I ran across this link and thought it might be of interest to any mid-west farmers on this site.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/mmsd-may-give-away-surplus-milorganite-131179293.html

Um...why not cut the price a little to raise national consumption and raise sales? And/or advertise in general media, you never hear about the stuff except on places like this (and in turf magazines where they already know about it) and people might like it as a more organic alternative.

Totally agree. I'm new to the stuff but all year I've never seen it on sale anywhere. Always just $12.97 at Blue Box or $12.49 at the Orange Box.

drop it down to $5.99 and that shit would sell.average joe homeowner is looking to purchase the cheapest bag on the shelf at the big box store.

Main problem is the shipping cost. I live 30 miles away from their plant so I can get it for less than $6.00 without breaking a sweat. Unfortunately they can only make the stuff in Milwaukee, so shipping it out to the East coast means higher prices. That being said, as a government agency, it's probably not run all that well.

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Oh. As a government agency, it almost certainly has limitations under law regarding the type of advertising and how much may be spent. They may or may not require approval for price changes as well.

So my argument's probably invalid. Carry on...but at least it's nice that they'll give it away free to local farmers, who can certainly use the stuff.

Since they are a government agency then how about:

1- A Bailout for lawn growers like us. Ship it to us free.
2- Stimulus package. Give it to homeowners free if they commit to a lawn renovation
(e.g. buying seed, lawn mowers, etc.).
3- Tax credit. Let us write off the cost of Milorganite we use if we commit to
not using any synthetics.

State agency, I'm sure, so they'd lack the power to do most of that.

MorpheusPA wrote:State agency, I'm sure, so they'd lack the power to do most of that.

But keep in mind it's a state agency, so if they decided to give it away to homeowners, they'd be giving it away to Wisconsin homeowners.

They didn't specify it in the article, but I'd be willing to bet that they're only considering giving it away for free to Wisconsin farmers.

I was really just joking with my post about give aways with this product.

I agree with what Morpheus suggested. Lower the price, advertise a bit more and maybe changing their marketing approach.

I remember when I first heard of Milorganite about 12 plus years ago. A friend of mine recommended Milorganite not only as a fertilizer but also as a deer repellent as I was complaining about how deer were eating all of my plants. Being naïve about organics and fertilizer I just ignored it when I saw 5-6% N on the bag. Who would be crazy enough to buy this stuff when you can get 25-40 N for about the same cost?

Now after being educated from forums like this I see the advantages of Milorganite over regular high N fertilizer. But I don’t think the average Joe does. Marketing may be able to improve this. But then the flip side of this coin is what happens if demand grows? We may be SOL then.

Also, there was a published study done in the Ga. Wildlife/Forest management regarding the use of Milorganite as a deer repellent that seemed to indicate there was some positive results.

Also, there was a published study done in the Ga. Wildlife/Forest management regarding the use of Milorganite as a deer repellent that seemed to indicate there was some positive results.

Psssst! It works pretty well. You can still find remnants of the early government filings for Milorganite as a deer repellent on the Internet. They withdrew it when the costs of getting all the filings with the government got out of hand (estimated in the millions).

But don't expect to be applying it 2-3 times a year and getting deer repellent properties - it works for 14-21 days or so before the microherd does its thing. It's only an approach for those crazies that apply the stuff all the time. I have no idea what kind of person that would be...

I agree with lowering cost a little and I think they wouldnt even have to do much more advertising but maybe put a sign above the product in box stores stating what it does. A lot of people have no clue that its a organic fert and safe to use. people see me buying it and think I'm crazy oh well thats more for me just lower the prices and I'll buy 10 bags at a time instead of 3-5

Andy I remember reading some of the docs related to this trial. I work in the clinical trials world so anything that has some kind of published “trial” gets my interest. From what I have heard you are correct that you have to use it more frequently, even throwing it out in wooded areas that border your gardens and are known entry ways to deer. Now I don’t know who would be crazy enough to do this but I heard it works.

grassboro wrote:Marketing may be able to improve this. But then the flip side of this coin is what happens if demand grows? We may be SOL then.

Remember there are over 1,600 wastewater treatment plants around this country and plenty of them are comparable to or bigger than the Milwaukee plant in size (plant capacity is proportional to population served). There are approximately 9 million tons of biosolids being produced each year in the US so we should not be concerned about running out of it.

Why doesn't other plants take the approach Milogranite does? Too expensive to start?

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JC Paint Workz wrote:Why doesn't other plants take the approach Milogranite does? Too expensive to start?

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Milorganite's been doing this for a LOOOONG time. Also, they have the perfect assortment of waste composition, with breweries and other industries whose wastewater has the proteins necessary to make an effective organic fertilizer. In fact, recent factory shutdowns have caused the WIN levels to go down recently. We'll see what the future holds.

I wouldn't mind a bit if it became more popular as it could bring lots of others online, ultimately dropping the cost.

I think the key is to educate the public of the benefits of organic fertilizer vs. synthetic fertilizer. Organic seems never win if you only look at the # of NPK you get for your money.

I'd like to tell my friends that going organic will save money and make a better lawn in a long run. I am pretty sure about the later part but I am not so sure about the $ part.

Does anyone know if there is any study showing organic lawn care is comparable to synthetic money wise?

another stumbling block for the non enthusiast homeowner is the shear bulk of product needed to be put down, as they are used to synthetic where 2-3 pound per 1000 sq ft gets you to 1 lb of nitrogen, compared to 20 pounds per K for milorganite!

I'm sitting here humming, "Your Milo for nothing and your poo for free...I want my...I want my...I want my poo for free..."

I also have some serious eighties dance moves.

I think the key is to educate the public of the benefits of organic fertilizer vs. synthetic fertilizer. Organic seems never win if you only look at the # of NPK you get for your money.

I'd like to tell my friends that going organic will save money and make a better lawn in a long run. I am pretty sure about the later part but I am not so sure about the $ part.

Does anyone know if there is any study showing organic lawn care is comparable to synthetic money wise?

I think if you analyze it, organic will always be more expensive unless and until you start going to grain mills and buying things like soybean meal. Doing that you can make it not only competitive, but cheaper...although the mass is still greater.

Off the shelf at the store, organics tend to be pricey--price per pound is perhaps a bit less than the synthetics, but pounds per thousand is much higher so it never works out.

On the other hand, the long-term effects of organics are far and away better than synthetics on most northern lawns (southern ones may differ, depending). Even if I had to pay more for off the shelf, I'd do it.