Agrium Shuts Down Southwestern Ontario Turf Fertilizer Plant

Sep 06, 2012

Agrium Advanced Technologies (AAT) one of the world’s leaders of wholesale fertilizers is closing their operations for good at their southwestern Ontario plant. The Courtright, Ontario plant located just south of Sarnia was making fertilizers for the turf grass market.

"It has become ever more challenging in these times of high urea volatility to secure a supply that would allow us to operate the facility profitably," Andrew Mittag, president of Brantford, Ont.-based AAT, said in a company release.

The facility had previously been producing 69 thousand tonnes of turf fertilizer products per year. The facility employed 28 staff, and some of the staff will remain on a temporary basis until the remaining inventory is sold and shipped out. Company officials at AAT have also said that they plan to work with the various government agencies to ensure that their commitment to environmental stewardship during their process of shutting down and dismantling the plant reduces their environmental impact on the region.

Video: Validating Net Energy in Commercial Swine Systems - Gustavo Lima

In this episode of The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Gustavo Lima, PhD candidate at Iowa State University, explains how soybean meal net energy is evaluated using growth assays and calorimetry. He discusses caloric efficiency, validation under commercial conditions, and differences between controlled and real-world environments. Gustavo also highlights practical implications for diet formulation and ingredient valuation. Listen now on all major platforms!

“Indirect calorimetry provides a precise estimation of ingredient energy, yet validation under production conditions remains essential for accurate application in real systems.”

Meet the guest: Gustavo Lima / gustavo-lima-a9867127 is a PhD candidate in Animal Science at Iowa State University, specializing in swine nutrition, ingredient evaluation, and energy metabolism. With over 15 years of experience across Latin America, his work focuses on soybean meal utilization, caloric efficiency, and applied research for commercial production systems.