Delivering effective crop nutrition is more than the NPK ratio

YaraMila COMPLEX has the ideal ratio of plant-available nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium with secondary and micronutrients in a highly-soluble compound prill.

Yara Australia Agronomy and Crop Solutions Manager, David McRae, says delivering a correct balance of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium is essential for optimum growth and ultimately, crop yield and quality.

Apart from applying the right quantities of nutrients, they need to be distributed evenly. To successfully achieve this, we must firstly consider what happens to a product during handling and application.

YaraMila COMPLEX is a compound prill which has good particle strength. It is not at risk of segregation during transport or handling like blends, allowing it to be spread or banded evenly.  This results in even nutrient application, supporting healthy crop growth.

Another key benefit of YaraMila COMPLEX is that the prill size is smaller than most granular fertilisers.  Smaller prills means there is more particles per spread area or landing sites, leading to improved nutrient distribution.

The prills still have a high bulk density, allowing even application.

The high solubility of YaraMila COMPLEX allows rainfall, irrigation water or soil moisture to quickly release nutrients for plant uptake, supporting rapid growth.

The nutrient forms in YaraMila COMPLEX support balanced plant nutrition and healthy growth.

Nitrogen is supplied as ammonium nitrate. This is important as this form of nitrogen have a low potential of volatilisation losses (gaseous losses back to atmosphere).

Volatilisation losses can be high when surface applying urea of sulphate of ammonia in the wrong conditions. These losses cost the growers through the need for higher rates of nitrogen and the negative impact on the environment.

The phosphorus content in YaraMila COMPLEX is presented as water soluble orthophosphate, polyphosphate and P Extend. P Extend is consistently released over a 90 day period.

“The combination of these different forms of phosphorus ensures greater and longer lasting availability to crops over a wide range of soil types,” David says.

“Polyphosphates improve the availability and uptake efficiency of phosphorus and other micronutrients.” The polyphosphate effect is particularly important in supporting iron availability, which can be an issue on higher pH soils. Iron plays an important role in the production of energy, which drives growth.

The potassium source in YaraMila COMPLEX is based on SOP, which is particularly important for crops with a low tolerance to chloride.

YaraMila COMPLEX is a balanced combination of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (12-5-15), along with trace amounts of calcium, boron, iron, magnesium, manganese, sulphur  and zinc.