This year, more and more Irish farmers are following the advice of Teagasc and switching their nitrogen source from urea or calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN), to protected urea.
Protected urea has been identified by Teagasc as a fundamental way to reduce emissions in Irish agriculture. Teagasc advise that the use of protected urea will result in a significant reduction of nitrous oxide (greenhouse gases) and ammonia losses in both grass and tillage ground.
Teagasc has described protected urea as “the number one technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on grassland farms and help achieve ammonia reduction targets.”
At Target Fertilisers, promoting sustainable fertiliser use is of utmost importance to us. As a result, we have worked with BASF to bring our new range of protected urea, Target Max, to the Irish market to complement our existing portfolio of fertiliser products.
The Target Max fertiliser range is protected by Limus®, a unique urease inhibitor that contains two active ingredients, NBPT and NPPT* both approved by Teagasc. This enables it to bind to a wider variety of urease enzymes, compared to a standard urease inhibitor, therefore more effectively protecting the urea from ammonia volatilisation.
Limus® has an outstanding biological performance due to this dual combination of NBPT and NPPT active ingredients, along with excellent storage stability thanks to BASF’s patented polymer formulation technology.
Economic benefits of Limus®
The environmental benefits are evident, but does this mean that farmers will have to take a financial hit as they transition to protected urea? The Target Max range, protected by Limus®, easily incorporates into your existing fertiliser programme, and can be a more economic approach, allowing for greater flexibility and a more efficient use of resources on farm.
Limus® protected urea has been approved by Teagasc and their recent trials have demonstrated that protected urea gives the equivalent yield to CAN on Irish grassland, while protected urea gave a cost saving compared to CAN. Subsequently, a comprehensive set of replicated trials carried out by ADAS on behalf of BASF examined the performance of Limus® protected urea versus unprotected granular urea and results showed that Limus® improves yield by up to 5% compared to unprotected urea.
Target Max Range protected by Limus®
| Protected Urea | N | P | K | S | Na | Mg |
| UreaMax (46% N) | 46 | |||||
| UreaMax + S
(38% N + 7% S) |
38 | 7 | ||||
| 29-0-14 + 4% S Max | 29 | 14 | 4 |
If you would like to find more about our protected urea products, contact our office on 053 9255389.
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