Microbial nitrogen provider Pivot Bio, Berkeley, Calif., recently announced its expansion into Canada, including launching the company’s business operations headquartered in Regina, Sask., and appointing its leadership team. Its future plans are to offer sustainable nitrogen to Canadian farmers, pending regulatory approvals. It said product trials are currently underway in both Eastern and Western Canada on corn, wheat, and canola.
Pivot Bio’s product has been commercially available in the US since 2019. The company said its microbes provide farmers with a dependable and consistent nitrogen source that adheres to the root of the plants and does not wash away or volatilize into the air.
Pivot Bio estimates that in Canada, nitrogen-hungry canola, corn, and spring wheat account for about 45% of seeded acres, and Canadian farmers use about five billion pounds (2.2 billion kilograms) of synthetic nitrogen every year to grow those crops.
Pivot Bio’s Canada operations launch under the leadership of Chuck Broughton, General Manager. It said Broughton brings more than 30 years of industry experience to Pivot Bio’s Canadian team, including business development, sales, and marketing in the North American and global seed treatment, inoculants, and crop protection markets.
Saskatchewan-based Wade Clarke is Pivot Bio’s Regional Sales Leader for Canada, and professional agrologist Katie Donohue, also from Saskatchewan, has joined Pivot Bio as Commercial Agronomist.