History

Based in Western Australia, we at Nutrian have experienced a rapid growth in demand for our products over the last 6 years. We stand by our guiding motto viz. “Tommorrow’s Technology Today” and invest time and resources in developing and refining technologies while reviewing product quality on an ongoing basis. It is imperative to us that our products are easy to use and perform consistently.

Nutrian’s owner, Dave Seagreen, has strong connections with the land, having grown up within a farming community in Southern Africa. In Dave’s words ‘As a Chemical Engineer, also having studied soil chemistry and plant nutrition, I always felt a strong need to develop and supply better fertiliser choices for farmers. ‘It is important to offer cost effective, superior products that really perform. This becomes even more important with escalating costs and the need to maximise yields.’

Dave brings to Australia 20 years of extensive experience in liquid fertilisers, having consulted to liquid fertiliser specialist companies throughout Africa, Europe, USA and Canada, and is excited to be able to bring innovative nutritional options to the market in Australia. Passionate about crop nutrition, he stresses, ‘It is even more crucial where soil quality is poor that we utilise the very best that liquid fertiliser has to offer’. Nutrian’s fertilisers are developed with an understanding of the farmer’s needs and Australian conditions for optimal performance and to offer maximum nutrition to the crop at essential stages of development.

Committed to Research and Development

Our product offering includes both highly concentrated suspensions (our EZYFLOW range) as well as complete solutions such as chelated micronutrients and NPK mixtures (NutriFUSION and Liquitec ranges) that are used in a range of applications from fertigation to foliar application. In addition to our established products, we are committed to (1) developing new products to treat particular nutritional problems (e.g. Lupinbud, see below) and (2) to provide customized solutions to meet individual farmers requirements.

Our EZYFLOW products (oxides, carbonates and gypsum) are formulated with specialised equipment to produce a particle size range of 0.1 -2 microns (or 6 – 7 m2 for every 10 ml of product). Nutrian is one of only a few companies in the world to do this consistently with guaranteed quality and shelf-life. This ultra-fine particle-size ensures rapid solubility and hence nutrient availability to crops for absorption. Furthermore, these products are physically compatible with a wide range of agricultural chemicals making them amenable to co-application and hence reducing costs of separate applications. This is particularly important in broadacre agriculture where extensive areas need to be treated and the costs of repeat applications are significant.

The ultra-fineness of EZYFLOW products allows fertigation through micro-sprinklers and drip-tape without causing problems with clogging. This permits the fertigation of products like liquid lime (EZYFLOW Ca) and gypsum (EZYFLOW Gypsum) in established fields and orchards. Due to particle-size, these products dissolve far more rapidly than conventional sources, producing desired results in a time scale that is meaningful to growers. For example, vegetable and orchard growers who have used EZYFLOW Gypsum to treat salinity within the root-zone have observed significant improvement in crop growth and productivity within weeks of first application.

Our Liquitec and NutriFUSION products are currently used by many prominent horticultural growers in Western Australia and other states in Australia. A number of the largest growers have converted from granular fertilization to programs based primarily on our liquids. Crops include tomatoes, capsicums, strawberries, leafy vegetables, brassicas, potatoes, turf etc.

Why Nutrian?

Solutions that suit your needs

At Nutrian we have the ability to customise products and nutritional programs to suit farmers’ individual needs. This provision of customised products and programs together with Nutrian’s agronomic support all work to improve crop yields.

In Western Australia, particularly on sandy soils, lupin yield is often reduced by environmental stresses such as a lack of water, salinity or poor nutrient absorption, which may cause flower abortion. Nutrian has spent several years researching this issue and has developed a unique product blend, Lupinbud, which acts to reduce flower abortion in lupins. Independent replicated trials have shown marked increases in average yield of up to 300 kg/ha.

Convenient and Versatile

The convenience and versatility of liquid fertilisers is obvious; products are in solution and ready to apply through irrigation systems or spray onto a given crop. Additionally, some liquids also offer compatibility with other fertiliser products and/or herbicides and pesticides, which are not afforded by all. Australian broadacre farmers frequently apply urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) to an established crop. Liquids allow trace elements like Zinc, Manganese and Copper to be co-applied at this time, perhaps even together with a herbicide or pesticide. Significantly oxide suspensions such as Nutrian’s EZYFLOW range are compatible with UAN with no further requirement for additional water. By contrast, liquid sulphates are only compatible if the UAN is diluted with water; something which many farmers are reluctant to do, as this requires the filling of tanks more often and consequently results in greater time spent and increased cost of application.

The versatility of liquids is inherent in their suitability to application by a variety of means, through irrigation systems (fertigation), through spray equipment as foliar feeds (e.g. boom sprays or aerial applications) or directly to seed or through seeding equipment during seeding (e.g. air seeders used in broadacre farming). Fertigating liquids overcomes the need for manual application (with tractors or by hand) or for dissolving soluble fertilisers in tanks first as the nutrients are already in liquid form and are ready to be injected through irrigation equipment. This in turn reduces the costs of both application and fertiliser preparation.

In the case of fertigation, certain water-soluble products are particularly slow to dissolve (e.g. Potassium Nitrate, Potassium Sulphate) and, when dissolved, are in a far less concentrated form than formulated liquid products. This is particularly true of water-soluble Phosphate and Potassium fertilisers, increasing labour costs incurred in fertilizer preparation, as many more tank concentrates have to be made to apply the same quantity of nutrient as a formulated liquid product. A tank concentrate of Potassium Sulphate may contain less than 5% K. By contrast, liquid K sources can be in excess of 40% or 8 times the K concentration of a tank concentrate of potassium sulphate. This concentration factor is also critically important in relation to transport costs of liquid fertilisers.

As mentioned, with regard to spray application, liquid fertilisers can be co-applied as tank mixes with herbicides and/or pesticides. This reduces the application costs (machinery, fuel and labour) associated with separate application of granular or powder fertilizers and is particularly important in broadacre agriculture where areas to be covered are extensive.

Whilst some powder fertilisers can be dissolved and applied through boom-sprays, this is generally not the case with oxides of nutrients like Zinc, Manganese and Copper. Invariably, only liquid sources of these oxides can be effectively applied through spray equipment.

Cost Effective

Fertiliser in liquid suspension takes the guess-work out of mixing and fertiliser application. Application via irrigation or spray equipment delivers the nutrients evenly and directly to the plant via the leaf or roots for efficient and effective uptake without wastage.

Accuracy of Analysis

Liquid fertilisers are ready and easy to use. Liquids are versatile in that they can be applied in different ways. The combination of uniform quality and the ability to apply small amounts more often when used in combination with modern irrigation techniques and spray equipment improves nutrient recovery relative to less frequent application of granular fertilisers. These factors in different combinations make liquids both easy to use and cost-effective. However, in order to maximise the advantages offered by liquids, farmers also need to apply good management practices. For example, in irrigated agriculture, good irrigation scheduling is required to minimise leaching and the resulting loss of nutrients from the root zone. Similarly, crop nutrient programs should be refined with soil and tissue analysis in order to optimise fertiliser rates and thereby reduce costs.

Rapid Nutrient Recovery

When fertigated, liquids allow more frequent application of nutrients and lower application rates which in turn allows superior nutrient recovery by the plants and less leaching compared to granular fertilizers. In broadcare agriculture, research from South Australia and other places has confirmed that, under high pH conditions, crops receiving liquid P sources significantly out-yield those under granular fertilisation due to superior availability of liquid P.