Farming is never easy and as growers look to get greater returns on their investment in crop nutrition, they are increasingly turning to specialty products, including highly refined primary elements and ameliorants, to optimise soil health and crop growth.

These investments not only include primary NPK products, but agricultural lime and gypsum which are vital inputs to improve broadacre soil structure, enhance moisture retention, address imbalances in soil pH and potential toxicity to crops – and Ultimate Agri is leading the way.

Gypsum and other soil ameliorants like agricultural lime might seem like old school products but their effectiveness and success is well proven. 

This demand for refined products suitable for fertigation, boom spraying and applying in liquid formulations at sowing, led to the development of a range of innovative and unique flowable gypsum and lime-based products by Victorian-based Ultimate Agri Products. 

If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then Ultimate Products should be very flattered as there original concept developed over 25 years ago has spurned a number of me-too products in the marketplace. 

However, the highly refined calcium and sulphur product, GYP-FLO has remained a firm favourite among long-time users for its unique chemistry and fine (5 micron) particle size. This provides a stable formulation which remains in suspension without causing clogging or other issues when used in fertigation systems. 

Ultimate Agri Products managing director, Glenn McDonald started off as a vegetable grower in 1983 and was always interested in new technology. 

He started researching new liquid suspensions to replace the old bulk gypsum and lime, and by mid 1999 GYP-FLO and the lime-based product, pH PLUS were released on the market. 

GYP-FLO is a liquid suspension of calcium and sulphur applied to improve soil structure by reducing sodium build-up and increasing calcium levels in the soil. 

“GYP-FLO is much easier to handle and apply via boom spray, drip systems and overhead irrigation compared to spreading bulk gypsum, not to mention the dust issues. 

“GYP-FLO is also a great source of calcium and sulphur for plant nutrition and its benefits have made it a mainstay source of nutrition among leading corporate horticultural growers, including intensive vegetable production and tree crops,”  Mr McDonald said.

Both GYP-FLO and pH PLUS remain leaders in their field due to their suspension technology and results effectiveness. 

The fine particle size makes the elemental calcium and sulphur in GYP-FLO immediately and uniformly available to plants, giving much greater bang for buck than any other bulk or dry formulation. 

Compared to the makeup of bulk lime and gypsum, the formulation of GYP-FLO and PH-PLUS are like night and day, with high ratios of available and soluble elements the key to the effectiveness of these highly refined specialty products. 

The properties of the Ultimate Agri Products provide a stark contrast to bulk products, as shown in the table below: 

Mr McDonald said it was important users knew what they were buying as the definition of gypsum currently varies from state to state ranging from a minimum of 12.5 –19 per cent calcium and 10–15 per cent sulphur. 

The technology in GYP-FLO provides two to three times higher specification: 35 per cent calcium w/v and 25 per cent sulphur, delivering a much higher concentration of elemental calcium and sulphur in a more available form (more than 80 per cent available to the plant). 

GYP-FLO has been widely adopted by horticulturists and broadacre growers across the country.