14:00 - John Joseph, Soil Farmer of the Year 2025
14:30 - Triplex UK Andrew & Carl Gibbard
15:00 - Tour of the Triplex Machine
15:30 - Q&A
16:00 - Close
BASIS points available
To register for Thursday 19th February https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/triplex-launch-with-joel-williams-tickets-1980863033657?aff=oddtdtcreator
To register for Friday, 20th February
