Northern Nutrients (Saskatoon, Canada) plans to build a new sulfur-enhanced urea fertilizer manufacturing facility outside of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, starting in July 2021 with an expected completion early in 2022. The facility will utilize the Shell Thiogro technology, a patented process for the incorporation of micronized elemental sulfur into urea, resulting in a sulfur form that is available to plants across the growing season.
Northern Nutrients is owned by Ross Guenther, along with Matt and Rob Owens of Emerge Ag Solutions, all residents of Saskatchewan. The sulfur facility is another step of Northern Nutrients’ long-term strategy to bring new sustainable fertilizer technologies to Western Canadian farmers. For three years, Northern Nutrients has been importing the patented Shell sulfur urea into North America, a uniquely suitable fertilizer product, which has been widely distributed to retailers in Western Canada.
“The adoption of the products by producers and the anticipated increasing demand has convinced us to produce our own form of the sulfur-enhanced urea in Canada,” says Ross Guenther, president and co-owner of Northern Nutrients.
Matt Owens of Emerge Ag Solutions and co-owner of Northern Nutrients says, “We first tried the sulfur product three years ago, and all our growers who have tried it have increased their acres and moved all of their sulfur requirements over to the Shell micronized sulfur urea product. They like the product (11-0-0-75) because it is readily available to the plant early and throughout the growing season, it mixes well in any dry blend, and it has a low salt index compared to other forms of sulfur.”
“Once we saw how our customers responded to it, we thought we’d like to invest in the company, so we are very optimistic about what the sulfur product and the new phosphorus product could mean for farmers. The lower salt index is important in our area, and I also like that it is much less dusty than ammonium sulfate,” says Rob Owens, president of Emerge Ag Solutions and co-owner of Northern Nutrients. “We are very excited to bring these products to dealers and farmers in the West.”
Curtis Bowditch from Tisdale, Saskatchewan has been using the sulfur-enhanced urea for three years. He says, “The seed safety of the product was a game changer for our farm and allows us to get both our phosphorus and sulfur in the seed-row for the first time. Logistically it was a huge time saver.”
Northern Nutrients is a crop nutrition company with origins from Amsterdam, Netherlands, that has been involved in low salt and sustainable fertilizer manufacturing and distribution since 2016.