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[00:00:08] Mike Howell:
The Dirt with me, Mike Howell, an economics podcast where I present the down and dirty agronomic science to help grow crops and bottom lines. Inspired by economics.com, farming’s go- to informational resource, I’m here to break down the latest crop nutrition research, news and issues, helping farmers make better business decisions through actionable insights. Let’s dig in. Well, hello again, everyone. Welcome back for another episode of The Dirt. Today we have Carlos Romero with us. Carlos, welcome to the dirt.
[00:00:46] Carlos Romero:
Thank you, Mike.
[00:00:47] Mike Howell:
Carlos, if you will, tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and what you do.
[00:00:51] Carlos Romero:
I’m a regular listener of the dirt, so I’m super excited to be here today. I’m a soul scientist originally from Central Argentina in case somebody’s wondering about my exotic accent. Currently, I’m the senior sustainability manager for Nutrien Act Solutions in Canada, where I lead the execution of different far-facing programs that measure environmental outcomes on farm. Before joining nutrient, I was in academia. I spent roughly six or seven years between Montana and Alberta studying and working. I did my PhD at Montana State, doing research around for our urgent stewardship, and then a little bit of carbon sequestration, carbon chemistry, and at the end biochart. And I did a postdoc at, at Canada, the University Plothridge, been with Nutrien for four years now and trying to apply science and see myself as a bridge between science and practical knowledge.
[00:01:44] Mike Howell:
Carlos, you do a lot of work with sustainability and that’s a subject that we’ve talked a lot about on the dirt and we did a series on sustainability several years ago, but we’ve got a lot of new listeners since that time. If you will, talk a little bit about what sustainability is. Give us a good definition of sustainability. We know it means different things to different people. Talk us through that.
[00:02:04] Carlos Romero:
Sustainability is such a broad concept that the definition is gonna vary depending on who you ask. But for me, for someone that has been running these programs in the field for the last five seasons, uh, having interactions with growers, having interactions with carb consultants at the branches with nutrient solutions here in Canada, I think sustainability is just good agronomy done well and at scale. In Canada, growers are already strong stores of the land. No till is almost an extended practice in Western Canada. We know that crop yields have increased over the years as technology has advanced and all that has translated into an increased amount of carbon in the upper layers of solar. In Western Canada, we are a sink of atmospheric CO2. If we talk about nutrients, Canada is a pioneer in the four-hour engine stewardship framework. This concept of applying the right rate, place, timing, and source to maximize ergonomic performance and urgent use efficiency.
[00:02:58] Carlos Romero:
Also, recent reports conducted by different institutions highlight Canada as a geography that has a competitive advantage relative to other countries in terms of green gas intensity or carbon footprint. We are, again, a sync of atmospheric CO2, so we tend to have a lower environmental footprint of the crops that we harvest. At the end of the day, I think sustainability, yes, it could be a lot of things, but it isn’t an abstract concept for me. It’s good economy that makes sense both economically and environmentally.
[00:03:26] Mike Howell:
Carlos, I’m glad you put that word economically in there. A lot of people forget that part of it. It doesn’t matter what we do agronomically, if it doesn’t make sense economically, it’s not gonna sustain us very long.
[00:03:36] Carlos Romero:
Yeah, absolutely. It has to be a balance, but at the end of the day, you gotta look at the numbers.
[00:03:41] Mike Howell:
Carlos, talk a little bit about why sustainability is so important to nutrient. Obviously, they wouldn’t have you working on sustainability if it didn’t mean something to us.
[00:03:49] Carlos Romero:
Well, for us, nutrient and nutrient solutions, it is the largest global retailer. So we have a influence and we have a unique position to work with growers and make positive outcomes across the value chain. I work for the North American division. We designed programs that are branded on their farm smart and they’re exclusively designed to increase farm productivity, profitability and environmental outcomes. Those three go together and define, in my opinion, the long-term viability of a given operation and therefore the viability of our customers. I’d like to highlight that these programs, for example, sustainable natural outcomes and others that we have just don’t reward change. We also recognize existing best practices because we have boots on the ground. We measure outcomes. We identified opportunities for improvement, but we also connect growers with ballot chain partners so they can access and unlock new incentives related to these practices and data sharing and deploying different things like cover cropping, conservation tillage for energy and stewardship for the first time.
[00:04:48] Carlos Romero:
I think we are a bridge between the grower of things like CBG companies. We’re looking for this type of outcomes.
[00:04:54] Mike Howell:
Carlos, tell us a little bit about some of the projects that you’re working on right now.
[00:04:58] Carlos Romero:
Right now is a busy time for me as we’re trying to push the six season of sustainable national outcomes in Canada. For those that aren’t familiar with sustainable national outcomes, this is the largest initiative that we are sharing with growers in western Canada. It’s mostly for our energy and stewardship targeting lower nitrous oxide emissions. We know that a portion of the nitrogen that is applied even our, under best management condition is gonna be lost through the electrification and we know that nitrous oxide is also a pollutant recoil gas. We are targeting to lower the footprint of these gas. This program we started back in 2021 as pilot. At the time we’re exploring voluntary carbon markets. We’re following a protocol crafted by the Alberta government called Nitrosox Edimation Reduction Protocol to target lower national set emissions and higher economic performance. And we try to really drive action in the industry and understand really what tools were needed to quickly scale but also yield verify outcomes.
[00:05:54] Carlos Romero:
It is very important that you have evidence and you have data to support this type of claims and now same nation outcomes is fully operational. It’s one of the largest initiatives happening right now in Western Canada and it’s something that is fully integrated into our portfolio of solutions with growers.
[00:06:08] Mike Howell:
So Carlos, before you move on, talk a little bit about how you go about reducing nitrous oxide emissions. What are some of the steps that are involved in that?
[00:06:15] Carlos Romero:
To reduce nitrox emissions, again, we are following this protocol approved by the Alberta government called the nitroxide emission reduction protocol that is following for our nitrogen instruction principles for nitrogen management. There are different tiers and boards will be typified or classified depending on the type of different combinations of rate placement, source and timing. To be eligible in these programs, you gotta be practicing no-till in most cases and banding your nitrogen either in spring or the fall. And then once you start tweaking some things like source using an enhanced efficiency fertilizer such as polymer cotyurea or nitrification inhibitor, things that we know have a proven effect to reduce nitrous oxid emissions either directly or indirectly to grow in combination with variable rate technology, you’re gonna lock higher tiers in the program such as intermediate or advanced and get the most out of every pound you apply because you’re gonna achieve a higher, uh, emission reduction in terms of ice oxide.
[00:07:15] Carlos Romero:
And also, it will benefit in terms of among volatilization, nitrogen leaching and so on. It’s all about the synchrony between soil nitrogen supply and crop outtake.
[00:07:25] Mike Howell:
A lot of the things that growers are doing right anyway are part of this program.
[00:07:28] Carlos Romero:
Absolutely. We’re trying to drive change but also reward what’s already happening in the field and even having, and capturing the data for the first time and crafting a foreign engine station for the first time this a practice change as we need to record that information and also have the advice from a certified cloud consultant and someone that has that for our designation, this case for Canada, from Fertilizer Canada.
[00:07:51] Mike Howell:
Carlos, I hated to cut you off, but I knew that was some good information we needed to capture before we got too far. You were about to tell us about some of the other programs you were working on.
[00:07:59] Carlos Romero:
I was gonna mention that we scaled the program very quickly in Canada because we were able to deploy back in 2024 Agrival in this market. Hygraval is our proprietary sustainability platform that enable us to record field level data and model and capture all these environmental outcomes along with things that yield, nitrogen use efficiency, energy use and so on. That was a game changer for us. And since 2021, we have enrolled almost 1.9 million acres in Western Canada and all that to mention that we’re not alone in this journey as we have partnered with companies like Panby and Maple EasFoods to support these type of initiatives mostly on the Canola acre, but we also enroll cereals and soybean.
[00:08:42] Mike Howell:
Carlos, I know there’s a lot of government incentives in both the US and Canada around these programs. Can you talk a little bit about what type of programs are out there and how growers can benefit from these programs?
[00:08:53] Carlos Romero:
Absolutely. I think growers in North America are lucky to have this type of incentives. It’s not something that you see everywhere. My opinion, the government programs are a great tool, not only to accelerate sustainable agriculture, but also to the risk some of the situations that could happen when you adopt these practices for the first time, particularly when the benefits take some time to show up. So that the risk component is very important, particularly these days. In Canada, and I’m probably gonna talk about Canada because that’s some geography. We don’t administer or manage any government programs, but we’re here to support farmers that are actively seeking to access these incentives. And that could be us crafting a foreign energy stewardship plan, a BMP plan, and a different partner organizations, or even providing evidence for documents that are needed by growers such as a receipt to show proof of purchase.
[00:09:44] Carlos Romero:
It’s very important in these programs to have the signature of a qualified agronomist, and we have the capacity to do that. A clear example that retail has been supporting in Western Canada is the on- farm climate action fund or off-calf, and that has been going on since 2022, and it’s mostly targeting improvement management, cover cropping, and rotational grazing. It’s a great program. Again, we don’t manage the program, but we’re here to support growers. And to be honest, it’s a nice addition to industry-led programs like ours.
[00:10:14] Mike Howell:
Carlos, we really appreciate you joining us. I know we’ve talked about several programs here and have a better understanding of sustainable agriculture. Are there any other things that you wanna mention before we sign off today?
[00:10:24] Carlos Romero:
Thank you, Mike. Thank you for the space. And I’d like to close with sustainable finance, and that’s an area that I’m particularly excited about these days. Sustainable finance is an emerging field within sustainability, particularly in North America. Since 2024, we’ve been working here in Canada with Nurgen Financial and Scotiabank to offer preferential financing to growers, enrolling in their acres and sustainable energy outcomes. Boards, again, they are deploying for our energy stewardship, having greater economic performance and lower the footprint, particularly with match oxide. Something that I started, I would say like a pilot targeting select products and services now has evolved to cover the grower’s full portfolio and that’s a very powerful story because we’re combining a program that is chasing verified outcomes that has gone through validation and verification in the first couple of season, and that’s something that we’re actively … We’re seeing at the moment, again, agronomic performance, environmental outcomes, with financial incentives.
[00:11:17] Carlos Romero:
This is, again, very powerful to accelerate change and drive it works most, which is the farm. And that’s very unique. Something that we are doing, again, something that is cottage and highlights nutrient commitments to sustainability. So we’re looking forward to the 2026 season.
[00:11:32] Mike Howell:
Great program there, Carlos, and sustainability covers more than just one or two aspects as we mentioned at the very beginning of this. Carlos, thanks again for joining us today. I really appreciate it. Listeners, thank you for tuning in. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you will, hang around for just a couple of moments and we’ll be right back with segment two. Farming isn’t farming without questions and now there’s a place to go for answers. At economics, an entire team of agronomists is waiting and ready to help. For free, no question is too big or too small. Visit Nutrien-economicswithak.com and submit your question with the ask an agronomist feature. Listeners, welcome back for segment two. This is our ask an agronomist session and we have Dr. Alan Blalock back in the studio with us. Alan, welcome back to the dirt.
[00:12:20] Alan Blaylock:
Thanks, Mike. It’s good to be here again today.
[00:12:22] Mike Howell:
Alan, we have another sulfur question today and this time it’s pertaining to the pH. It says, “Can sulfur applications affect the pH of my soul?”
[00:12:31] Alan Blaylock:
This is a question that’s commonly asked, particularly because we’re applying more sulfur today than we used to, or at least more frequently. And the agronomic answer we like to give for many things, well, it depends. First of all, it depends primarily on the form of sulfur that we’re using. Some forms of sulfur are acid forming materials and others are not. Let’s take, for example, elemental sulfur, which is pure sulfur form. That sulfur has to convert in the soil to a sulfate form and that conversion is done by bacteria in the sulfur for oxidizing bacteria and in the process that reaction produces acidity. Yes, that acidity would then lower the pH of the soil over time. Now, the amount of that change is going to be affected by the amount of sulfur that is added. Very small amounts that change may proceed very slowly so you don’t see a lot of change over a long period of time.
[00:13:27] Alan Blaylock:
Larger amounts of sulfur will cause more acidity. Now, let’s take a different form of sulfur, ammonium sulfate. The sulfate itself is not an acid forming compound or molecule, but the ammonium that comes with that sulfate in ammonium sulfate is acid forming. That ammonium is converted to nitrate by bacteria in the soil. We call that nitrification. And in the process, the hydrogen ions that are present in the ammonium are released into the soil solution and hydrogen is the acidity. We can have a very large contribution of acidity from that ammonium sulfate. There are two ammonium ions attached to that sulfate, and each one of those has four hydrogens. That’s a large amount of acidity that can be added with ammonium sulfate, but it’s not from the sulfur itself. Now, let’s take a third form of sulfur, calcium sulfate, otherwise known as gypsum. Calcium sulfate doesn’t have any effect on the pH of the soil.
[00:14:27] Alan Blaylock:
It’s what we call a neutral salt. The calcium is released as the calcium sulfate dissolves, that calcium can be absorbed to the cation exchange complex. The sulfate is a neutral molecule that in and of itself doesn’t have an effect on pH. So calcium sulfate is a neutral salt and the pH doesn’t change when we add that form of sulfur. There are different forms of sulfur that have different chemical reactions in the soil. Some of them produce acidity and some of them do not. So it’s important to understand what we’re using and the effect of that particular source and then monitor that pH over time. In many cases, we’re applying lime on a regular basis anyway. That acidity over time would be compensated in the liming that is taking place.
[00:15:14] Mike Howell:
Alan, that’s quite a chemistry listen in just a short period of time. We really appreciate it. Listeners, thank you for tuning in this week. As always, if you need more information on anything we’ve talked about today, you can visit our website, that’s Nutrien-economicswithak.com. Until next time, this has been Mike Howell with The Dirt. Hey, guys, if you like what you heard today, do us a favor and share this podcast with someone else. It could be your neighbor, your friend, your crop advisor, or whoever you think would enjoy it. Your support helps ensure future episodes. So please like, subscribe, share, and rate the show wherever you’re listening from.
