Alpine’s starter fertilizer can help plants absorb nutrients faster

Oct 26, 2017

Alpine can add extra nutrients to their fertilizers to meet soil and crop needs

Faster nutrient absorption, low salt concentrations and custom nutrient additions are part of Alpine’s fertilizer programs to help farmers grow better crops.

Plants can absorb the nutrients in Alpine’s G24 liquid fertilizer immediately, according to Ken Brett, Eastern Canada Sales Manager with Alpine. This quick uptake is thanks to the fact that 80 per cent of the phosphate in the fertilizer is present in the orthophosphate form.

“High orthophosphate is important because that’s the form of phosphate the roots absorb out of the soil,” he explained. “There’s a lot of fertilizers on the market that have polyphosphate and, unfortunately, that takes three to four weeks to convert in soil to a usable form.”

Alpine’s liquid fertilizers are also low in salt, which is another important consideration for plant health.

“Too much salt can actually burn the roots back a little bit,” Brett said. “A real salt concentration in the root zone can (also) suck up water and not make it available to the crop.”

And if producers are looking to add nutrients to their fertilizer mix to meet soil and crop requirements, Alpine is able to accommodate those needs.

“We can add (nutrients) on the farm or right at our Alpine plant,” Brett said. “Usually we add micronutrients, (with) zinc being the most common one (for) corn.”

The addition of zinc to Alpine’s wheat fertilizer also provides “a good payback,” he said.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.