Thirteen years of Consistent Results with ALPINE Liquid Fertilizer
By: Larry Balion
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Thirteen years ago, soil chemistry and agronomy led Brad Hanmer to use ALPINE liquid fertilizer to provide in-furrow liquid orthophosphate in his farm’s challenging soil. He still uses ALPINE G22 today because he’s seen it consistently deliver results, and he’s benefited from the ability to use his ALPINE delivery system to easily apply other nutrients and inoculants to his crops if he needs them.
Hanmer chose to move to liquid fertilizer because of the science behind the product. His farm in Saskatchewan has high pH, high Ca and high Mg soil that ties up nutrients, so he needed a way to deliver available phosphorous to the plants during seeding.
ALPINE G22 does not require warm soil and moisture to convert to plant available orthophosphate unlike other phosphate sources. It is readily available and can be used up by emerging seedlings regardless of the soil condition. Its benefits are magnified in cold, dry soil, but Hanmer has seen it work consistently in his farm’s challenging soil conditions regardless of temperature or moisture levels.
While Hanmer originally used ALPINE G22 liquid fertilizer because of the science, its performance along with consistency and quality has made the company a trusted partner.
“ALPINE is a true hot mix product,” says Hanmer, speaking of the manufacturing process the company uses to create its liquid fertilizer. “They provide a new molecule from clean sources as opposed to a suspension-based orthophosphate or by-product based liquid fertilizers.”
After his ALPINE District Sales Manager helped Hanmer set up the equipment to store and deliver the fertilizer, he found he had a mechanism that made it easy to deliver beneficial ingredients, like micro-nutrients or inoculants, at seeding and in foliar nutrition programs developed in concert with the ALPINE technical team. That ability combined with one-on-one support has helped him get the best crop possible, even in the most challenging years.
While Hanmer’s operation runs five drills each seeding about 6,000 acres, he believes the advantage of ALPINE liquid fertilizer is the same regardless of the farm size simply because all crops require quality nutrients to reach their agronomic potential. ALPINE allows him to deliver them in the right form, at the right rate, in the right place, at the right time.
“I have not forgotten when my first ALPINE rep told me that in our type of soil their ALPINE G22 would provide a highly available, concentrated, safe phosphorous as a solution to the limitations caused by my soil,” says Hanmer. “That holds true 13 years later.”
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