Rosenort, Manitoba-Rosenort Agro Ltd. has entered into a joint venture agreement with Agrico Canada Ltd./Ltée, Mississauga, Ont., one of its fertilizer suppliers. Agrico has purchased 50 percent of Rosenort’s shares from owners Chuck and Rudy Brandt. Joining in the share purchase agreement is Dennis Benjamin, current general manager. Benjamin will remain as general manager, and the Brandts will continue as active consultants. “Our customers will not see any differences in the way the business is run,” said Chuck Brandt. “All the services and products we have always offered will still be available, but Agrico is bringing some enhancements to the business that will benefit our customers now and in to the future. When Rudy and I were considering the future of Rosenort Agro, we placed a high value on the future of local ownership. The partnership with Agrico accommodates this very well. Agrico is a company committed to partnership with local management.” The Brandts’ father, Levi, started the business selling petroleum products in the 1940s, and eventually became an Esso agent, selling fertilizer and crop protection products. It was incorporated in 1978 and became an independent dealer supported by suppliers Agrico and J.R. Simplot Co. Chuck and Rudy eventually assumed responsibility for the entire business. Agrico, which just celebrated its 75^th anniversary, runs a network of warehouses and offers fertilizer products via company-owned retail locations and joint venture partners.

Morris, Minn.-Skeptics who doubt the economics of converting wind energy into hydrogen to produce anhydrous ammonia for fertilizer aren’t seeing the whole picture, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota’s West Central Research and Outreach Center. “There are other dynamics at work here that the critics may not be taking into consideration,” Mike Reese, a spokesman for the center, told Green Markets. “A system in which farmers can join together in an LLC or co-op to produce their own fertilizer at a moderate price for a 20-30 year period while developing a profitable wind enterprise certainly has potential.” Reese said the wind-to-hydrogen-to-ammonia project is in the pre-design stage, but could be producing ammonia in fall 2007. Greg Cuomo, another official with the center, said the project got a boost with a $2.5 million bonding bill approved this year by the state legislature and funding from the Renewable Energy and the Environment initiative. Reese explained that hydrogen is produced through electrolysis. Hydrogen and oxygen will be separated from water and wind electrical energy in an electrolyzer by a series of cells with special membranes under charge. In a different process, nitrogen will be separated from air via a molecular sieve. Then, under the appropriate pressure and temperature, hydrogen and nitrogen will be introduced together into a reactor and passed through a catalyst bed. A portion of the hydrogen and nitrogen will form NH3 in a modified Haber Bosch high pressure process.

Reno, Nev.-Itronics Metallurgical Inc. announced that it will begin the process of registering its new GOLD’n GRO Guardian deer repellent fertilizer with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The product may be on the market as early as 2008. GOLD’n GRO Guardian will be registered as a biopesticide for use on ornamental landscape plants and shrubs, lawns, flower gardens, golf courses, non-bearing trees, and vines, and by nursery growers of non-food plants. Field trials in cooperation with the North American Deer Management Network have shown the product effective as both a fertilizer and a repellent, lasting up to three months after being sprayed on plants. The national annual market for deer repellent products is growing rapidly and is estimated to exceed $50 million.

Tallahassee, Fla.-A memo from Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) Secretary Colleen Castile to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush appeared to link fertilizer runoff with outbreaks of red tide, an algae that kills fish and other marine life in the Gulf of Mexico. During recent years, red tide outbreaks have become increasingly common. The memo also appeared to support allegations made by several environmental groups that there was a link between the two. The memo said it was known there was a link between the runoffs, particularly nitrogens and phosphates, but the amount necessary for it to become toxic was not known. FDEP was successfully sued over the issues in federal court in 2004, and the court ruled against the state’s claim there was no connection. It ordered the state to provide an updated list of the condition of the state’s 700 waterways. Environmentalists also charged the state had changed the definition of pollution in order to remove many of the waterways from the list of the contaminated.

Washington, D.C.-At a Dec. 14 public hearing, The Fertilizer Institute told the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and the Federal Railroad Administration that it supports efforts to improve safety, but opposed the Association of American Railroads (AAR) Tank Car Committee proposal for changes to tank car design and railroad operation involving hazardous materials transportation. The AAR committee has recommended that the current anhydrous fleet be replaced with heavier cars to prevent a release of ammonia in the event of an accident. “TFI supports efforts to improve safety, but we have opposed the Tank Car Committee proposal for several reasons,” TFI said in a statement “Most notably, TFI feels that any tank car redesign should be postponed until physical test and analysis techniques are defined utilizing input from the Volpe Center study currently underway. We have questioned the validity of AAR’s historical performance-based statistical analysis as the basis for imposing a new tank car standard when a majority of the current anhydrous ammonia fleet is less than 11 years old.” TFI said no data has been presented to date that corroborates any inadequacies in the types of tank cars in ammonia service. Following the January 2003 Minot, N.D., train derailment that caused a deadly anhydrous spill, the industry has focused on improving non-accidental releases through improved valving, reduced intervals between safety valve requalification, enhanced loading and release, and enhanced training on the safe handling and security of ammonia to customers and first responders, TFI said. Specifically, TFI said any effort to improve top fittings must take into consideration operator access, weather conditions, personal protective equipment required, and access by emergency responders. As for tank car pressure, the use of double shelf couplers on hazardous material tank cars has improved the survivability of cars in a derailment, TFI said, recommending that PHMSA and FRA consider the requirement that all cars have double shelf couplers. Lastly, bearing sensors and on-board tracking would have to be equipped on all cars in a train to have a positive impact on safety, TFI said, arguing that on-board monitoring would not prevent an incident from happening. “TFI members have shown for many years a willingness to improve overall safety as demonstrated by our support for adoption of head shields, jacketing and double shelf couplers,” TFI said.

Washington, D.C.-EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson this week signed the Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) rule, which includes measures requested by The Fertilizer Institute. Specifically, the rule raised the above-ground storage capacity limits to 10,000-gallon or less, which exempts the majority of TFI members’ facilities, TFI said. In addition, EPA amended the rule to define and exempt motive power containers, which include trucks, automobiles, and the fertilizer industry’s large mining equipment. Additional amendments made by EPA include providing an alternative to the general secondary containment requirement without requiring a determination of impracticability for qualified oil-filled operational equipment; exempting mobile refuelers from the sized secondary containment requirements for bulk storage containers; removing SPCC requirements for animal fats and vegetable oils; and extending the SPCC compliance dates for farms. “TFI has worked with EPA and other organizations to improve this regulation for its members since the 2002 rule was announced,” said TFI President Ford B. West. “EPA’s decision to modify the rule to include these important measures is a victory for our industry. Collectively, these amendments could save our industry thousands of dollars per facility.” Facilities have until Oct. 31, 2007, to amend existing plans or to implement a plan under the new rule. TFI said it was joined by more than 130 other agricultural organizations as part of the Agriculture Coalition on the Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure in working with EPA to secure the amendments.