In this webinar for the Minnesota Soil Health Coalition, John Kempf discusses a paradigm shift in nitrogen management .
Foliar urea can be four to seven times more efficient than soil-applied nitrogen
Managing nitrogen with carbon and molybdenum reduces leaching and supports biological fixation
Podcast Transcript
0:00 – 0:01
I was asked to speak about
0:01 – 0:03
nitrogen management in
0:03 – 0:04
particular,
0:04 – 0:05
and perhaps touch on phosphorus
0:05 – 0:06
management as well,
0:07 – 0:08
and how
0:09 – 0:10
we can think
0:11 – 0:12
differently about managing
0:12 – 0:15
nitrogen from a plant health
0:15 – 0:16
perspective and from a soil
0:16 – 0:17
biology perspective.
0:18 – 0:20
And particularly when we look at
0:20 – 0:22
the macroeconomic conditions of
0:22 – 0:24
what's happening and what's
0:24 – 0:25
going on in the world.
0:26 – 0:27
You know, many years ago on the
0:27 – 0:28
podcast,
0:28 – 0:30
I was having a conversation with
0:30 – 0:31
Gary Zimmer and I asked Gary the
0:31 – 0:32
question,
0:32 – 0:35
If you could wave a magic wand
0:35 – 0:37
and change one thing,
0:38 – 0:40
and you're with the goal and the
0:40 – 0:42
objectives of accelerating the
0:42 – 0:44
adoption of a different form of
0:44 – 0:45
agriculture.
0:45 – 0:46
But at that point in time,
0:47 – 0:48
Gary was referring to as a
0:48 – 0:49
biological agriculture.
0:50 – 0:52
If you could wave a magic wand
0:52 – 0:53
and change one thing, what would
0:53 – 0:53
it be?
0:54 – 0:55
And Gary's answer to that
0:55 – 0:57
question was, I would make
0:57 – 0:58
nitrogen really expensive.
0:59 – 1:00
And what
1:01 – 1:03
he intended by that, what he
1:03 – 1:05
meant by that is
1:05 – 1:06
that
1:07 – 1:09
What he had discovered in 30
1:09 – 1:11
some years of what he called
1:11 – 1:12
biological farming is
1:12 – 1:14
that you can grow your own
1:14 – 1:15
nitrogen. And he wasn't even
1:15 – 1:16
talking about cover crops.
1:16 – 1:17
Cover crops were a part of it,
1:17 – 1:19
but he was speaking more about
1:19 – 1:20
the soil biology and the
1:20 – 1:21
discovery and the realization
1:22 – 1:23
that
1:23 – 1:25
soil health and
1:26 – 1:27
the ability to fix and sequester
1:27 – 1:29
nitrogen and supply nitrogen to
1:29 – 1:30
a crop
1:30 – 1:32
is closely connected to each
1:32 – 1:34
other. And if you wanted to
1:34 – 1:36
incentivize the adoption of soil
1:36 – 1:37
health
1:37 – 1:39
in a significant way at a large
1:39 – 1:39
scale,
1:40 – 1:41
One easy pathway to do that
1:41 – 1:44
would be to make it cheaper to
1:44 – 1:45
grow your own nitrogen than to
1:45 – 1:46
buy it.
1:46 – 1:47
And
1:48 – 1:51
since he made that comment,
1:51 – 1:53
it's now, I don't know, at least
1:53 – 1:54
six or seven years ago, probably
1:54 – 1:55
longer,
1:55 – 1:58
we've learned a lot more about
1:59 – 2:00
nitrogen
2:00 – 2:02
the impact that it has,
2:02 – 2:03
and the way that it changes
2:03 – 2:04
plant physiology, and the way
2:04 – 2:05
that it changes soil
2:05 – 2:06
microbiology.
2:07 – 2:10
So for the discussion today, I'm
2:10 – 2:12
going to provide a quick
2:12 – 2:14
overview of some of the ways
2:14 – 2:15
that we think differently about
2:15 – 2:17
nitrogen today than we did 10
2:17 – 2:18
years ago,
2:18 – 2:19
and
2:20 – 2:21
how we manage it differently.
2:22 – 2:24
I want to just dive right
2:24 – 2:25
straight into the practicalities
2:25 – 2:27
of it, because obviously spring
2:27 – 2:28
is here, planting season is upon
2:28 – 2:29
us.
2:29 – 2:30
And what can we do differently
2:30 – 2:32
this season that can have a very
2:32 – 2:32
significant impact?
2:33 – 2:34
So
2:34 – 2:35
there's
2:37 – 2:39
many starting points in this
2:39 – 2:40
conversation, but one of the
2:40 – 2:42
things that I want to put out
2:42 – 2:43
there for us to think about is I
2:43 – 2:45
think it would be wise for us
2:45 – 2:46
to,
2:48 – 2:50
it would be helpful for us if we
2:50 – 2:51
stopped having a conversation
2:51 – 2:52
about nitrogen.
2:54 – 2:55
Because from
2:57 – 2:59
a biological system perspective,
2:59 – 3:01
from a soil biology and a plant
3:01 – 3:01
perspective,
3:02 – 3:03
nitrogen doesn't exist.
3:05 – 3:07
Plants and biology do not
3:07 – 3:08
interact with N.
3:09 – 3:10
They don't even really interact,
3:10 – 3:11
well, biology does, but plants
3:11 – 3:13
don't even really interact with
3:13 – 3:15
N2, the nitrogen gas that's in
3:15 – 3:15
the atmosphere.
3:16 – 3:18
We would be much better served
3:18 – 3:19
if we started having a
3:19 – 3:22
conversation about nitrate
3:22 – 3:24
and ammonium and urea
3:25 – 3:26
and amino acids,
3:27 – 3:27
amino sugars,
3:28 – 3:29
protein forms of nitrogen,
3:29 – 3:31
because the plants and the soil
3:31 – 3:34
biology interact with each of
3:34 – 3:36
those differently, and in some
3:36 – 3:37
cases,
3:38 – 3:39
in extremely different ways.
3:42 – 3:44
It weakens our understanding of
3:44 – 3:46
agronomy and it weakens our
3:46 – 3:49
understanding of plant nutrition
3:49 – 3:50
and nutrition management.
3:51 – 3:52
To talk about nitrogen
3:52 – 3:53
generically,
3:54 – 3:57
when we really should be talking
3:57 – 3:59
about nitrate versus urea
4:00 – 4:01
because those two have
4:01 – 4:03
fundamentally different
4:04 – 4:07
impacts on plant physiology and
4:07 – 4:09
on the on the way that plants
4:09 – 4:10
express themselves.
4:11 – 4:12
So I'm
4:13 – 4:14
going to just
4:15 – 4:16
jump right in and the the core
4:16 – 4:18
objective here what I want to
4:18 – 4:20
speak about is I
4:20 – 4:21
want to speak about just
4:22 – 4:23
There's so many,
4:23 – 4:24
I could literally talk about
4:24 – 4:25
these various forms of nitrogen
4:25 – 4:26
and how they interact in
4:26 – 4:27
biological systems for four
4:27 – 4:29
hours, but that would,
4:29 – 4:31
I don't think that would be a
4:31 – 4:33
boring conversation, but I want
4:33 – 4:35
to make it really practical and
4:35 – 4:37
focus on what we are doing, how
4:37 – 4:39
we are managing nitrogen today
4:39 – 4:39
with the
4:40 – 4:41
growers that we do consulting
4:41 – 4:42
work for, what we've learned
4:42 – 4:43
over the last half a dozen or
4:43 – 4:45
more years and how we're
4:45 – 4:46
constantly evolving.
4:46 – 4:47
So I
4:48 – 4:49
want to focus on the practical
4:49 – 4:51
aspects, but also describe how
4:51 – 4:52
we got there.
4:53 – 4:54
So we know that one of the
4:54 – 4:55
challenges with nitrogen,
4:56 – 4:57
particularly in the nitrate
4:57 – 4:59
form, is that it's water
4:59 – 4:59
-soluble.
5:00 – 5:02
And that's problematic both when
5:02 – 5:03
we have too much water and when
5:03 – 5:04
we don't have enough.
5:05 – 5:06
And this was one of the pieces
5:06 – 5:08
that I found quite intriguing
5:08 – 5:09
when we started working with
5:09 – 5:10
biological nitrogen.
5:11 – 5:12
The discovery and the
5:12 – 5:13
realization that
5:14 – 5:17
nitrogen and other nutrients
5:17 – 5:18
that are coming from soil
5:18 – 5:20
biology, from biological cells,
5:20 – 5:21
bacterial cells in particular,
5:22 – 5:23
are still available to the plant
5:23 – 5:25
in the absence of free soil
5:25 – 5:26
water.
5:28 – 5:30
You've probably heard stories of
5:31 – 5:33
farms that had improved soil
5:33 – 5:35
health, they started making
5:35 – 5:35
changes,
5:35 – 5:36
and
5:36 – 5:39
in dry conditions, drought
5:39 – 5:40
stress conditions, they still
5:40 – 5:42
went on to produce a high
5:42 – 5:43
-yielding crop
5:43 – 5:45
that was not only a high
5:45 – 5:46
-yielding crop but also had high
5:46 – 5:47
test weight.
5:48 – 5:49
And this has been something
5:49 – 5:50
we've
5:50 – 5:51
observed now a number of times
5:51 – 5:52
where you have these
5:52 – 5:53
exceptionally high yielding
5:53 – 5:55
crops with high test weights
5:55 – 5:56
that are
5:56 – 5:57
completely out of proportion to
5:57 – 5:58
what you would expect
5:59 – 6:00
when you have given that you
6:00 – 6:02
might have very dry conditions
6:02 – 6:03
in August and September.
6:04 – 6:07
And in every instance when that
6:07 – 6:08
occurs, when we measure what's
6:08 – 6:09
happening and what's going on
6:09 – 6:10
with soil biology,
6:11 – 6:13
we have this biological nutrient
6:13 – 6:16
delivery that can continue to
6:16 – 6:16
deliver
6:17 – 6:18
the nitrogen and other nutrients
6:18 – 6:20
in the absence of free soil
6:20 – 6:21
water.
6:21 – 6:22
And that is
6:22 – 6:23
such a powerful,
6:25 – 6:26
it builds so much resilience for
6:26 – 6:28
us from a soil health and plant
6:28 – 6:30
health and yield perspective.
6:33 – 6:35
So one of the things,
6:35 – 6:37
one of the most popular webinars
6:37 – 6:38
that I ever
6:38 – 6:41
did was,
6:42 – 6:43
I forget it was something,
6:43 – 6:44
the title was something to the
6:44 – 6:46
effect of how nitrogen creates
6:46 – 6:47
yield drag.
6:50 – 6:52
On the surface,
6:52 – 6:54
I mean, people's kind of first
6:54 – 6:56
reaction to that is,
6:57 – 6:58
wait,
6:57 – 6:59
nitrogen can create a yield
6:59 – 7:01
drag? Like everything we've been
7:01 – 7:02
indoctrinated with and
7:02 – 7:03
everything we've been told for
7:03 – 7:04
the last 40 years is the
7:04 – 7:05
opposite of that.
7:06 – 7:07
We're constantly putting on more
7:07 – 7:08
nitrogen and
7:09 – 7:10
we
7:10 – 7:12
want to drive more vegetative
7:12 – 7:13
growth.
7:14 – 7:16
And it was intriguing to me to
7:16 – 7:18
observe that over the years
7:18 – 7:19
there's
7:19 – 7:21
slight variation, of course,
7:21 – 7:22
dependent on genetics and region
7:22 – 7:23
and so forth. But
7:24 – 7:25
As a general rule,
7:26 – 7:28
the highest yielding crops are
7:29 – 7:29
not,
7:29 – 7:30
they're
7:31 – 7:32
practically never
7:32 – 7:34
crops that, I actually shouldn't
7:34 – 7:35
say practically never, I cannot
7:35 – 7:37
recall of a single instance
7:37 – 7:38
where
7:38 – 7:41
we've been consulting with a
7:41 – 7:43
grower and the highest yielding
7:43 – 7:44
crop was the crop that had the
7:44 – 7:45
highest yield. levels of
7:45 – 7:46
nitrogen.
7:46 – 7:48
I've never seen it, not once.
7:49 – 7:51
When all of the other nutrients
7:51 – 7:52
are balanced and are being
7:52 – 7:53
managed well,
7:53 – 7:57
and nitrogen is applied in
7:57 – 7:59
excessive rates or at higher
7:59 – 8:01
levels than it should be in a
8:01 – 8:02
certain field,
8:02 – 8:03
we always see a yield drag
8:03 – 8:04
effect.
8:04 – 8:06
It has a negative effect on
8:06 – 8:07
yield. Past a certain threshold,
8:08 – 8:09
nitrogen has a negative effect
8:09 – 8:10
on yield rather than a positive
8:10 – 8:11
effect.
8:12 – 8:14
There's a number of reasons for
8:14 – 8:16
why this is the case.
8:16 – 8:17
I'll
8:18 – 8:20
give you a non -corn example as
8:20 – 8:21
a starting point in the
8:21 – 8:22
conversation.
8:23 – 8:26
If we look at watermelons as an
8:26 – 8:26
example,
8:27 – 8:29
the highest yielding watermelon
8:29 – 8:29
crops
8:30 – 8:31
often do not have enough
8:31 – 8:32
vegetation to cover the
8:32 – 8:33
watermelons.
8:33 – 8:35
The watermelons stand out in the
8:35 – 8:35
field very clearly.
8:36 – 8:38
You'll have another field right
8:38 – 8:38
beside it
8:39 – 8:41
where there is such lush and
8:41 – 8:43
abundant foliage and vegetation
8:43 – 8:44
that it completely covers the
8:44 – 8:46
watermelons and it'll yield 20
8:46 – 8:47
to 30 % less.
8:48 – 8:52
And that is a signal of
8:52 – 8:53
a plant that had high levels of
8:53 – 8:54
nitrate.
8:54 – 8:55
And we
8:58 – 8:59
could have a long conversation
8:59 – 9:02
about the effect that nitrate
9:02 – 9:04
has on plants, but I'll
9:04 – 9:05
start with,
9:06 – 9:07
this
9:09 – 9:10
was not Don Huber's PhD
9:10 – 9:11
research,
9:11 – 9:12
it was one of his colleagues,
9:14 – 9:14
it wasn't Bob Kramer.
9:15 – 9:17
I'm forgetting the name of the
9:17 – 9:18
individual right now.
9:18 – 9:19
I've heard this story secondhand
9:19 – 9:21
and I'm in the process of
9:21 – 9:22
tracking down the original PhD
9:22 – 9:23
paper right now.
9:24 – 9:26
But the story that was related
9:26 – 9:27
to me, this was research that
9:27 – 9:29
was done at Purdue back in the
9:29 – 9:31
late 70s, I want to say 76 -77
9:31 – 9:32
timeframe.
9:33 – 9:34
And at that point they
9:34 – 9:35
determined that the highest
9:35 – 9:36
yielding crops,
9:37 – 9:38
this was on corn specifically,
9:38 – 9:40
the highest yielding corn crops
9:40 – 9:40
were
9:41 – 9:42
crops that were getting,
9:42 – 9:44
of their total nitrogen supply,
9:44 – 9:46
they were getting 80 % as
9:46 – 9:47
ammonium and 20 % as nitrate.
9:50 – 9:52
We've known this since the 70s.
9:53 – 9:55
And this was, of course, before
9:55 – 9:55
we
9:56 – 9:57
fully appreciated and were fully
9:57 – 9:59
aware of the impact of soil
9:59 – 10:01
biology. So they were not yet
10:01 – 10:03
measuring amino sugars and amino
10:03 – 10:04
acids in various organic forms
10:04 – 10:05
of nitrogen. They were just
10:05 – 10:06
looking at the ammonium to
10:06 – 10:07
nitrate component
10:08 – 10:10
And they were saying the highest
10:10 – 10:11
yielding crops are crops that
10:11 – 10:13
are 80 % ammonium and 20 %
10:13 – 10:14
nitrate.
10:14 – 10:15
And that was consistent across a
10:15 – 10:16
wide
10:16 – 10:19
variety of different soil types
10:19 – 10:20
and different growing contexts.
10:21 – 10:22
And the
10:23 – 10:25
reason for that, we've also
10:25 – 10:28
found that nitrate in particular
10:28 – 10:30
can have a yield drag effect for
10:30 – 10:33
two reasons, as we understand it
10:33 – 10:34
right now.
10:35 – 10:36
There's a few other,
10:36 – 10:38
I'll expand it to three reasons.
10:38 – 10:39
There's a few other secondary
10:39 – 10:40
reasons, but the three big ones
10:40 – 10:41
are one,
10:42 – 10:43
A plant that has high levels of
10:43 – 10:46
nitrate requires higher levels
10:46 – 10:47
of water.
10:47 – 10:50
You make a plant thirsty for
10:50 – 10:52
additional water requirements
10:52 – 10:54
when you provide it with lots of
10:54 – 10:54
nitrate.
10:55 – 10:58
And this is not rocket science,
10:58 – 10:59
it's not anything that's that
10:59 – 11:00
complicated to figure out.
11:00 – 11:02
If you go into any plant
11:03 – 11:04
nutrition handbook or textbook,
11:04 – 11:05
or you can readily look this up
11:05 – 11:06
online,
11:06 – 11:09
and you look at the nitrate
11:09 – 11:11
conversion pathway that is
11:11 – 11:13
required to convert nitrate to
11:13 – 11:14
glutamine.
11:14 – 11:15
in the protein synthesis
11:15 – 11:16
process.
11:17 – 11:19
That conversion process requires
11:19 – 11:20
three molecules of water.
11:21 – 11:23
So for every molecule of nitrate
11:23 – 11:24
the plant absorbs,
11:24 – 11:25
it requires three molecules of
11:25 – 11:26
water
11:26 – 11:27
additional,
11:27 – 11:28
an extra,
11:29 – 11:30
that it would not require if it
11:30 – 11:31
absorbed that nitrogen in the
11:31 – 11:32
form of ammonium
11:33 – 11:34
or in the form of urea.
11:35 – 11:37
So simply by giving the plant
11:37 – 11:37
nitrate,
11:38 – 11:39
you make the plant thirstier,
11:39 – 11:40
you increase its water
11:40 – 11:41
requirement.
11:41 – 11:42
That's part one.
11:43 – 11:44
Part two,
11:45 – 11:47
to convert nitrate through this
11:47 – 11:48
nitrate conversion process and
11:48 – 11:49
eventually into glutamine and
11:49 – 11:51
into peptides and proteins
11:52 – 11:54
requires much higher levels of
11:54 – 11:55
energy, much higher levels of
11:55 – 11:56
sugar.
11:56 – 11:58
there's much greater sugar
11:58 – 11:59
requirement and energy
11:59 – 12:01
requirement to convert nitrate
12:01 – 12:02
than it is to convert ammonium
12:02 – 12:04
or urea or
12:04 – 12:06
amino acids and amino sugars.
12:07 – 12:09
So the nitrate
12:09 – 12:11
conversion is both,
12:11 – 12:13
creates both additional thirst
12:14 – 12:16
and it creates an additional
12:16 – 12:17
energy drain,
12:18 – 12:20
which is two of the significant
12:20 – 12:21
contributing factors why they
12:21 – 12:22
originally identified that the
12:22 – 12:24
highest yielding crops were
12:24 – 12:25
crops that were getting most of
12:25 – 12:26
their nitrogen in the form of
12:26 – 12:27
ammonium.
12:27 – 12:29
But then the third reason
12:29 – 12:30
is
12:32 – 12:33
that you
12:36 – 12:37
could arguably,
12:38 – 12:39
when we look at
12:40 – 12:43
plant phytohormones and
12:43 – 12:45
phytohormone interactions and
12:47 – 12:48
the impact that they have, we
12:48 – 12:49
can have these conversations
12:49 – 12:50
about various forms of
12:50 – 12:52
gibberellins and cytokinins and
12:52 – 12:53
abscisic acid and on and on the
12:53 – 12:54
list goes,
12:56 – 12:57
but you could arguably look at
12:57 – 13:00
nitrate as a hormone.
13:01 – 13:02
Nitrate has a hormonal effect
13:02 – 13:04
and it drives very rapid
13:04 – 13:05
vegetative growth
13:06 – 13:07
and very rapid
13:08 – 13:09
root expansion,
13:10 – 13:11
leaf expansion, leaf surface
13:11 – 13:12
area, and so forth.
13:13 – 13:14
What is interesting,
13:15 – 13:17
you know, years ago there was
13:17 – 13:18
this concept that I introduced
13:18 – 13:19
many
13:20 – 13:21
years ago that we used to call
13:21 – 13:22
critical points of influence.
13:24 – 13:25
And we don't talk about critical
13:25 – 13:26
points of influence quite as
13:26 – 13:28
much because it was not
13:28 – 13:29
necessarily complicated to
13:29 – 13:30
understand. but it
13:31 – 13:33
was not intuitive for a lot of
13:33 – 13:33
people.
13:34 – 13:36
But we learned that,
13:36 – 13:37
and I think we all know,
13:38 – 13:40
that plants all have these
13:40 – 13:41
critical points, these critical
13:42 – 13:44
leverage windows, where any type
13:44 – 13:45
of stress or
13:46 – 13:48
any type of beneficial impact in
13:48 – 13:49
this very narrow window can have
13:49 – 13:51
a disproportionately positive
13:51 – 13:51
effect.
13:52 – 13:54
So this goes back all the way to
13:54 – 13:56
Charles Tsai's research at Iowa
13:56 – 13:58
State University back in the, I
13:58 – 13:59
want to say this was the early
13:59 – 14:01
70s, like 72, 73, somewhere in
14:01 – 14:02
there.
14:03 – 14:04
He identified,
14:05 – 14:06
and now this has been updated,
14:06 – 14:08
there's updated research on
14:08 – 14:09
this, but his original research
14:09 – 14:11
said that the number of
14:11 – 14:13
potential ears that a corn plant
14:13 – 14:14
will have on a flex ear hybrid
14:15 – 14:16
is,
14:17 – 14:18
excuse me,
14:19 – 14:20
that the embryos for those
14:20 – 14:21
potential ears are
14:22 – 14:23
determined
14:23 – 14:26
nine to 11 days after emergence.
14:27 – 14:28
and that the
14:29 – 14:32
number of rows are determined 14
14:32 – 14:33
to 21 days after emergence,
14:34 – 14:36
and the number of kernels per
14:36 – 14:39
row is determined 42 to 49 days
14:39 – 14:40
after emergence.
14:41 – 14:42
And so
14:44 – 14:46
there's a few things that
14:46 – 14:48
are interesting about this
14:48 – 14:49
scenario.
14:49 – 14:50
First,
14:52 – 14:53
if you consider if you have a
14:53 – 14:54
flex ear hybrid,
14:55 – 14:57
the greatest impact on yield
14:57 – 14:59
happens earliest in the plant's
14:59 – 15:00
life.
15:00 – 15:03
So if you increase the number of
15:04 – 15:05
ears per plant,
15:06 – 15:08
or if you increase the number of
15:08 – 15:09
rows per year,
15:09 – 15:10
you will have a much greater
15:10 – 15:13
impact on yield potential than
15:13 – 15:14
if you simply increase the
15:14 – 15:16
number of kernels per row.
15:17 – 15:18
So that's
15:19 – 15:19
one interesting aspect.
15:20 – 15:21
The other interesting aspect is
15:21 – 15:22
how early in the plant's life
15:22 – 15:24
this happens and also how narrow
15:24 – 15:24
the window is.
15:25 – 15:28
Like number of ear embryos and
15:28 – 15:30
ear embryo initiation is
15:30 – 15:32
determined nine to eleven days
15:32 – 15:33
after germination.
15:33 – 15:34
That's pretty early.
15:34 – 15:35
That's two weeks.
15:35 – 15:36
And it's also it's a three day
15:36 – 15:37
long window.
15:38 – 15:40
So that's the concept of these
15:40 – 15:41
critical points of influence.
15:41 – 15:42
You have a three day window.
15:43 – 15:45
And if you have severe weather
15:45 – 15:45
stress
15:46 – 15:48
or nutritional stress in that
15:48 – 15:49
window, then that's going to
15:49 – 15:50
have an impact
15:51 – 15:52
that lasts for the rest of that
15:52 – 15:53
plant's life.
15:54 – 15:55
So
15:56 – 15:59
what I'm coming to realize is
16:00 – 16:02
that I'll just cut straight to
16:02 – 16:03
the bottom line.
16:03 – 16:04
There's a lot of additional
16:04 – 16:06
dots that I could connect in the
16:06 – 16:07
chain here, but
16:07 – 16:09
the bottom line is that nitrate
16:09 – 16:12
behaves as a phytohormone and it
16:12 – 16:14
drives vegetative growth.
16:15 – 16:16
And it
16:16 – 16:18
is beneficial to
16:18 – 16:19
have
16:19 – 16:21
generous levels of nitrate
16:21 – 16:23
earlier on in the plant's life.
16:23 – 16:24
So in a corn plant, particularly
16:24 – 16:25
when you have, when you're at
16:25 – 16:26
the seedling stage,
16:27 – 16:27
all
16:28 – 16:29
the way starting from
16:29 – 16:30
germination,
16:30 – 16:32
up until about V5 to V6,
16:33 – 16:35
you have positive yield
16:35 – 16:37
influences from having higher
16:37 – 16:38
levels of nitrate.
16:39 – 16:41
And from that point forward, for
16:41 – 16:42
the rest of the season,
16:42 – 16:43
you actually get greater
16:43 – 16:44
benefits, greater yield
16:44 – 16:46
responses from having less
16:46 – 16:47
nitrate,
16:47 – 16:49
20 % or less of the plant's
16:49 – 16:50
total nitrogen supply,
16:51 – 16:53
and more ammonium or urea or
16:53 – 16:54
other forms of nitrogen.
16:55 – 16:57
You want to minimize nitrate
16:57 – 17:00
after V5, V6, and you want to
17:00 – 17:01
get the majority of nitrogen in
17:01 – 17:02
other forms.
17:03 – 17:05
So I think I'm spending too much
17:05 – 17:06
time here.
17:06 – 17:07
Yeah, I see him.
17:07 – 17:08
I got ahead of the slides here a
17:08 – 17:09
little bit, but
17:09 – 17:10
we see here,
17:11 – 17:12
takes
17:13 – 17:14
three times more
17:14 – 17:15
energy,
17:15 – 17:17
takes 15 moles of ATP versus
17:17 – 17:19
five for nitrate with versus
17:19 – 17:21
five moles. of ATP for ammonium.
17:22 – 17:24
Three molecules of water for
17:25 – 17:27
each molecule of nitrate.
17:27 – 17:28
And
17:28 – 17:29
the bottom line,
17:29 – 17:30
what we've come to realize,
17:31 – 17:33
and this has been difficult to
17:33 – 17:35
quantify exactly, this is just
17:35 – 17:36
based on lots of experience and
17:36 – 17:37
observation,
17:38 – 17:39
but I
17:40 – 17:43
would suggest that plants that
17:43 – 17:44
are getting lots of nitrogen in
17:44 – 17:45
the form of nitrate
17:46 – 17:48
can require 20 -30 % more water
17:48 – 17:50
to produce the same bushels
17:50 – 17:51
as those that are using
17:51 – 17:53
biological nitrogen or getting
17:53 – 17:55
nitrogen from ammonium and urea.
17:56 – 17:57
That's a pretty big difference.
17:57 – 17:58
You want to talk about drought
17:58 – 17:59
resilience?
18:01 – 18:03
30 % less water is kind of a big
18:03 – 18:04
deal.
18:06 – 18:07
So,
18:07 – 18:09
I would suspect many of you are
18:09 – 18:10
familiar with the Rhizophagy
18:10 – 18:11
cycle at this point.
18:12 – 18:14
If you're not, I don't have the
18:14 – 18:15
time here to really do it
18:15 – 18:16
justice.
18:16 – 18:17
There's lots of information
18:17 – 18:19
available about this cycle
18:19 – 18:21
online, but the short version of
18:21 – 18:22
what we are learning is that
18:22 – 18:24
plants have the ability to
18:25 – 18:27
absorb the great majority of
18:27 – 18:28
their nutrition, including
18:28 – 18:29
nitrogen,
18:30 – 18:32
in the form of living bacterial
18:32 – 18:34
cells and living fungal cells
18:34 – 18:36
and microalgae and so forth.
18:36 – 18:38
But that they, let me move this
18:38 – 18:40
zoom slide around here a little
18:40 – 18:41
bit. So
18:41 – 18:43
this research is credited to Dr.
18:43 – 18:44
James White from Rutgers
18:44 – 18:45
University.
18:45 – 18:46
He's popularized it and
18:46 – 18:47
published it with a group of
18:47 – 18:48
colleagues over the last decade
18:48 – 18:49
plus.
18:50 – 18:52
And he's describing that plants
18:52 – 18:53
are absorbing living
18:54 – 18:55
microbes,
18:55 – 18:56
and these microbes are
18:56 – 18:59
colonizing the entire plant and
18:59 – 19:00
providing it with nutrition.
19:01 – 19:03
And what we're discovering, this
19:03 – 19:05
is how undomesticated ecosystems
19:05 – 19:07
work. So if you have wild plants
19:07 – 19:08
that are out in the forest or
19:08 – 19:09
out in the meadows and the
19:09 – 19:10
prairies,
19:12 – 19:12
in
19:13 – 19:14
these wild ecosystems that are
19:14 – 19:15
not being fertilized,
19:16 – 19:18
the great majority, upwards of
19:18 – 19:20
90 % of all of their nutrition
19:20 – 19:21
requirements are being provided
19:21 – 19:23
by this
19:23 – 19:25
mechanism. I'm hesitant to call
19:25 – 19:27
it a mechanism, but this
19:27 – 19:28
pathway, if you will,
19:29 – 19:30
of plants absorbing entire
19:30 – 19:31
microbes.
19:32 – 19:33
And what
19:34 – 19:36
we're now coming to realize is
19:36 – 19:39
that this same pathway can
19:39 – 19:41
also deliver upwards of 90 % of
19:41 – 19:42
a plant's nutritional
19:42 – 19:43
requirements
19:44 – 19:46
in an agriculture environment if
19:47 – 19:49
we stop preventing it from being
19:49 – 19:50
effective.
19:50 – 19:51
And there
19:52 – 19:53
are many things that we do to
19:53 – 19:54
prevent it from being effective.
19:55 – 19:56
The short version,
19:56 – 19:58
let me see if I have it here on
19:58 – 19:58
the slides.
20:00 – 20:01
But in short,
20:03 – 20:04
we have
20:05 – 20:07
one of the best ways,
20:08 – 20:09
the way that I've started
20:09 – 20:10
describing this
20:10 – 20:12
to produce the greatest
20:12 – 20:13
accuracy, I'm using some
20:13 – 20:15
language that isn't commonly
20:15 – 20:16
used in
20:16 – 20:17
agronomy but is still very
20:17 – 20:18
appropriate, and I'm talking
20:18 – 20:19
about
20:21 – 20:23
Biological nutrition versus
20:23 – 20:24
electrolyte nutrition.
20:26 – 20:28
A lot of the fertilizers that we
20:28 – 20:30
use are inherently electrolytes.
20:30 – 20:31
Anytime you have soluble
20:31 – 20:33
potassium or soluble chloride or
20:33 – 20:34
soluble nitrogen in
20:35 – 20:36
the form of nitrates or
20:36 – 20:37
ammonium,
20:37 – 20:38
particularly nitrates,
20:39 – 20:40
and even urea,
20:40 – 20:42
you have a material that has a
20:42 – 20:44
relatively high salt index.
20:44 – 20:46
It has a high electrical
20:46 – 20:46
conductivity.
20:48 – 20:49
And what happens when you have
20:49 – 20:50
materials that have a high
20:50 – 20:51
electrical conductivity,
20:52 – 20:54
You know, there's
20:54 – 20:57
some debate around the truth of
20:57 – 20:59
this story or this myth, I
20:59 – 21:00
suppose you could call it.
21:01 – 21:02
But there's some discussion
21:02 – 21:04
around how the Romans salted the
21:04 – 21:07
land of the Greeks when they did
21:07 – 21:08
not want those states to
21:08 – 21:10
reemerge and to be conquered.
21:10 – 21:11
again.
21:12 – 21:13
And when you add salt to land,
21:13 – 21:14
essentially what you're doing is
21:14 – 21:16
you're adding a very high dose
21:16 – 21:17
of an electrolyte
21:17 – 21:19
that will shut down
21:19 – 21:20
biological activity.
21:21 – 21:23
And this used to be a standard
21:23 – 21:25
practice years ago in asparagus
21:25 – 21:26
production as well that would
21:26 – 21:27
actually add
21:27 – 21:29
sodium chloride, salt, to the
21:29 – 21:31
land in high concentrations as a
21:31 – 21:32
weed control because the
21:32 – 21:34
asparagus could tolerate that
21:34 – 21:35
where other plants could not.
21:36 – 21:37
I've gotten to see some of those
21:37 – 21:39
soils and see the loss of
21:39 – 21:41
structure and the destruction
21:41 – 21:42
that has occurred from that
21:42 – 21:42
practice.
21:43 – 21:45
But the reality is
21:46 – 21:47
we are doing it, we're doing
21:47 – 21:49
exactly the same thing with our
21:49 – 21:50
fertilizer applications, but
21:50 – 21:51
just in smaller doses and
21:51 – 21:52
perhaps more spread out over
21:52 – 21:53
time,
21:53 – 21:55
where the fertilizers that we're
21:55 – 21:57
adding generally have a high
21:57 – 21:58
electrical conductivity.
21:58 – 21:59
They have a high AC.
22:00 – 22:00
And so when
22:01 – 22:02
you, let's say you have a wound,
22:03 – 22:04
a cut or finger,
22:06 – 22:07
you get fertilizer into that,
22:07 – 22:08
you know what that's going to
22:08 – 22:09
feel like. It's going to burn.
22:09 – 22:11
And that burning is cellular
22:11 – 22:12
oxidation.
22:13 – 22:14
It is that electrolyte
22:15 – 22:18
damaging and degrading cell
22:18 – 22:18
membranes.
22:20 – 22:21
The same thing happens to
22:21 – 22:23
microbial cells in the soil when
22:24 – 22:26
we add fertilizers to the soil.
22:26 – 22:28
Whenever we add a high
22:28 – 22:29
electrolyte content
22:30 – 22:31
nutrient
22:32 – 22:34
or fertilizer to the soil,
22:34 – 22:36
that has a detrimental effect on
22:36 – 22:38
soil biology. So the pathway
22:38 – 22:39
forward,
22:39 – 22:40
if we want to
22:41 – 22:43
to enhance this, if we want to
22:43 – 22:44
enhance the ability to grow our
22:44 – 22:45
own nitrogen,
22:45 – 22:46
fix our own nitrogen from
22:46 – 22:49
biology and feed it to provide
22:49 – 22:50
that to plants.
22:51 – 22:53
The kind of the science of
22:53 – 22:56
navigating this transition
22:56 – 22:59
is providing an on -ramp for
22:59 – 23:01
biology and biological nutrition
23:01 – 23:03
while we create an off -ramp
23:04 – 23:06
from electrolyte nutrition.
23:07 – 23:08
So
23:08 – 23:10
if you
23:11 – 23:12
can just imagine that
23:12 – 23:16
you have an on -ramp on an XY
23:16 – 23:17
axis,
23:17 – 23:19
you have up to the upper right
23:19 – 23:20
of the corner, you have an on
23:20 – 23:21
-ramp for
23:21 – 23:23
biological nutrition, and then
23:23 – 23:24
you have an off -ramp for
23:24 – 23:25
chemistry nutrition or for
23:25 – 23:26
electrolyte nutrition.
23:26 – 23:27
The question is,
23:27 – 23:29
how do you navigate those and
23:29 – 23:31
how do you balance those without
23:31 – 23:32
compromising on yield?
23:33 – 23:34
Because I'm of the persuasion
23:34 – 23:35
that
23:35 – 23:38
there should not be a
23:38 – 23:40
need for a yield loss.
23:40 – 23:41
If you have a yield loss during
23:41 – 23:42
a transition, that's a
23:42 – 23:44
reflection of bad agronomy, not
23:44 – 23:46
a reflection of the challenges
23:46 – 23:47
with the
23:49 – 23:50
challenges with rebuilding soil
23:50 – 23:51
biology.
23:52 – 23:53
So I'm
23:54 – 23:56
going to I'm
23:56 – 23:58
just going to dive right into
23:58 – 24:01
the way that we manage the
24:01 – 24:03
transition on farms that we work
24:03 – 24:04
with is we
24:04 – 24:07
try to reduce the
24:08 – 24:09
concentration and the quantity
24:09 – 24:11
of electrolytes that we are
24:11 – 24:13
applying at any one point in
24:13 – 24:14
time.
24:14 – 24:15
So we
24:15 – 24:17
do multiple applications.
24:17 – 24:18
We split applications out over
24:18 – 24:20
the course of the season and
24:20 – 24:21
we try to
24:22 – 24:24
apply as much to the plant as
24:24 – 24:26
possible and as little to the
24:26 – 24:28
soil as possible while still
24:28 – 24:29
getting good
24:29 – 24:32
performance and good yield
24:32 – 24:33
results.
24:33 – 24:34
So I'm
24:34 – 24:35
going to...
24:36 – 24:37
What
24:38 – 24:39
are we doing on time here?
24:41 – 24:42
I'm going to
24:42 – 24:45
just provide a very rapid,
24:45 – 24:47
high -level overview of our
24:47 – 24:50
thinking and our approach to
24:50 – 24:51
nitrogen management.
24:52 – 24:53
And we'll
24:54 – 24:55
go through some specific
24:55 – 24:57
applications and the thought
24:57 – 24:58
process behind them, and then
24:58 – 24:59
I'm just going to open it up for
24:59 – 25:02
Q &A. and we can chat about any
25:02 – 25:03
questions that you might have.
25:05 – 25:07
There's a few pieces of
25:08 – 25:09
information that are important
25:09 – 25:11
for all of this to make sense.
25:12 – 25:14
The first is something that I
25:14 – 25:15
learned,
25:15 – 25:17
an old rule of thumb that was
25:17 – 25:18
developed by a team of Brookside
25:18 – 25:21
agronomists 50 -some years ago.
25:22 – 25:23
When they were looking at corn
25:23 – 25:24
nutrition,
25:24 – 25:25
they identified that
25:28 – 25:29
Sulfur,
25:29 – 25:30
at that point,
25:31 – 25:32
sulfur was much more common in
25:32 – 25:33
the atmosphere than it is today.
25:33 – 25:35
And they identified that sulfur,
25:36 – 25:38
the first 25 pounds of sulfur
25:38 – 25:39
can
25:39 – 25:41
deliver the same yield response
25:41 – 25:43
as a pound of nitrogen.
25:43 – 25:44
There was this threshold effect
25:44 – 25:45
that
25:45 – 25:47
the first 25 pounds of sulfur
25:47 – 25:47
had
25:48 – 25:50
the same crop yield effect as 25
25:50 – 25:51
pounds of nitrogen.
25:51 – 25:53
And after that 25 pound
25:53 – 25:54
threshold,
25:54 – 25:56
that effect would diminish and
25:56 – 25:57
taper off. It would no longer
25:57 – 25:58
held true at a one -to -one
25:58 – 25:59
ratio.
26:00 – 26:02
So they described that in any
26:02 – 26:04
nitrogen program or nitrogen
26:04 – 26:05
recommendation, they would
26:05 – 26:07
replace the first 25 pounds of N
26:07 – 26:09
with 25 pounds of sulfur and get
26:09 – 26:10
the same yield response.
26:11 – 26:12
So that was one, that's one
26:12 – 26:13
interesting aspect, one
26:13 – 26:14
important consideration.
26:16 – 26:17
The other
26:17 – 26:18
is,
26:19 – 26:19
and this
26:20 – 26:22
research was originally done at
26:22 – 26:24
University of California, Davis
26:24 – 26:25
by,
26:26 – 26:28
I'm blanking out, Patrick Brown,
26:29 – 26:30
if I recall the name correctly.
26:32 – 26:33
He described that a foliar
26:33 – 26:35
application of urea
26:36 – 26:37
There was some variation from
26:37 – 26:39
crop to crop, but that in many
26:39 – 26:40
crops, the crops that he
26:40 – 26:41
studied, it would have
26:41 – 26:43
an equivalent, produce an
26:43 – 26:44
equivalent crop response.
26:45 – 26:46
One pound of nitrogen as urea
26:46 – 26:49
foliar produced the same crop
26:49 – 26:51
response as seven pounds of
26:51 – 26:52
nitrogen in
26:52 – 26:54
the form of urea applied to the
26:54 – 26:55
soil.
26:56 – 26:57
And there have now been a group
26:57 – 26:59
of growers that we've worked
26:59 – 27:00
with, Beau Clawson has worked
27:00 – 27:01
with this extensively, Patrick
27:01 – 27:02
Fabian has worked with it
27:02 – 27:03
extensively,
27:03 – 27:05
and they're reporting on corn
27:05 – 27:06
specifically,
27:06 – 27:07
and on small grains,
27:08 – 27:10
they're reporting a minimum of a
27:10 – 27:11
4 to 1 ratio.
27:12 – 27:14
And just a couple of weeks ago I
27:14 – 27:15
heard one conversation where
27:15 – 27:16
they were using some specific
27:16 – 27:17
forms of urea.
27:18 – 27:19
and they were reporting when
27:19 – 27:21
applied at particular crop
27:21 – 27:23
growth stages on corn, they were
27:23 – 27:25
reporting as much as a 12 to 1
27:25 – 27:26
ratio,
27:26 – 27:28
that a pound of nitrogen to the
27:28 – 27:31
plant produced the same
27:31 – 27:33
yield results as a pound of N
27:33 – 27:34
applied to the soil.
27:37 – 27:38
Well,
27:38 – 27:38
my goodness,
27:40 – 27:41
if you could cut your nitrogen
27:41 – 27:44
application rates down to 25%,
27:44 – 27:46
cut it four times with foliar
27:46 – 27:47
applications,
27:48 – 27:49
Wouldn't that be worth it?
27:49 – 27:50
I mean, yes, there are
27:50 – 27:53
application costs and logistics
27:53 – 27:54
and there's lots of things to
27:54 – 27:55
figure out, but that's a pretty
27:55 – 27:58
substantial variation.
28:00 – 28:03
So when we combine those
28:05 – 28:07
various pieces, we say, all
28:07 – 28:07
right,
28:07 – 28:09
how can we optimize foliar
28:09 – 28:10
applications?
28:10 – 28:12
How can we, particularly at
28:12 – 28:13
times of greatest plant need,
28:15 – 28:17
how can we minimize the
28:18 – 28:20
concentration of electrolytes at
28:20 – 28:21
any one point in time?
28:21 – 28:22
How can we spread that out over
28:22 – 28:23
time?
28:23 – 28:24
How can we make sure that the
28:24 – 28:27
plant has a good dose of nitrate
28:27 – 28:29
for the first five to six weeks
28:29 – 28:29
of plant life,
28:30 – 28:31
and then has mostly ammonium and
28:31 – 28:33
urea for later on?
28:34 – 28:36
How can we incorporate the rule
28:36 – 28:37
of thumb of the first 25 pounds
28:37 – 28:39
of sulfur? What does that look
28:39 – 28:39
like?
28:40 – 28:41
So what that looks like
28:42 – 28:43
is,
28:44 – 28:44
and
28:45 – 28:46
this is
28:46 – 28:48
kind of a broad, very broad
28:48 – 28:49
brush stroke,
28:50 – 28:51
point for
28:52 – 28:53
making recommendations.
28:54 – 28:57
If the frame of reference here
28:57 – 28:59
or the context here is if a
28:59 – 29:00
grower asked me to make
29:00 – 29:01
recommendations and I knew
29:01 – 29:02
nothing
29:02 – 29:03
about the soil,
29:04 – 29:05
about the crop history, about
29:05 – 29:06
what was going on,
29:07 – 29:09
all that I knew is that he has
29:09 – 29:11
historically been applying 200
29:11 – 29:13
pounds of nitrogen and
29:14 – 29:16
and producing a certain yield
29:16 – 29:18
outcome on his soil that he is
29:18 – 29:18
satisfied with,
29:20 – 29:21
I would, and I would be asked to
29:21 – 29:22
make a set of recommendations
29:22 – 29:23
just off the cuff without any
29:23 – 29:24
further information.
29:24 – 29:25
Of course, the obvious thing is
29:25 – 29:27
you then start looking for
29:27 – 29:28
further information so you can
29:28 – 29:29
dial things in.
29:29 – 29:31
So this is, I'm putting this out
29:31 – 29:33
there, this is a starting point
29:33 – 29:34
from which to customize.
29:34 – 29:36
You then customize what fits
29:36 – 29:38
your soil, your context, your
29:38 – 29:38
operation.
29:40 – 29:43
But if I'm starting with a soil
29:44 – 29:46
and a context that has
29:46 – 29:47
historically been using 200
29:47 – 29:49
pounds of nitrogen over
29:50 – 29:51
the course of a growing season
29:51 – 29:52
to grow a corn crop,
29:52 – 29:54
here's what my math would look
29:54 – 29:55
like. I would say, all right,
29:56 – 29:58
and my general recommendation as
29:58 – 29:59
a starting point,
29:59 – 30:01
I want to start with 40 units of
30:01 – 30:03
nitrogen applied at planting in
30:04 – 30:05
the form of
30:05 – 30:07
ammonium and nitrate,
30:07 – 30:08
not urea.
30:09 – 30:10
I want ammonium and nitrate at
30:10 – 30:11
planting
30:11 – 30:13
and that can be
30:14 – 30:16
That can be in a 2x2.
30:16 – 30:18
A 2x2 is as close to the seed as
30:18 – 30:19
I want to come.
30:19 – 30:19
I would actually prefer that it
30:19 – 30:21
be a little bit farther away or
30:21 – 30:22
a little bit deeper.
30:22 – 30:23
It can be put in earlier with a
30:23 – 30:24
strip -till.
30:25 – 30:26
Obviously, there's lots of
30:26 – 30:28
variation to different farming
30:28 – 30:30
operations here that are very
30:30 – 30:31
context -dependent, but
30:32 – 30:34
that would be the place where I
30:34 – 30:34
would start.
30:35 – 30:35
And then,
30:36 – 30:37
actually,
30:37 – 30:39
I'm going to go on to the side
30:39 – 30:39
dress, and then I'm going to
30:39 – 30:40
come back and talk about how I
30:40 – 30:41
would fine -tune this.
30:42 – 30:44
Then I would follow that up with
30:44 – 30:46
an additional 4x2, of nitrogen
30:46 – 30:47
side -dressed
30:48 – 30:51
at about V5 to V6,
30:52 – 30:52
probably right in the
30:52 – 30:53
neighborhood of V5.
30:55 – 30:58
So that gives us a total of 80
30:58 – 30:59
units at this point.
30:59 – 31:00
And by the way,
31:01 – 31:02
that 40 units at side -dress,
31:03 – 31:04
ideally I would refer to be in
31:04 – 31:05
the form of urea,
31:06 – 31:07
not ammonium and nitrate.
31:07 – 31:10
Again, I'm just giving you what
31:10 – 31:11
is the ideal. What's the ideal
31:11 – 31:12
from
31:12 – 31:13
a yield
31:14 – 31:15
perspective, from a biology
31:15 – 31:17
perspective, how does this crop
31:17 – 31:19
produce the most and have the
31:19 – 31:20
smallest water requirement, one
31:20 – 31:21
of the things that we talked
31:21 – 31:22
about.
31:23 – 31:23
So
31:23 – 31:27
in split up between that planter
31:27 – 31:28
application and the side dress
31:28 – 31:30
application, I also want a
31:30 – 31:31
minimum of 25 units of sulfur.
31:33 – 31:34
I want 25 pounds of sulfur per
31:34 – 31:35
acre split between those two.
31:36 – 31:37
And
31:37 – 31:40
at the very minimum in either
31:40 – 31:42
application, I want nitrogen and
31:42 – 31:43
sulfur to be in a 10 to 1 ratio.
31:44 – 31:45
And then
31:45 – 31:47
You can also dig into and look
31:47 – 31:48
at what we've been doing with
31:48 – 31:49
our nitrogen efficiency program.
31:49 – 31:50
You will get the highest
31:50 – 31:51
performance, the best results
31:51 – 31:52
when you also mix some carbon
31:52 – 31:53
with this, some humic
31:53 – 31:54
substances.
31:55 – 31:57
We use humicarb a lot and I have
31:57 – 31:59
a very strong recommendation for
31:59 – 32:00
also mixing molybdenum with this
32:00 – 32:01
application.
32:01 – 32:03
It takes about a pint per acre
32:03 – 32:04
of a three to four percent
32:04 – 32:05
molybdenum product.
32:06 – 32:06
Molybdenum
32:06 – 32:09
is the critical enzyme for the
32:09 – 32:11
nitrate reductase enzyme that is
32:11 – 32:13
used by both biology and by
32:13 – 32:14
plants.
32:14 – 32:17
And every time we add molybdenum
32:17 – 32:18
and carbon and this combination
32:18 – 32:19
into this mix,
32:20 – 32:23
we see the nitrogen leaching
32:23 – 32:26
goes to practically zero.
32:27 – 32:29
And even
32:29 – 32:30
in high moisture conditions.
32:31 – 32:32
And the reason for that is
32:32 – 32:34
because if you have adequate
32:34 – 32:35
molybdenum levels,
32:36 – 32:37
even when the soil
32:38 – 32:40
biology nitrifies back, excuse
32:40 – 32:41
me,
32:41 – 32:43
nitrifies nitrogen from the
32:43 – 32:45
various forms urea and ammonium
32:45 – 32:47
into nitrate and builds up
32:47 – 32:48
nitrate levels,
32:48 – 32:50
adequate levels of molybdenum
32:50 – 32:52
allow other soil biology to
32:53 – 32:55
convert that nitrate back into
32:55 – 32:56
organic nitrogen.
32:57 – 32:58
And so you actually moderate
32:58 – 33:00
and modulate the nitrate levels
33:00 – 33:02
in the soil to not become
33:02 – 33:03
excessive
33:03 – 33:06
simply by having adequate levels
33:06 – 33:07
of molybdenum.
33:07 – 33:08
That means a lot for
33:08 – 33:10
leachability. It reduces your
33:10 – 33:11
leachability, but also it
33:11 – 33:14
increases your plant's energy
33:14 – 33:16
response because it's now
33:16 – 33:17
absorbing less nitrate.
33:17 – 33:18
It has some,
33:18 – 33:19
but it's not absorbing 80 %
33:19 – 33:21
nitrate instead of 20%.
33:22 – 33:23
All
33:24 – 33:25
right, I already spoke about 25
33:25 – 33:26
pounds of sulfur,
33:27 – 33:28
already spoke about the side
33:28 – 33:29
dress,
33:31 – 33:33
and now we go to foliar
33:33 – 33:33
applications.
33:34 – 33:35
So
33:35 – 33:36
somebody
33:37 – 33:38
put a significant typo into this
33:38 – 33:39
slide, but
33:40 – 33:41
our
33:42 – 33:43
target
33:43 – 33:45
is two foliar applications.
33:46 – 33:47
is the ideal.
33:48 – 33:49
One at tasseling
33:50 – 33:52
and one around R1.
33:53 – 33:55
Both applications targeting 10
33:55 – 33:56
units of nitrogen per acre
33:57 – 34:00
in the form of urea, low
34:00 – 34:02
biuret urea that has been
34:02 – 34:03
liquefied and melted as liquid
34:03 – 34:04
urea.
34:05 – 34:06
And again, you combine this with
34:06 – 34:07
a
34:08 – 34:09
touch of carbon, you add some
34:09 – 34:10
molybdenum to it.
34:11 – 34:11
And now you remember,
34:13 – 34:15
we're
34:16 – 34:17
putting on 10 pounds of nitrogen
34:17 – 34:19
per acre per application for a
34:19 – 34:20
total of 20 pounds.
34:21 – 34:22
But we have
34:22 – 34:24
A lot of field experience and a
34:24 – 34:26
lot of growers who are telling
34:26 – 34:27
us that this application
34:27 – 34:29
produces a crop response the
34:29 – 34:30
equivalent of four pounds of
34:30 – 34:31
nitrogen applied to the soil.
34:33 – 34:34
So with
34:35 – 34:37
my math here. I'm just
34:38 – 34:39
sketching this out.
34:39 – 34:41
We started with 80 units of
34:41 – 34:43
nitrogen soil applied,
34:43 – 34:45
40 at planting, 40 side dress, a
34:45 – 34:46
total of 80 pounds.
34:47 – 34:49
To that 80 pounds, we added 25
34:49 – 34:50
pounds of sulfur that
34:50 – 34:52
we expect to deliver the
34:52 – 34:53
equivalent yield response of 25
34:53 – 34:54
pounds of nitrogen.
34:54 – 34:56
So 80 pounds plus 25 pounds of
34:56 – 34:58
sulfur, now we're at 105 pounds
34:58 – 34:59
equivalent.
35:00 – 35:01
And we
35:01 – 35:02
add
35:03 – 35:06
Those 20 pounds of nitrogen as
35:06 – 35:07
foliars that produce an
35:07 – 35:09
equivalent yield response of 80
35:09 – 35:11
units soil applied.
35:12 – 35:15
So we're at 105 plus 80 and now
35:15 – 35:17
we're at 185 units of nitrogen
35:17 – 35:18
in terms of plant energy
35:18 – 35:19
equivalent.
35:21 – 35:23
So we've replaced 200 units with
35:24 – 35:25
185 for
35:26 – 35:28
a fraction of the cost because
35:28 – 35:29
we put on less,
35:30 – 35:31
spread it out over time,
35:31 – 35:33
we've got greater logistical
35:33 – 35:34
costs in getting it applied,
35:36 – 35:38
and we're But we've got a
35:38 – 35:40
fraction of the cost of actual
35:40 – 35:41
product.
35:41 – 35:43
And what's more important,
35:44 – 35:46
from a long -term perspective,
35:46 – 35:48
we have a fraction of the cost
35:48 – 35:50
to our soil biology because
35:50 – 35:52
we've reduced the electrolyte
35:52 – 35:53
load.
35:53 – 35:54
Instead of having
35:55 – 35:57
100 units of nitrogen applied
35:57 – 35:58
twice,
35:58 – 36:00
once at planting and once at
36:00 – 36:01
side dress or whatever the
36:01 – 36:02
equation might be,
36:02 – 36:04
we have much smaller
36:04 – 36:06
concentrations of electrolytes
36:06 – 36:07
being applied to the soil and
36:07 – 36:08
they're being spread out over
36:08 – 36:09
time.
36:10 – 36:12
So your negative effect on soil
36:12 – 36:14
biology goes down dramatically.
36:14 – 36:15
And all of a sudden,
36:16 – 36:17
particularly later in the
36:17 – 36:18
growing season,
36:18 – 36:21
when that soil nitrogen levels
36:21 – 36:23
become, soil electrolyte levels
36:23 – 36:25
become less concentrated,
36:26 – 36:28
soil biology starts fixing a lot
36:28 – 36:30
more nitrogen and making it a
36:30 – 36:31
lot more stable.
36:30 – 36:31
providing it to the crop.
36:31 – 36:32
So this
36:32 – 36:36
is a very large brush
36:36 – 36:36
stroke,
36:37 – 36:39
very high level overview of how
36:39 – 36:40
I think about hydrogen
36:40 – 36:42
management on a corn crop at
36:42 – 36:42
this point,
36:43 – 36:45
where we're spreading out the
36:45 – 36:46
electrolytes,
36:46 – 36:47
we're putting some on as
36:47 – 36:48
foliars, we're replacing some of
36:48 – 36:49
the nitrogen with sulfur.
36:50 – 36:51
You can do all those things.
36:51 – 36:52
It's common for us.
36:52 – 36:54
You can do the penciling out of
36:54 – 36:55
the math on your own, what makes
36:55 – 36:56
sense in your own context.
36:57 – 36:59
But what is interesting is that
36:59 – 37:01
this commonly translates to
37:02 – 37:05
anywhere from a 30 to a 50 %
37:05 – 37:08
reduction in actual input costs,
37:08 – 37:09
sometimes more than that.
37:10 – 37:12
And that includes the
37:12 – 37:14
application costs as well.
37:14 – 37:16
But there's additional logistics
37:16 – 37:17
and additional difficulty in
37:17 – 37:19
making those multiple passes per
37:19 – 37:20
season, particularly with the
37:20 – 37:20
foliars.
37:21 – 37:23
Drones are starting to be quite
37:23 – 37:24
widely used for the foliar
37:24 – 37:26
applications of urea very
37:26 – 37:26
effectively.
37:27 – 37:28
So,
37:28 – 37:29
um, that's, that's kind of the
37:29 – 37:30
big picture, big picture
37:30 – 37:31
overview. And I think,
37:32 – 37:33
um,
37:34 – 37:36
yeah, you can, you can dig into,
37:37 – 37:38
I think we have a nitrogen
37:38 – 37:39
efficiency calculator on our
37:39 – 37:40
website.
37:40 – 37:41
At least we used to, I don't
37:41 – 37:42
think we've changed it all that
37:42 – 37:42
much.
37:43 – 37:44
Um,
37:44 – 37:45
but this earlier
37:45 – 37:46
in the slide deck, I pointed
37:46 – 37:48
out, there's this rule of thumb
37:49 – 37:50
for the
37:52 – 37:53
nitrogen requirement that's
37:53 – 37:54
required to grow a bushel of
37:54 – 37:55
grain.
37:56 – 37:57
Um, I've seen growers go down to
37:57 – 37:59
as little as 0 .5
37:59 – 38:01
pounds of nitrogen that they can
38:01 – 38:03
account for coming from,
38:03 – 38:05
uh, organic matter contribution
38:05 – 38:07
and compost and cover crops,
38:07 – 38:08
there's sometimes some fuzziness
38:08 – 38:09
in those numbers.
38:11 – 38:14
0 .75 is readily achievable.
38:14 – 38:15
First year out of the gate, no
38:15 – 38:16
sweat, no problems.
38:16 – 38:18
It's easy to achieve 0 .75
38:18 – 38:19
pounds of nitrogen per bushel of
38:19 – 38:20
grain.
38:21 – 38:22
And the growers who are taking
38:22 – 38:23
this approach of putting on
38:23 – 38:24
foliar applications of urea and
38:24 – 38:27
so forth, are commonly hitting 0
38:27 – 38:27
.65.
38:27 – 38:30
0 .65 to 0 .7 is
38:30 – 38:32
not a challenge at all.
38:32 – 38:35
It's a very readily achievable
38:35 – 38:36
goal.
38:37 – 38:37
So
38:37 – 38:39
that's the overview.
38:40 – 38:42
And yeah, I think I will switch
38:42 – 38:43
it to...
38:45 – 38:45
Q &A,
38:46 – 38:47
if any of you have any
38:47 – 38:48
questions.
38:48 – 38:49
And you can also,
38:50 – 38:52
if you have any questions for us
38:52 – 38:53
as a team and you want to dig
38:53 – 38:55
deeper into what this might look
38:55 – 38:56
like on your specific soil and
38:56 – 38:57
context,
38:57 – 38:58
you can connect with Abby here.
38:58 – 39:00
You can see her contact
39:00 – 39:01
information here on the slide
39:01 – 39:02
deck. But yeah, we'd love to
39:02 – 39:03
hear from you.
39:03 – 39:05
And with that, I'm going to
39:05 – 39:07
switch to Q &A and happy to
39:07 – 39:08
answer any questions that you
39:08 – 39:09
might have.
39:12 – 39:13
See, there's some here in the
39:13 – 39:14
chat.
39:15 – 39:16
Yeah, you're welcome to put any
39:16 – 39:17
questions into the chat.
39:18 – 39:20
or also I think you can unmute
39:20 – 39:23
yourself and we can just have a
39:23 – 39:23
conversation.
39:25 – 39:26
There's a first question here
39:26 – 39:27
from Paul. Is there a need to
39:27 – 39:29
measure the carbon to nitrogen
39:29 – 39:31
ratio in a soil test?
39:31 – 39:32
Wondering because of
39:32 – 39:34
fluctuations of results when
39:34 – 39:35
utilizing compost extracts in
39:35 – 39:36
the furrow at planting.
39:40 – 39:41
Paul,
39:41 – 39:42
it's a good question.
39:46 – 39:47
I'm
39:51 – 39:52
struggling a bit to answer your
39:52 – 39:53
question
39:53 – 39:55
because both
39:56 – 39:59
nitrogen and carbon get measured
39:59 – 40:01
in so many different ways on so
40:01 – 40:02
many different tests.
40:03 – 40:05
The answer is yes, I think it
40:05 – 40:06
would be beneficial,
40:06 – 40:07
but you're going to have to
40:07 – 40:08
learn what
40:09 – 40:10
the results actually mean.
40:11 – 40:11
So for
40:13 – 40:14
example, if you use the Haney
40:14 – 40:15
analysis,
40:15 – 40:17
I was quite a fan of the Haney
40:17 – 40:18
analysis for a
40:19 – 40:20
number of years.
40:20 – 40:23
We used it quite widely and I
40:23 – 40:25
still think in many ways it's
40:25 – 40:26
the
40:29 – 40:31
correct way to express this.
40:32 – 40:35
It's the least bad soil sampling
40:35 – 40:37
methodology that we have for
40:37 – 40:39
measuring and managing nitrogen,
40:39 – 40:41
nitrogen to carbon ratios and so
40:41 – 40:42
forth.
40:44 – 40:46
You know, as is so often true in
40:46 – 40:46
life,
40:46 – 40:48
our greatest strengths,
40:49 – 40:51
this is for us as people and for
40:51 – 40:52
operations and so forth, so
40:52 – 40:53
often our greatest strengths
40:54 – 40:56
have hidden downsides that are
40:56 – 40:57
also our greatest weaknesses.
40:58 – 40:59
And that's also true of the
40:59 – 40:59
Haney analysis.
41:00 – 41:02
The challenge with the Haney
41:02 – 41:03
analysis is that it can vary
41:03 – 41:06
quite significantly based on
41:06 – 41:07
soil moisture levels.
41:08 – 41:11
So if you have soils that are
41:11 – 41:12
dry for
41:12 – 41:13
two weeks,
41:13 – 41:15
and you have limited microbial
41:15 – 41:16
activity because of a lack of
41:16 – 41:18
soil moisture, and then you get
41:18 – 41:19
an
41:20 – 41:21
inch of rain,
41:21 – 41:22
and you pull a sample
41:22 – 41:24
immediately before and
41:24 – 41:25
immediately after,
41:26 – 41:27
they will look like completely
41:27 – 41:29
different soils on that type of
41:29 – 41:30
analysis.
41:31 – 41:32
Because the
41:32 – 41:34
soil that was dry had limited
41:34 – 41:36
microbial activity and it had
41:36 – 41:37
kind of accumulated this
41:38 – 41:39
readily available carbon.
41:40 – 41:41
You take it into the lab,
41:42 – 41:43
you add moisture to it, and you
41:43 – 41:46
get this tremendous CO2 burst.
41:46 – 41:47
You get this tremendous burst of
41:47 – 41:49
microbial activity because of
41:49 – 41:51
all this pent -up energy that
41:51 – 41:52
was just waiting for moisture.
41:53 – 41:55
And you don't see that when
41:55 – 41:56
you've had a good rain.
41:57 – 41:57
So
41:57 – 41:59
the short answer is
42:00 – 42:02
to your question is that yes,
42:02 – 42:04
I do think it is valuable to
42:04 – 42:04
measure carbon and nitrogen
42:04 – 42:05
ratios,
42:05 – 42:06
but
42:06 – 42:08
there's
42:08 – 42:09
at this point,
42:10 – 42:11
either one of two things is
42:11 – 42:13
true. Either I don't understand
42:13 – 42:14
them well enough, or there's a
42:14 – 42:15
lot of interpretation.
42:15 – 42:16
that's required to read them
42:16 – 42:17
well.
42:17 – 42:18
So that's the caveat that I
42:18 – 42:19
would offer.
42:22 – 42:23
Question from Doug, where does
42:23 – 42:24
manure fit into this?
42:25 – 42:26
So Doug,
42:27 – 42:28
manure,
42:28 – 42:30
when manure is applied,
42:30 – 42:31
the majority of nitrogen that it
42:31 – 42:33
contains will be in the form of
42:33 – 42:34
organic nitrogen.
42:35 – 42:36
And that's just the umbrella
42:36 – 42:38
catch -all term that is used to
42:38 – 42:39
describe nitrogen in the form of
42:39 – 42:40
proteins, in the form of
42:40 – 42:42
enzymes, amino acids, amino
42:42 – 42:43
sugars, and so forth.
42:44 – 42:46
the nitrate content and the
42:46 – 42:48
ammonium content of manure,
42:48 – 42:49
ideally, will be quite low.
42:52 – 42:54
That is
42:54 – 42:55
what would be most common.
42:57 – 43:00
The form
43:01 – 43:03
of nitrogen in manure is
43:03 – 43:05
essentially biological nitrogen
43:05 – 43:07
delivery. It's what I've been
43:07 – 43:08
describing
43:08 – 43:10
that can happen in healthy soils
43:10 – 43:11
in the absence of excessive
43:11 – 43:12
electrolytes. Now what's
43:12 – 43:13
interesting,
43:14 – 43:15
when
43:16 – 43:17
we think about the challenges of
43:17 – 43:18
electrolytes, you have
43:19 – 43:20
Inside the plant,
43:20 – 43:21
you have a
43:22 – 43:24
handful of major electrolytes.
43:24 – 43:25
You have potassium,
43:26 – 43:26
chloride,
43:27 – 43:28
nitrate,
43:28 – 43:29
sodium,
43:29 – 43:31
and then it's not as significant
43:31 – 43:32
a contributor, but it's also an
43:32 – 43:34
electrolyte. You have, to some
43:34 – 43:35
degree, you have magnesium.
43:36 – 43:37
And in the soil,
43:37 – 43:39
you also have the first four.
43:39 – 43:41
You have nitrate, potassium,
43:41 – 43:43
chloride, and sodium as
43:44 – 43:45
being the significant
43:45 – 43:46
electrolytes.
43:46 – 43:47
And
43:48 – 43:49
We've had a number of
43:49 – 43:50
observations, a number of
43:50 – 43:53
instances where dairy manure can
43:53 – 43:55
be problematic, particularly
43:55 – 43:56
when applied at high doses,
43:57 – 43:58
because of the salt that's fed
43:58 – 43:59
to dairy cows.
44:00 – 44:01
I mean,
44:02 – 44:03
there are many people who can
44:03 – 44:05
testify to applying liquid dairy
44:05 – 44:06
manure and having dead
44:06 – 44:07
earthworms behind the
44:07 – 44:07
application,
44:08 – 44:09
having the soil covered in dead
44:09 – 44:11
earthworms. and that those dead
44:11 – 44:12
earthworms are an expression of
44:13 – 44:14
excessive levels of electrolytes
44:14 – 44:16
and perhaps other toxins as well
44:16 – 44:18
but high levels of salts being
44:18 – 44:19
applied with the liquid dairy
44:19 – 44:20
manure.
44:21 – 44:21
So
44:22 – 44:24
salts aren't just exclusively
44:24 – 44:25
coming from fertilizers they can
44:25 – 44:27
also come from from high manure
44:27 – 44:28
applications particularly in the
44:28 – 44:29
case of dairy manure.
44:31 – 44:33
Question from Mark, is sulfur
44:33 – 44:34
being added with the foliar
44:34 – 44:36
applications during Tasslin R1?
44:36 – 44:37
Ideally, yes.
44:37 – 44:39
I'd like to add, doesn't take
44:39 – 44:40
much, but I also want to hit
44:40 – 44:41
that 10 to 1
44:41 – 44:43
hydrogen to sulfur ratio, pound
44:43 – 44:44
for pound. That can be in the
44:44 – 44:46
form of ammonium thiosulfate,
44:46 – 44:46
which is most common.
44:47 – 44:49
A few folks are also dissolving
44:49 – 44:50
ammonium sulfate, which you can
44:50 – 44:51
also do quite readily.
44:51 – 44:52
Either one works quite well.
44:54 – 44:56
Question from David, can you
44:56 – 44:57
expand on drone application
44:57 – 44:58
rates of late season foliar
44:58 – 45:00
reapplication to prevent leaf
45:00 – 45:01
burn?
45:03 – 45:04
This is
45:04 – 45:05
This is actually an area that I
45:05 – 45:08
need to catch up with Patrick
45:08 – 45:10
Fabian and Bo Claus and a couple
45:10 – 45:10
of people who've been pushing
45:10 – 45:11
the envelope here
45:13 – 45:16
because I'm, I will admit that I
45:16 – 45:18
am perplexed by some of the
45:18 – 45:19
things that they're reporting.
45:20 – 45:21
So
45:21 – 45:22
they are, the conversations I've
45:22 – 45:23
had with them,
45:24 – 45:25
if I'm understanding correctly,
45:25 – 45:26
they're putting on 10 units of
45:26 – 45:27
nitrogen per application
45:28 – 45:31
with a drone as melted urea.
45:31 – 45:33
They're adding Humacarb to that.
45:34 – 45:36
And they're putting on
45:37 – 45:39
a solution that is 50 % melted
45:39 – 45:41
urea and 50 % water.
45:41 – 45:42
So that means the
45:42 – 45:44
liquid that they are applying is
45:44 – 45:45
essentially 10 % nitrogen and
45:47 – 45:48
they're reporting no burning
45:48 – 45:51
effects on that, which I
45:51 – 45:52
find puzzling.
45:53 – 45:55
So I want to go back and just
45:56 – 45:57
double check and double verify
45:57 – 45:59
those numbers, make sure I'm not
45:59 – 46:00
misunderstanding or didn't
46:00 – 46:01
misunderstand anything because
46:01 – 46:02
that seems to be quite high.
46:04 – 46:06
But it is also true that
46:06 – 46:08
because of the leaf structure,
46:08 – 46:11
the small grains and the corn,
46:13 – 46:15
sorghum, so forth, these grasses
46:15 – 46:17
do have a much higher ability to
46:17 – 46:19
handle those electrolytes as a
46:19 – 46:20
foliar than a broadleaf crop
46:20 – 46:21
would.
46:21 – 46:22
I'm quite confident if you did
46:22 – 46:24
that on soybeans or other
46:24 – 46:25
tomatoes or other broadleaf
46:25 – 46:26
crops, you would absolutely have
46:26 – 46:27
leaf burn on that.
46:29 – 46:30
Question from Adam.
46:30 – 46:32
Does the source or form of
46:32 – 46:34
sulfur make a difference for the
46:34 – 46:35
25 pounds applied during the
46:35 – 46:36
growing season?
46:36 – 46:37
I don't believe so.
46:37 – 46:38
No, that can be as thiosulfate
46:38 – 46:40
or as sulfate, whether it's
46:40 – 46:41
coming from ammonium sulfate,
46:41 – 46:42
ammonium thiosulfate,
46:43 – 46:44
potassium sulfate,
46:44 – 46:45
gypsum. You can even apply it.
46:45 – 46:46
It doesn't even have to be in
46:46 – 46:47
the same tank mix.
46:48 – 46:50
We've had growers that put
46:51 – 46:52
on,
46:53 – 46:54
because of their soil
46:54 – 46:56
conditions, they needed some
46:56 – 46:57
gypsum applications.
46:58 – 46:59
And so they're banding gypsum.
47:00 – 47:01
And perhaps
47:01 – 47:04
I've had gypsum being banded on
47:04 – 47:04
with a,
47:06 – 47:07
my brain stopped working,
47:08 – 47:08
not side dress,
47:10 – 47:10
strip -till,
47:11 – 47:12
with a strip -till application
47:12 – 47:14
and depending on that as a form
47:14 – 47:15
of solver.
47:15 – 47:16
And that is equally effective
47:16 – 47:17
and appropriate.
47:21 – 47:22
Question from Myron.
47:22 – 47:23
Hi Myron.
47:23 – 47:24
Is there any concern about
47:24 – 47:26
pollen shed when applying foliar
47:26 – 47:28
N just prior to VTN and R1?
47:29 – 47:30
Would boron potentially be added
47:30 – 47:31
as well?
47:32 – 47:34
That's a good question, Myron.
47:34 – 47:35
I don't know the answer.
47:37 – 47:39
And yes, you could add boron to
47:39 – 47:41
the mix, you could add copper to
47:41 – 47:42
the mix as well.
47:42 – 47:43
This is a
47:44 – 47:46
bit of a sidebar, something that
47:46 – 47:47
we've learned about boron,
47:47 – 47:49
excuse me, about pollen
47:49 – 47:50
viability
47:50 – 47:52
and pollen tube viability.
47:54 – 47:56
You can keep pollen tubes,
47:59 – 48:00
what's the word that I'm looking
47:59 – 48:02
for? not fresh, but they can
48:02 – 48:03
maintain their strength and not
48:03 – 48:05
collapse for much longer periods
48:05 – 48:06
of time
48:06 – 48:08
when they have adequate levels
48:08 – 48:09
of copper and boron.
48:10 – 48:11
Those two in particular we found
48:11 – 48:13
will dramatically increase
48:13 – 48:14
pollination on
48:15 – 48:16
a wide variety of crops.
48:17 – 48:18
If we make sure we have generous
48:18 – 48:20
levels of copper and boron prior
48:20 – 48:21
to, obviously it needs to be in
48:21 – 48:22
the pollen tubes and it needs to
48:22 – 48:24
be in the pollen weeks in
48:24 – 48:25
advance of the actual event
48:25 – 48:26
itself.
48:30 – 48:32
Question from Kurt, if nitrate
48:32 – 48:34
nitrogen applications are
48:34 – 48:34
absent,
48:35 – 48:38
how much N on average can you
48:38 – 48:40
attribute to free nitrogen
48:40 – 48:42
fixing bacteria from species in
48:42 – 48:42
biocode gold?
48:43 – 48:45
Can this seed treatment be
48:45 – 48:47
accounted for in this new
48:47 – 48:48
concept of nitrogen management?
48:48 – 48:50
Ah, Kurt, you asked the million
48:50 – 48:51
dollar question.
48:56 – 48:57
So
48:58 – 48:58
I would rephrase,
48:59 – 49:01
if I'm understanding what you're
49:01 – 49:01
asking correctly,
49:02 – 49:04
I'll rephrase it just a little
49:04 – 49:05
bit. I think what you meant to
49:05 – 49:06
ask is
49:07 – 49:09
not if nitrate and applications
49:09 – 49:10
are absent, but more if
49:10 – 49:11
electrolyte nitrogen
49:11 – 49:12
applications are absent.
49:13 – 49:14
And maybe that could be
49:14 – 49:15
interpreted in a couple of
49:15 – 49:16
different ways there.
49:16 – 49:17
But
49:17 – 49:20
the bottom line is that
49:20 – 49:23
I missed talking about biocoat
49:23 – 49:23
gold a little bit.
49:24 – 49:27
Yes, biocoat gold can deliver
49:27 – 49:28
substantial amounts of nitrogen,
49:29 – 49:31
and it can vary quite a bit.
49:31 – 49:32
It will vary based on
49:33 – 49:34
The amount of nitrogen applied,
49:34 – 49:35
how close proximity,
49:36 – 49:37
phosphorus fertilizer starter
49:37 – 49:38
solutions, was there a starter
49:38 – 49:39
right on the seed?
49:41 – 49:41
So the
49:42 – 49:43
variability,
49:45 – 49:47
we have observed, maybe the most
49:47 – 49:49
accurate way to say this is that
49:50 – 49:52
we have observed BioCoat Gold
49:52 – 49:53
delivering
49:55 – 49:57
let me back up, I want to be
49:57 – 49:58
sure I state this accurately.
50:00 – 50:01
We've observed high -yielding
50:01 – 50:02
corn crops
50:02 – 50:05
where the crop contained
50:05 – 50:07
upwards of 60 pounds of nitrogen
50:07 – 50:09
that we were unable to account
50:09 – 50:10
for
50:10 – 50:12
from applications of any type,
50:12 – 50:14
manure, compost, cover crops,
50:14 – 50:15
etc.
50:15 – 50:17
That seemed to be coming from
50:17 – 50:18
the Biocote Gold.
50:18 – 50:20
That's the high number that
50:20 – 50:20
we've observed.
50:21 – 50:24
35 to 40 is very common
50:25 – 50:26
and
50:28 – 50:29
Actually, I do have a few
50:29 – 50:30
outlier instances that are well
50:30 – 50:33
above the 60 number, but 60 is a
50:33 – 50:33
number that's pretty
50:33 – 50:35
consistently reliable and
50:35 – 50:36
achievable, I think.
50:38 – 50:38
But
50:39 – 50:40
that all depends.
50:40 – 50:42
It depends on soils having
50:42 – 50:43
adequate carbon, adequate
50:43 – 50:45
organic matter for that
50:45 – 50:46
biococoal to really become
50:46 – 50:47
active.
50:47 – 50:49
It depends on there being not
50:49 – 50:50
lots of electrolytes right on
50:50 – 50:51
the seed or
50:51 – 50:52
very close to the seed.
50:52 – 50:54
It needs a couple of weeks to
50:54 – 50:54
really activate.
50:55 – 50:57
So those
50:57 – 50:59
are all important variables and
50:59 – 51:01
important pieces that it's
51:02 – 51:03
I'm hesitant to quantify and say
51:03 – 51:05
that you can put biocoat gold on
51:05 – 51:07
and you can depend on it for 30
51:07 – 51:08
to 40 units of nitrogen.
51:09 – 51:10
Now, that will be true for 80 %
51:10 – 51:11
of the operations,
51:11 – 51:12
but for 20 % it won't be
51:13 – 51:15
because of other extenuating
51:15 – 51:15
circumstances.
51:17 – 51:18
Something
51:19 – 51:20
that is important that I
51:20 – 51:22
realized I missed mentioning is
51:22 – 51:24
there is a critical two -week
51:24 – 51:25
window.
51:25 – 51:26
Biocoat gold,
51:27 – 51:28
colonization of the rhizosphere,
51:29 – 51:30
or
51:30 – 51:32
not just biocoat gold, but
51:32 – 51:34
the colonization of the plant,
51:35 – 51:36
root system and that emerging
51:36 – 51:37
radical right at germination.
51:38 – 51:39
There is a two -week window
51:39 – 51:41
right after germination that is
51:41 – 51:43
critical for disease resistance
51:43 – 51:45
later on in the plant's life and
51:45 – 51:46
that is critical for the highest
51:46 – 51:47
yield and the best nutrition
51:47 – 51:48
delivery through the season.
51:49 – 51:50
That first two weeks window is
51:50 – 51:51
so important.
51:52 – 51:54
And the easiest way to shut down
51:54 – 51:56
colonization in that two -week
51:56 – 51:57
window
51:57 – 51:58
is to
51:59 – 52:02
put on a starter that has high
52:02 – 52:03
concentrations of electrolytes.
52:03 – 52:04
So if you put on a soluble
52:04 – 52:06
phosphor starter or
52:06 – 52:08
a starter that contains a good
52:08 – 52:09
dose of nitrogen right in close
52:09 – 52:10
proximity to the seed,
52:11 – 52:12
that's a good way of shutting
52:12 – 52:13
down biococcal.
52:13 – 52:14
It's much better to have it off
52:14 – 52:15
to the side on a 2x2 or
52:15 – 52:16
something like that.
52:16 – 52:17
You know, many years ago,
52:17 – 52:19
William Albrecht made
52:21 – 52:23
this quote from a professor at
52:23 – 52:25
the University of Missouri, and
52:25 – 52:26
he said something to the effect
52:26 – 52:26
of,
52:28 – 52:29
the
52:28 – 52:31
science of fertilizer placement
52:31 – 52:32
is
52:32 – 52:34
all about the art of placing
52:34 – 52:37
soluble electrolytes so that
52:37 – 52:39
plant roots can avoid them.
52:40 – 52:42
And he was, of course, looking
52:42 – 52:44
at this from the perspective of
52:45 – 52:47
what does
52:48 – 52:50
biology have the capacity to
52:50 – 52:51
deliver if we don't shut it
52:51 – 52:52
down?
52:55 – 52:56
A follow -up question here from
52:56 – 52:57
Carl.
52:58 – 52:59
Speaking of manure, would you
52:59 – 53:00
say that a major problem with
53:00 – 53:01
modern livestock production, i
53:01 – 53:02
.e.
53:02 – 53:03
CAFOs,
53:02 – 53:03
is the concentrated part?
53:03 – 53:05
Way too many animals in one
53:05 – 53:06
place, difficult, expensive
53:06 – 53:07
nutrient over -application, etc.
53:09 – 53:12
I would say that that model has
53:12 – 53:13
lots of inherent challenges with
53:13 – 53:16
it and lots of externalized
53:16 – 53:16
costs
53:17 – 53:20
that it would be much wiser to
53:20 – 53:21
go to a different model.
53:21 – 53:22
But that's a conversation for
53:22 – 53:23
another day.
53:24 – 53:25
Question from David, do you have
53:25 – 53:27
any data around using compost
53:27 – 53:28
extracts as a carrier for foliar
53:28 – 53:29
urea applications?
53:30 – 53:30
Very limited, David.
53:31 – 53:32
We do have a few people that
53:32 – 53:33
have done that and continue to
53:33 – 53:34
do that,
53:35 – 53:36
and they believe they're getting
53:36 – 53:37
benefits from that.
53:38 – 53:39
But when you are putting on a
53:39 – 53:41
foliar urea application,
53:42 – 53:44
that is a high electrolyte
53:44 – 53:45
solution.
53:45 – 53:47
I mean, urea has a salt index of
53:47 – 53:49
106, which basically means that
53:49 – 53:50
it is saltier than sodium
53:50 – 53:51
chloride by
53:52 – 53:53
6%.
53:53 – 53:55
Sodium chloride is the benchmark
53:55 – 53:57
index of the index at 100.
53:58 – 54:00
So urea at 106 means it's
54:00 – 54:01
saltier than sodium chloride.
54:02 – 54:02
And
54:02 – 54:05
so when you have a foliar spray
54:05 – 54:07
solution of urea with that high
54:07 – 54:08
salt content,
54:11 – 54:12
Practical expectation would be
54:12 – 54:16
that very tiny amounts of those
54:16 – 54:17
microbes would still be alive
54:17 – 54:18
when they touch the leaf
54:18 – 54:19
surface.
54:20 – 54:22
You would still, I
54:22 – 54:23
can expect that you would still
54:23 – 54:24
get benefits from their
54:24 – 54:25
metabolites, from microbial
54:25 – 54:27
metabolites, but not from living
54:27 – 54:28
microbes themselves.
54:31 – 54:32
Last
54:38 – 54:39
question here is from Mark.
54:39 – 54:42
If 32 % and sulfur source
54:45 – 54:47
are applied at planting,
54:47 – 54:48
Would there be a significant
54:48 – 54:50
difference in the application
54:50 – 54:52
method currently using broadcast
54:52 – 54:54
versus indexing to the row?
54:55 – 54:58
So if you are using broadcast,
54:59 – 55:01
then your application rate is
55:01 – 55:02
probably going to need to go up
55:02 – 55:04
to get the equivalent crop
55:04 – 55:05
response. So the recommendations
55:05 – 55:06
that I've been making have been
55:06 – 55:08
with the expectation of having
55:08 – 55:08
it banded.
55:09 – 55:12
And if you broadcast it, then
55:12 – 55:13
yes, probably your application
55:13 – 55:14
rates will need to go up to
55:14 – 55:15
produce an equivalent response.
55:17 – 55:19
A question from Tom.
55:19 – 55:20
Do you think there's ever a
55:20 – 55:22
possibility for melted urea to
55:22 – 55:24
ever be usable in certified
55:24 – 55:25
organic use?
55:29 – 55:31
Tom, the problem with that
55:31 – 55:31
question
55:32 – 55:34
is that it's a political
55:34 – 55:35
question,
55:36 – 55:38
not a question based on science.
55:39 – 55:40
And so, it's
55:41 – 55:42
impossible to answer because
55:42 – 55:43
it's
55:43 – 55:45
a question based on politics and
55:45 – 55:46
not on science.
55:46 – 55:47
As you know,
55:47 – 55:48
there are many synthetic
55:48 – 55:50
materials such as magnesium
55:50 – 55:51
sulfate, for example, that can
55:51 – 55:52
be used with a documented
55:52 – 55:53
deficiency
55:54 – 55:55
and
55:55 – 55:57
a number of trace minerals as
55:57 – 55:59
well, trace mineral sulfates, et
55:59 – 55:59
cetera, et cetera.
56:01 – 56:03
So I would argue that there are
56:03 – 56:05
a number of things that organic
56:05 – 56:07
certifiers and the organic,
56:09 – 56:10
I think
56:12 – 56:13
if
56:14 – 56:15
The organic certification space
56:15 – 56:17
had gone down a different
56:17 – 56:18
pathway of being
56:19 – 56:20
more
56:21 – 56:23
pragmatic and less idealistic.
56:25 – 56:26
We would not be having a
56:26 – 56:28
conversation today about
56:28 – 56:29
regenerative agriculture.
56:30 – 56:31
I think if it had gone down a
56:31 – 56:32
pathway of
56:33 – 56:34
actually looking at quality of
56:34 – 56:36
outcomes and measuring both the
56:36 – 56:38
presence of quality as well as
56:38 – 56:39
the absence of toxicity and how
56:39 – 56:40
we got there
56:41 – 56:42
and taken a less idealistic
56:42 – 56:43
approach, we would be in a very
56:43 – 56:45
different place as an industry
56:45 – 56:46
overall.
56:46 – 56:47
But that's a whole separate,
56:47 – 56:48
that's a whole other
56:48 – 56:48
conversation.
56:49 – 56:50
So I don't,
56:51 – 56:54
my instinct is I don't expect
56:54 – 56:56
there would ever be a
56:56 – 56:57
possibility of using melted urea
56:57 – 56:58
in organic operations.
56:58 – 56:59
I just don't expect to see that
56:59 – 57:00
happening.
57:00 – 57:01
But the good news is
57:03 – 57:03
this,
57:04 – 57:05
there's something that I missed
57:05 – 57:05
mentioning.
57:07 – 57:09
This process that I described of
57:09 – 57:11
transitioning from
57:12 – 57:14
200 units of nitrogen to,
57:16 – 57:17
what was the number that we came
57:17 – 57:18
up with? 100 units of,
57:18 – 57:20
from 200 units of N to 100 units
57:20 – 57:22
of N plus 25 pounds of sulfur.
57:22 – 57:24
That's the net net difference.
57:25 – 57:27
I want to be very clear that I'm
57:27 – 57:29
suggesting that we have a lot of
57:29 – 57:30
field experience with this, but
57:30 – 57:32
this approach is a transition
57:32 – 57:33
approach.
57:34 – 57:36
This would be year one of
57:36 – 57:37
transition.
57:38 – 57:38
And I
57:40 – 57:42
don't have an exact count or
57:42 – 57:43
exact numbers, but the number of
57:43 – 57:45
growers who started there and
57:45 – 57:46
then transitioned on further
57:46 – 57:48
down to even less,
57:48 – 57:50
where they're applying 30 to 50
57:50 – 57:52
units of nitrogen for a season
57:53 – 57:54
and
57:54 – 57:58
delivering 100 % of the
57:58 – 57:59
remainder with biological
57:59 – 58:00
nitrogen.
58:02 – 58:03
is there's a very large number
58:03 – 58:04
of those growers.
58:04 – 58:05
It's measured in the hundreds.
58:05 – 58:06
Actually, it's probably even
58:06 – 58:07
measured in the thousands at
58:07 – 58:08
this point.
58:09 – 58:10
So this
58:12 – 58:13
is year one of a transition
58:13 – 58:14
period,
58:14 – 58:17
and that transition can extend
58:17 – 58:19
in some contexts for a couple of
58:19 – 58:20
years. But over time, the
58:20 – 58:22
objective is to get the applied
58:22 – 58:24
nitrogen down and replace it
58:24 – 58:26
with biological nitrogen that is
58:26 – 58:27
fixed from the atmosphere.
58:29 – 58:30
Cover crops can contribute,
58:31 – 58:32
manure can contribute, compost
58:32 – 58:33
can contribute, but what I'm
58:33 – 58:35
really talking about, and I want
58:35 – 58:36
to be very clear about this,
58:36 – 58:38
we have a number of farms, a
58:38 – 58:39
large number of farms, the
58:39 – 58:40
majority of the farms that we
58:40 – 58:41
work with
58:42 – 58:44
are in challenged environments
58:44 – 58:45
that
58:45 – 58:47
don't have the ability to use,
58:47 – 58:49
they cannot rely on cover crops
58:49 – 58:50
because of water and moisture
58:50 – 58:52
constraints in many cases,
58:53 – 58:54
and, or timing and seasonal
58:54 – 58:56
constraints, and they cannot,
58:56 – 58:57
they don't have access to manure
58:57 – 58:58
and compost.
58:59 – 59:00
So
59:00 – 59:02
those are valuable, useful tools
59:04 – 59:05
I'm completely in favor of them.
59:06 – 59:07
But what I'm really talking
59:07 – 59:08
about is
59:08 – 59:10
transitioning to a
59:11 – 59:13
state of soil health where the
59:13 – 59:15
biology can deliver nitrogen,
59:16 – 59:17
even in the absence of those
59:17 – 59:18
things,
59:18 – 59:19
even in the absence of regular
59:19 – 59:21
cover crops, even in the absence
59:21 – 59:22
of manure and compost
59:22 – 59:23
applications.
59:24 – 59:25
Soil biology can still get to
59:25 – 59:26
the point where it can deliver
59:26 – 59:28
substantial nitrogen if
59:29 – 59:30
we just stop killing it.
59:30 – 59:31
and shutting it down.
59:32 – 59:33
So I
59:33 – 59:34
think I'm going to call it a
59:34 – 59:35
wrap there. I've used up an hour
59:35 – 59:36
of everyone's time.
59:36 – 59:37
I want to say thank you all for
59:37 – 59:39
being here. I hope you found the
59:39 – 59:40
information useful.
59:41 – 59:41
And if there's any further
59:41 – 59:43
questions that you have, any
59:43 – 59:44
further questions that we can
59:44 – 59:45
answer,
59:45 – 59:46
please reach out to our team at
59:46 – 59:48
AEA. I'm happy to jump on a call
59:48 – 59:48
and have any further
59:48 – 59:50
conversations about how we might
59:50 – 59:51
be able to work with you and
59:52 – 59:53
figure it all out.
59:53 – 59:54
So thank you all for being here.
59:54 – 59:55
Here's to a great growing
59:55 – 59:56
season.
59:56 – 59:58
May you always have timely rains
59:58 – 59:59
and
59:59 – 1:00:01
may your yields be awesome.
1:00:01 – 1:00:02
Thank you all.
1:00:03 – 1:00:04
The team at AEA and I are
1:00:04 – 1:00:06
dedicated to bringing this show
1:00:06 – 1:00:07
to you because we believe that
1:00:07 – 1:00:09
knowledge and information is the
1:00:09 – 1:00:11
foundation of successful
1:00:11 – 1:00:12
regenerative systems.
1:00:13 – 1:00:15
At AEA, we believe that growing
1:00:15 – 1:00:16
better quality food and making
1:00:16 – 1:00:18
more money from your crops is
1:00:18 – 1:00:19
possible.
1:00:19 – 1:00:21
And since 2006, we've worked
1:00:21 – 1:00:22
with leading professional
1:00:22 – 1:00:23
growers to help them do just
1:00:23 – 1:00:24
that.
1:00:24 – 1:00:27
At AEA, we don't guess, we test,
1:00:27 – 1:00:28
we analyze,
1:00:28 – 1:00:29
and we provide recommendations
1:00:29 – 1:00:31
based on scientific data,
1:00:32 – 1:00:32
knowledge, and experience.
1:00:33 – 1:00:34
We've developed products that
1:00:34 – 1:00:36
are uniquely positioned to help
1:00:36 – 1:00:37
growers make more money with
1:00:37 – 1:00:38
regenerative agriculture.
1:00:39 – 1:00:40
If you are a professional grower
1:00:40 – 1:00:42
who believes in testing instead
1:00:42 – 1:00:43
of guessing,
1:00:43 – 1:00:44
someone who believes in a
1:00:44 – 1:00:46
better, more regenerative way to
1:00:46 – 1:00:47
grow,
1:00:47 – 1:00:49
visit advancingecoag .com and
1:00:49 – 1:00:51
contact us to see if AEA is
1:00:51 – 1:00:52
right for you.
