The idea of farmers making their own liquid nitrogen fertilizer on-farm with a system called Green Lightning has been around for a few years and it continues to expand.
The Canadian distributor is a family business called Nytro based in Kamsack. Nytro had a booth at the Western Canadian Crop Production Show in Saskatoon last week and will have a booth at Manitoba Ag Days in Brandon this week.
The Green Lightning theory is the same as how a lightning storm creates some nitrogen that falls with the rain. In this case, electricity is the lightning that produces nitrogen within water. The basic Green Lightning factory has been a six-head unit making 100 gallons a day using about $4 worth of electricity.
A larger, insulated unit within a 10-foot sea can is now available. It can generate 500 gallons of product a day with an electrical cost of $30 to $35 a day.
President of Nytro Chris Nykolaishen says the nitrogen content is equivalent to 3 pounds of N per gallon of water.
"We've done replicated plot trials to see if that is an effective rate in which you could use it, and the trials have been positive," said Nykolaishen, "It's difficult to measure because of the lack of salt in the product, but we're using a TDS meter, and with the lab that we use, we've developed a formula that you can easily determine the amount of nitrogen you have in the product based on a parts per million basis."
He says Green Lightning is most effective when sprayed onto a crop but it can be applied with the seed.
Currently, 65 farmers across Canada use the machines, he added.
To generate enough product for a typical farm, the units are meant to be run continuously throughout the year. Nytro is looking into bladders for potential storage – something that can be frozen without bursting.
Cost is the big driver. The Green Lightning price per pound of nitrogen is far less than conventional fertilizer, even after factoring in the capital cost of the units.
A six-head machine will set back a producer $65 thousand and a 10-foot container with 30 head costs $305 thousand, according to Nytro's website.
"The larger units are definitely more popular just for the size of farm that's within Saskatchewan, just the prairies in general. I recommend people start with a six head, learn how to make the product, maintain it, try it out, buy it to yourself, and then size up appropriately from there." said Nykolaishen.
He admits there is a learning curve but "it's not that complicated" as long as producers "put eyes on it every day and just make sure that it's working the way it should."
Weekly or monthly checks are also suitable, he said.
More information on Green Lightning can be found at Nytro.ca.
