Suffolk County, N.Y. — This area’s sweet corn growers are testing a new type of controlled release fertilizer with the aim of protecting groundwater and the Long Island Sound. “The controlled release nitrogen fertilizer (CRNF) we are evaluating with Long Island sweet growers has only recently become available on the retail market for specialty crop producers and is designed to release the fertilizer according to the crop needs,” said Becky Wiseman, coordinator of the agricultural stewardship program for the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, sponsor of the trials along with American Farmland Trust and Agflex Inc. She identified the CRNF as Agrium’s ESN (environmentally smart nitrogen), which is designed to break down over time according to the plant’s needs for nutrients. Participating farmers will apply CRNF and conventional fertilizer in large field demonstration projects so that a direct side-by-side comparison can be made. Each project will be at least 8 planted rows wide and run the full length of the field to allow for adequate harvest for yield/quality assessment. The project will be part of the BMP Challenge system, which reimburses farmers who experience any reduction in their harvest after utilizing approved conservation practices. “According to our researchers, Agrium’s ESN is 10 to 15 cents more costly per unit N, which means for every pound of N, CRNF costs 10 to 15 more cents,” Wiseman explained. She noted that the planners also worked with Scotts on its Agricote brand. Nitrogen runoff is a major concern in Suffolk County, which accounts for approximately 1.3 percent of Long Island Sound’s total watershed area. It has been estimated that nonpoint sources account for 72-82 percent of the total nitrogen from Suffolk County into the Sound.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain