Agrium Advanced Technologies’ new ESN® coating facility in New Madrid, Mo., has started commercial operations, completing the construction ahead of schedule and under budget, and has shipped its first sale from the facility. Agrium touts ESN as the leading environmentally safe source of nitrogen, increasing grower production value while protecting from nitrogen losses.
The New Madrid facility began its start-up in mid-February and six weeks were spent commissioning the plant and ensuring it was producing product that met company standards. “We have worked extremely hard to ensure we were able to get the plant to the high quality standards that ESN is known for,” said Rod Oglesby, director of operations for Agrium Advanced Technologies. “We were able to make a few critical adjustments to make the process more consistent, which will result in the best product for growers.”
The first commercial sale shipped from the facility March 26, with two truckloads going to two different local Crop Production Services locations. “We are very excited to have strong relationships with a number of distribution customers in the key agricultural markets in the area the New Madrid facility will service,” said Andrew Mittag, president, Agrium Advanced Technologies. “The strong value proposition ESN provides growers through increased production and convenience will help to continue the rapid growth of ESN. This will allow us to take advantage of the New Madrid facility’s ability to double its production, which it was designed to do.”
Groundbreaking for the New Madrid coating facility was in June 2009 (GM May 25, 2009). It has an annual production capacity of 120,000 st, and has been designed so that capacity can be quickly doubled in the future (GM May 25, 2009). The incremental capacity will bring total Agrium ESN® production capacity to 360,000 st at three separate locations. Agrium also produces ESN at Calgary, Alberta, and Sylacauga, Ala.
Agrium says the unique ESN technology provides a flexible, micro-thin polymer coating that encapsulates a nitrogen granule, which protects the nitrogen from loss mechanisms and releases the nutrient based on temperature and soil moisture, when the crops need it most.
Agrium Advanced Technologies, a manufacturer and marketer of slow- and controlled-release fertilizers and micronutrients in the agriculture, professional turf and ornamental, consumer lawn and garden, and specialty agriculture markets, is a unit of Agrium Inc.