Resources
Most Frequently Asked Questions
What makes Americore unique in the market and the best value proposition for my commercial crop production facility?
Here are a few of the main reasons we believe Americore offers the best value proposition for farms:
- The right ratios for your crop
- High solubility means everything gets to the crop and no messy cleanup
- Americore is the most cost-effective fertility program for the commercial farmer
- Our special formulation was developed for data driven results
- Compatible with drip irrigation and aggressive crop steering
- A professional product that is made easy to use but not average or generic
- Available in 50 Pound bags and 2000 Pound supersacks for efficient bagging and transport
How can you have the highest quality inputs and the lowest fertilizer pricing nationally?
Firstly, we are not greedy. Farmers are the ones doing all the work. Fertilizer companies are supposed to be fighting for the farmer. What has happened is that at some point, fertilizer companies began to believe that they were created to serve themselves.
Since the raw materials are all the same, with some variation in quality, generally attributed to country of origin, the costs grow as their margin grows. We have the highest quality inputs, humble markups, and amazing manufacturing ability. We have yet to find anyone providing fertilizers of similar quality for a price that lands in the neighborhood of what we offer.
How can you pack in NPK and micros and still have a more soluble stock tank than other less concentrated fertilizer brands?
Simply put, we use highly soluble raw material. When there are grades, we opt for the highest available option. Cutting corners here adds impurities and clogs drip emitters.
Additionally, we have some of the best chemists to put together our recipes. They understand how to get to the desired targets without running into solubility issues. For example, Potassium Sulfate (K2SO4) also known as Sulfate of Potash, is an excellent source of Potassium and Sulfur, yet it lacks solubility. At 20°C (68°F), you can dissolve approximately 0.93 pounds of potassium sulfate per gallon of water. If you’re looking to make a blend that will go into solution at 2 pounds per gallon then it’s best to avoid or minimize use of a product that is only soluble at 1 pound per gallon.
Only with years of training and knowledge have we been able to figure out the perfect blend for each crop type. If you’re interested in seeing improved product options for your crop type, please let us know.
How can you ensure the perfect blend and not have caking, clumping, moisture in the bags, and salts that turn into rock hard bricks?
The main challenge with keeping fertilizer products from clumping, caking, and reacting is moisture in the bag. If the facility is in a humid climate or the processing and bagging area is humid, that will make its way into the product. Dehumidification is often required to ensure moisture does not make its way in and many fertilizer manufacturers are either unwilling or unable to do so.
Another variable that leads to issues in bagged fertilizer is when the chemistry is susceptible to temperature swings. There are many water-soluble nutrients that are excellent when kept in a moderate and dry climate but try putting those same bags into a hot truck and shipping them across the country. You may not like what you find once they arrive at the farm.
Americore is designed to work through these challenges and arrive onsite in its original state. Our salts will be like fine sand, and you should not have clumps, clogs, or bricks to break up in your bags.
Why do most fertilizers sell through distribution and Americore sells directly to the wholesaler or commercial farm?
Imagine you have two choices as a new fertilizer company. Option 1 is to sign up a distributors, pay them 30%, and let them cover the map. Option 2 is to go it alone and be responsible for warehousing, shipping, marketing, sales, branding, tradeshows, distribution, tracking mill taxes, and everything else.
While most opt for the simplicity of giving away 30% and kicking back, Americore decided to control all aspects of our product coming to market to ensure fair pricing, lead times, and product shelf life. Although this approach created many challenges early on it has paid a huge dividend. We are now able to deliver high quality products directly to the market without the necessity of a middleman.
If most fertilizer companies claim their products are water soluble, yet I’m constantly clogging, servicing, and replacing drip emitters, what’s going on?
Most irrigation clogging comes from incompatibilities between elements in solution. The dry mix can be great, and it can even work when put into solution, but real-world issues affect the final product and fertilizer manufacturers are often unprepared.
For example, you can dilute salts into solution and find everything looks great but if the mix is not stable and pH starts to climb you will see precipitation. You may think everything went into solution but stop mixing and let the solution sit for 30 minutes. Then check for suspended particles that settle on the bottom. For water soluble nutrients you need dilution, not suspension.
Another common issue comes from pH additives. When raising solution pH many farmers opt for potassium hydroxide, and for good reason. It’s inexpensive, highly concentrated, and adds potassium which can be great for the crop. The issue here is when concentrated potassium hydroxide meets concentrated calcium and calcium hydroxide forms. This insoluble combination will look like fine white sand, clogging filters and drippers. By performing a jar test whereby checking compatibility and ensuring pH Up and the calcium tank doesn’t touch in concentrate this problem is easily eliminated.
There are many other reasons why water-soluble fertilizers clog irrigation systems and drip emitters. Each problem needs to be diagnosed on its own to determine the correct solution. Americore was designed to avoid many of the problems that plague other products, and we are happy to assist you in dialing it in. Contact us to speak with your fertilizer technicians and crop advisors.
If Americore is such a great product, why is there a limited sales team and why don’t I see them at the tradeshows? If Americore is a premium product where is the fancy label and feed chart, where are the small retail sizes, where is the liquid version, and where are the promises for success?
Our goal is to provide crop nutrition that fulfills the potential of your crop at the best possible price point. If we give you the highest quality fertilizers but pricing isn’t there you will not succeed for long. If we give you the best price nationally yet your stock tanks look like concrete mixing tanks, and your plants fall short of their production goals you will not succeed even in the short term.
Americore skips the expensive trade shows. If you hear about us, it’s most likely word of mouth. Sales teams are for technical products; fertilizer only requires a few crop advisors to service all North America. We don’t need to sell it, we need to service it, the product sells itself.
Look around and you’ll find a litany of fancy labels, 2-part and 3-part fertilizers, and fancy feed charts that don’t do anything for your crop, they just make your crop nutrition cost double what it should. Why is Americore 2-part? We separate calcium from just about everything else. Why do we set the stock tank concentration where we do? So that you use equal parts of A & B. Why do we recommend using potassium bicarbonate for pH Up and white phosphoric acid for pH Down? Because they are less prone to binding. Why do we prefer a phone call to get Americore set up on your farm? Because one feed chart cannot accommodate every operation.
Our hope is that potential customers will engage us in an open conversation to understand our products. We want to walk you through the technical aspects of using Americore and any additives. Let’s avoid the unnecessary mistakes that so many make by not going over the basics. Your success is all we care about so let us assist you in making that happen!