About the Authors

Saheed A. Salami

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Software, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

saheed.salami@alltech.com

Affiliation Solutions Deployment Team, Alltech (UK) Ltd., Stamford, United Kingdom

Colm A. Moran

Roles Project administration, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Regulatory Affairs Department, Alltech SARL, Vire, France

Helen E. Warren

Roles Conceptualization, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Alltech Biotechnology Centre, Dunboyne, Ireland

Jules Taylor-Pickard

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Alltech Biotechnology Centre, Dunboyne, Ireland

Competing Interests

The authors (SAS, CAM, HEW, and JT-P) are employees of Alltech Inc., the company which produces and markets Optigen®, the commercial slow-release urea evaluated in this study. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.