OAK BROOK, Ill. – A few years ago, a Texas-based dairy operation installed technology on their farm in Newton County, Ind., that turns manure into clean water, nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium (NPK) fertilizer and aqueous ammonia rich in nitrogen.

In 2022, that technology turned 15.6 million gallons of manure into 12 million gallons of clean water for the cows, 450,000 pounds of dry, odorless NPK and 78,600 pounds of aqueous ammonia.

“These fertilizer products are then applied to the farmland at the time when our crops need them,” explained Cheri De Jong, co-owner and CFO of Natural Prairie Dairy and AgriVision Farm Management. “We have the ability to store those products to be able to use for later use. Handling liquid manure on a daily basis, you have to apply it everyday no matter what.”

De Jong was one of several speakers who participated in a Farm Foundation Forum webinar on greening the fertilizer industry on March 21.

Natural Prairie Dairy has organic and conventional dairy operations in Indiana, Texas and Colorado, she said. They have more than 18,000 certified organic cows.

They partnered with Sedron Technologies on the Varcor system, which De Jong said they believe will be a game changer in the world of animal agriculture.

The Varcor process begins with sand-free liquid manure waste that goes into a dryer where heat is engaged, a thermal evaporation results, and solids and liquids are separated, she said. The resulting vapor is sent to the compressor where it undergoes a mechanical recompression. In transferring its heat, most of the vapor condenses and forms a water output. The remaining vapor is concentrated and condensed into the ammonia solution. “Simply put, dry solids fall while water exits and the ammonia rises and is captured,” De Jong said.

In a video shown during her presentation, her husband Donald, the dairy’s co-owner and CEO, said the family adopted the technology because “it goes back to our core values. It’s always been an uncomfortable situation on how to properly handle our manure. Doing our best sometimes wasn’t good enough. And saying how do we have a robust enough system that has no chance of hurting our neighbors or environment – and saying, how do we get there?

“The Varcor takes the nutrients – the poop – and turns it into stuff that we can use very safely so we can keep growing more food and make more milk,” he said.

The process produces a weed- and pathogen-free fertilizer, Cheri De Jong said. It also eliminates the risk of nutrient and bacteria leaching or runoff, she added. The Varcor has helped to reduce the farm’s greenhouse gasses by eliminating methane emissions by 33 percent. The NPK from the Varcor is certified organic, she noted.

“The De Jong family is looking to be in the dairy business for the long term, and that means partnering and testing new technologies to help create a more sustainable closed-loop system for our operations,” De Jong stated. “The use of the Varcor is just one more way to create those efficiencies and utilize the products from our cows, meaning the manure, and creating useful, valuable products for our land that grows the crops to feed our cows.”

Alzbeta Klein, CEO and director general of the International Fertilizer Association, discussed the global availability and affordability of fertilizer during the forum.

Many factors are affecting the affordability of fertilizer worldwide, Klein said, including the ability to hedge against the harvested crop, the ability to switch fertilizer product, access to credit and the local currency value.

“What you have seen is a run up in prices and lack of availability, plain lack of availability,” she pointed out. “Things that we never thought were possible – we will not have enough fertilizer – well that actually materialized in 2022.”

That lack of availability, and fertilizer prices, caused some farmers globally to apply less fertilizer, causing an impact on production, Klein said. Last year, there was a worldwide production loss of 216 trillion calories, equivalent to 2.5 percent of total global maize, wheat, rice and soybean production, she said.

“We have a triple challenge ahead of us and that is how do we make sure that fertilizers are available, nutrients are available, how do we make sure they are affordable in all parts of the world, and how do we do that sustainably,” she said.

Corey Rosenbusch, president and CEO of The Fertilizer Institute, talked about the silver lining he saw to market conditions.

“More than ever, farmers focused on 4R nutrient stewardship,” he said. “We want farmers to be efficient with their fertilizer use and using the 4Rs of applying fertilizer at the right source, rate, time and place is critical for not only achieving our environmental outcomes but economic outcomes for farmers as well.”

Another impact of market conditions has been an explosion in innovation and technology, he noted. High commodity prices and strong net farm income have allowed farmers to think about other innovations, or investments they can make in innovations, that make their fertilizer use more efficient, Rosenbusch said.

“We see tremendous opportunities both on the manufacturing side but also on the farm and in the field side to have an ultimate impact on climate and on sustainability in the United States but also around the world,” he stated.