ADM Agriculture offer the energy maize grower the products and services to maximise yield and gas output but minimise costs
ADM in partnership with KWS Energy Maize have combined innovation with knowledge to offer the energy maize grower the products and services to maximise yield and gas output but minimise costs.
Whether you grow maize for your own AD (anaerobic digestion) plant or a contract grower, we will ensure you have the correct products and information to grow the optimum methane yield, improve quality and reduce operating costs but enable environmentally responsible fertilisation.
PIADIN®
Nitrogen stabiliser for farm slurry and biogas digestates. Facilitating higher yields while reducing cost and time inputs and enabling more environmentally responsible fertilisation.
To give large maize yields suitable for energy crops but also reducing leaching and nitrous oxide gaseous losses that fertilisation brings. By using PIADIN, it will not only reduce your N2O emissions by 75% but increase yields by upto 11%.
By using an environmental product that not only stabilises the nitrification process, Piadin ensures nitrogen from organic fertilisers and digestate liquor/cake will be available in the right place, just at the right time.
- Increase profits through higher yields
- Improve N efficiency
- Reduce N2O emissions by 75%
- Add value through loss of N
- Conserve the soil structure
- Enable early fertilisation (as NVZs allow)
Download the Basic Rules for using Piadin pdf document
Download the Piadin Leaflet pdf document
Trials
Following the German trials by Piesteritz, ADM Agriculture have worked with Future Biogas, Tamar Energy, JV Energen, and many more to show the effect Piadin has in practice in the UK.
KWS have trialled all 49 maize varieties this year with hugely positive results and DEFRA is currently carrying out a 4-year stabiliser trial on N2O emissions which includes Piadin.
Future Biogas Trials Data
Future Biogas applied the Piadin at 4L per Ha to approx. 5 hectares of maize.
This was applied in the middle of May 2012 (which is very late) by injection which we suggest is the best method of application.
No other fertiliser was used on the crop other than digestate and this was applied at 50 cubes per Ha.
The variety used was Hobbit, an energy maize that did very well in trials last year.
FarmGen Trials Data
“We believed in the literature provided to us and the product has performed well”
Gary Bonnette, Farmgen
Application/Findings
The Piadin was applied at approx. 7L per Ha to 37.2 Ha of maize.
The Piadin was applied in May, 2 weeks after sowing by umbilical.
A mixture of digestate and slurry were used at approx. 2500-3000 gallons/ac.
The maize variety was Pioneer N76.
Piesteritz Trials Data
Piesteritz have invested more than 10 years in the trials of Piadin. These trials have proven worthwhile as many maize growers in Germany now use and see the benefits of Piadin.
Download the Piesteritz Piadin Trials pdf document
Utilising the effectiveness of your slurry is a problem many farmers face.
Utilising the effectiveness of your slurry is a problem many farmers face.
Good farm practice advises that low level surface application is undertaken to avoid volatilisation of the nitrogen in slurries before further losses occur through leaching.
Piadin stabilises the nitrogen in all organic fertilisers controlling the release of crop available nitrogen. Piadin minimises losses through leaching and volatilisation allowing environmental fertilisation but more importantly delivering the nitrogen as the plants require it, increasing yields and eliminating repeat applications, saving time and money.
Digestate
The by-product of anaerobic digestion is digestate from the back end of the process, in the form of cake/liquid or both, depending on the system used.
This is a valuable fertiliser containing N, P and K that many owners of AD plants apply back onto their land. However, excess digestate can be a problem for both owners and contractors as the high levels of available nitrogen are susceptible to leaching and force a late application in a short window to utilise the effectiveness of the nitrogen.
Dealing with large volumes of digestate to apply can be a major problem for some.
Mixing Piadin with digestate enables early application and early emptying from the holding tanks (NVZ rules dependant).
Spread the workload and control the planning of large volumes of digestate. For liquid digestate this can be delivered via umbilical or injection into the soil, locking onto the nitrogen and releasing as the soil temperature warms up. For higher dry matter material it must be sprayed onto the digestate within 24 hours and disc or plough incorporated.
The biggest benefit is seen in energy maize where UK trials have shown circa 17% yield increases by supplying the plant with available nitrogen throughout the whole growing period.
11% of all maize grown for energy in the UK last year used Piadin to utilise their digestate and increase yields, while reducing their carbon footprint.
UAN
Piadin can be added to all UAN solutions to stabilise the fertilisation system, minimise leaching and slow the nitrogen release throughout the nitrification process; this is suitable in all crops.
By adding Piadin to UAN, it has the same mode of action as it does in slurry and digestate.
Add the Piadin directly into your UAN tank or sprayer and ensure thorough mixing. Both UAN and Piadin have the same SG/density (1.27) and once mixed has an ulimited shelf life.