By KRISS NELSON

editor@farm-news.com

PureAcre, an agricultural startup company is looking to utilize molecular chemistry to help improve plant nutrition.

John Appel, President of PureAcre said they are introducing a product as a soft launch for this growing season that will focus on both grower economics and environmental sustainability.

“We recognize that although crop prices have increased recently and are in an improved state, they are still not what they were a few years ago, so growers still feel the squeeze from a farm income standpoint and we are looking to improve that,” said Appel. “For environmental sustainability, a lot of fertilizers, plant nutrition is not utilized by the crop – that is only about 60% of nitrogen that is applied that is not used and the rest is lost through the water or air. That is also true for other nutrients as well.”

Augere

The first product PureAcre is releasing to help address those issues is Augere – which is a Latin term meaning to increase.

Augere is a soil amendment that increases nutrient assimilation when added to liquid fertilizers, such as UAN (urea ammonium nitrate) and starter fertilizers.

“Nitrogen leaching is a significant issue for farmers–today, only 60-65% of applied nitrogen is taken up by crops with the balance lost to the hydrosphere through leaching, denitrification, and soil entrapment,” said Appel. “For farmers, that means that they have to over-apply nitrogen to get desired yield, even though a good deal of what’s being put down never benefits their crops. With Augere, we can course-correct and help more of applied nutrients reach the plants.”

David Coorts, Vice President of Technical at PureAcre said the agricultural input is powered by the company’s proprietary carrier, OpusMAX, which allows for improved uptake of nutrients in crops like corn, wheat, soybeans, rice, and cotton, and significantly reduces nitrate leaching.

“We are focused on harnessing supramolecular chemistry,” said Coorts. “Our foundational technology OpusMAX is what drives the activity with Augere. As we put that with liquid fertilizers, it will form supramolecular molecules for structures that then resist the ability to be leached out of the soil profile and or better concentrated near the root zone so they can be taken up by the plants more efficiently. We are different than anything currently on the market.”

Augere can be added directly to a grower’s liquid fertilizer program with no special equipment required.

Trial studies

Based on internal trials, nutrient assimilation data, biomass calculations, and current pricing for UAN, PureAcre estimates that Augere could provide a 4:1 return on investment or higher for corn growers at today’s commodity prices. Farmers can opt to use the fertilizer enhancer as an additive to their current fertilization programs to create healthier root systems or use Augere as a supplement to cut UAN use by as much as 30% to realize equitable crop health to today’s standard programs.

“Corn is obviously an important crop for Iowa growers and with corn prices where they are, everybody is seeing an uptick in fertilizer prices as well,” said Appel. “We realize the importance to get the most out of your fertilizer and capturing as much yield as we can, increase revenues and profitabilities – this is an ideal fit for these growers and we believe it generates a significant return on investment.”

During a leach-aid study, Coorts said data was generated through that research that demonstrated a reduced loss of nitrates up to 99%.

“With the amount of water growers sometimes encounter in the growing season, especially early when nitrogen is subject to leaching, this is a great opportunity to use a product that plugs the preverbal hole in the bucket and does it through a mode of action unlike any other product on the market,” said Coorts.

In addition to claims to stop nutrient leaching, Coorts said Augere is also showing it increases biomass by over 100%.

“Growers understand it is important to get the crop up fast, uniform and get it to tassel and pollination as quickly as possible and this product appears it is going to help us do that,” he said. “We are very excited about getting it into the field and growers giving us feedback and experience just what we have experienced on our own trials at this point.”

Availability

Coorts said Augere is rapidly moving through the regulatory system and has been approved for use in 23 states, and that seems to be changing almost daily.

“It is broadly available and is really best considered a soft launch this year,” said Coorts. “Our goal this year is to try to gain commercial experience on a controlled level, to make sure we are delivering the brand promised and delivering the brand capabilities and we see what we saw in the greenhouse translocated into field performance as well. We look forward to a full scale launch, for nationwide distribution in late 2021, for sales in 2022.”

An environmentally sustainable product

Appel said a challenge for environmental sustainability is often times cost and potentially yield threatening.

“One of the things that has been a challenge for sustainability, a lot of times it costs more, the theme of sustainability is sometimes above and beyond is what you are already doing,” he said. “The way we look at it is we try not to make that trade off – if you can do something that is going to make you more money and have a positive impact on the environment that is much more compelling versus let’s have a positive impact on the environment and it costs you more money. The technology stands on its own to generate a return of investment and you get the added benefit of sustainability impacts – we try to focus on it all, not just one or the other.”

“As growers have looked at opportunities to reduce their environmental footprint it has always come with a higher cost and it may be translocated into increased profitability on the back side and this product will allow both of those things, we believe,” said Coorts.