Nitrogen use efficiency refers to how effectively crops utilise available nitrogen to grow and therefore has a direct impact on crop yields. Improving nitrogen use efficiency is also essential for minimising environmental impact. When plants efficiently absorb nitrogen, not only do they grow more vigorously, resulting in higher yields and better quality, but there is less reliance on traditional fertilisers, lowering costs for farmers and supporting them with the achievement of ESG and Scope 3 targets.
By optimising nitrogen use, farmers can work towards more sustainable, environmentally-friendly crop production. This becoming increasingly important as the climate changes and the demand for increased food production must balance with the need for environmental preservation.
Nitrogen use efficiency is influenced by several factors, including soil quality, climate conditions, and crop type. Soil properties such as pH, texture, and organic matter content can affect nitrogen availability and uptake by plants. Climate factors like temperature, rainfall, and sunlight play a role in how nutrients are absorbed and utilised during different growth stages. Crop genetics also impact nutrient assimilation, as different varieties have varying abilities to absorb and use them efficiently. Additionally, management practices, such as the timing and method of fertiliser application, significantly influence nitrogen use efficiency.
Biostimulants improve nitrogen use efficiency by enhancing plants' natural processes, allowing them to absorb and utilise nutrients more effectively. Their components can stimulate root and shoot growth, increase photosynthetic activity, and improve stress resilience. By optimiing nitrogen absorption, biostimulants enable plants to achieve increased growth and therefore higher yields with the same or reduced levels of traditional fertiliser. They are therefore able to boost crop productivity whilst also supporting more sustainable agricultural practices.
Trials of Status®, Talisman® and Nutrino Pro have all proven to have a positive impact on Nitrogen Use Efficiency and associated physiological improvements in a variety of crops. These results include up to 40% increase in root growth, and 15% increase in shoot growth, average yield increases of nearly 6% and up to 95% improvement in NUE, all under a reduction in traditional nitrogen fertiliser regimes. Status® is CE-marked specifically for nitrogen use efficiency.
Status® is now CE-marked in the EU for Nitrogen Use Efficiency. During 2023, Status® was trialled across a variety of crops and countries to prove its efficacy in improving Nitrogen Use Efficiency, with impressive results. The trials, conducted on oilseed rape, wheat, oats, maize, sunflower, spinach and rocket, were run in France, Denmark, Ireland, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and Great Britain.
The best results in these series of trials came from Hungary, where an extended drought prior to their spring rainfall resulted in their crops coming under stress. In Szalanta, one treatment of 0.25l/ha of Status® was applied to grain maize at BBCH 13. This resulted in a yield increase of 0.9t/ha under a 40kg/ha nitrogen regime when compared with the 40 kg/ha nitrogen control. In this trial, 40 kg/ha nitrogen in combination with one application of Status® yielded the same as the 80 kg/ha nitrogen input. This would therefore provide £44.50/ha return on investment (based on a selling price of ~£180/t and a Nitrogen price of £1.10/kg).
Read more about these results.
Trials of IntraCrop’s Nutrino Pro foliar nitrogen with biostimulants at Newcastle University in 2022 demonstrated that yield and quality can be maintained under a reduced nitrogen regime. The trial investigated the effect of Nutrino Pro applied either alone or as part of a Yieldbuilder biostimulant sequence on plant growth and yield, when applied with 100% and 85% of the recommended nitrogen rate. A zero N control was also included to provide an accurate baseline of the fertiliser response.
Normalised Difference Vegetative Index (NDVI) is a measure of the amount and vigour of crops and can be directly related to leaf area index (LAI), biomass and photosynthetic capacity. Reducing the nitrogen from 100% to 85% reduced the NDVI from 0.845 to 0.83. Nutrino Pro applied at BBCH39 increased the NDVI to 0.853, with the highest recorded where Nutrino Pro was applied as part of a Yieldbuilder sequence.
The reduced biomass translated into lower yields. Decreasing the nitrogen rate from 100% to 85% (=21 kg/ha) of the recommended dose reduced yield by 1.55 t/ha (11.85 to 10.3 t/ha). A single application of Nutrino Pro 20 l/ha at BBCH39 increased yield by an impressive 0.84 t/ha and reduced carbon impact (t/CO2e/ha) by 8%. Using Yieldbuilder, a combination of recommended biostimulants applied in sequence, most notably outperformed the 100% nitrogen rate, with a 12.1 t/ha yield, giving a greater return on investment as well as an environmental impact reduction.
The plant biostimulants contained in Talisman® can play an important role in increasing Nitrogen Use Efficiency because they affect these factors directly. Pidolic acid has a key role in nitrate assimilation and applications of products such as Talisman® can help the crop to maximise the benefit from soil and foliar nitrogen applications at key growth stages.
Pidolic acid also has a strong stimulation effect on root development – early applications can increase root mass by up to 40%. More root surface area will significantly improve the Nitrogen Use Efficiency of the crop, permitting it to locate the soil nutrients more easily.
Talisman® contains 40g/l of pidolic acid and our dose-response trials have shown that the optimal root stimulation effect occurs at 80g/l. Therefore, the normal recommended rate for Talisman® is 2l/ha for a non-stressed crop (3l/ha for a stressed crop).
As the wheat harvest draws to a close, there has been a common theme across wheat quality, with growers across Europe experiencing lower than usual grain protein levels. In parts of Europe, this meant that water-soluble nitrogen applications could not be absorbed by the crops and this lack of nitrogen is likely to have hampered protein production. Additionally, high winter and spring rainfall in other parts of Europe has reduced availability of nitrogen due to leaching. Growers should consider incorporating Status® into their inputs regime to increase protein content, as demonstrated in a recent trial in Hungary.
The trial was conducted by an independent research organisation and investigated the effect of Status® on nitrogen use efficiency in spring wheat, and consequently the effect this had on final grain protein content.
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