GETTING IT RIGHT WITH THE 4RS

Griffin Fertilizer Forum Promotes Crop Nutrient Stewardship

story and photo by PAUL CATALA

IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, CHILDREN are taught the 3 R’s — reading, writing and ‘rithmetic. But in agriculture, it’s the 4Rs that are important – the right source, right rate, right time and right place.

• Right source: Match the fertilizer type to the specific crop. • Right rate: Match the amount of fertilizer needed for that specific crop. • Right time: Ensure nutrients and fertilizers are available when crops can best absorb them. • Right place: Apply nutrients and fertilizers where the crops have access to them.

Known as the best way to promote crop nutrient stewardship, the 4Rs help balance the goals of the farmer, the industry and the government. They help improve on-farm economics, crop productivity and fertilizer efficiency while preserving and maintaining the surrounding environment. It’s the 4Rs that recently brought together some of Florida’s top names in agriculture to discuss and emphasize their importance. Among the reasons to implement the 4Rs are that managed fertilizers support cropping systems that provide economic, social and environmental benefits. Poorly managed nutrient applications can drive down profit, promote a loss of soil nutrients and reduce water and air quality.

The 4R discussion at Griffin Fertilizer in Frostproof was hosted by Griffin Fertilizer Vice President Mike Roberts. He was joined by Michelle Miller, an Archer-based writer, ag influencer and public speaker known as “The Farm Babe”; Glenn and Mark Beck of Beck Brothers Citrus Inc. in Windermere; David Royal, a seventh-generation Floridian and nutrient stewardship program manager for The Nature Conservancy; Mary Hartney, president of the Florida Fertilizer & Agrochemical Association; and Robert Watson, fertilizer division sales representative for Ben Hill Griffin Inc. in Frostproof.

Roberts, who’s been with Griffin for 10 years, says he met Miller through Facebook and invited her to join the forum. Miller explained how she became “The Farm Babe” with about 200,000 followers and whose ag-related columns reach on social media reach 2 - 3 million viewers per month. She grew up on Wisconsin farms and started “The Farm Babe” ag advocacy website in 2014.

“My goal is to take the science behind farming and food and make it digestible to the average consumer,” she says. “We’ve got to move our messages about agriculture forward, and that’s also a goal.”

Spreading awareness of the 4Rs is one way to make that move, particularly in regard to becoming self-sufficient farmers, adds Glenn Beck, who recently became president of Florida Citrus Mutual.

“You have to be willing to roll the dice; there’s no guarantees. I wish people would realize it all can’t come from somewhere else,” he adds. “That may be good for some things, but food shouldn’t be one of them.”

Ag is a work in progress. Florida farmers are often multi-generational. My goal is to continue that family heritage. I’ve got to take care of the land because the land takes care of me.

— DAVID ROYAL, SEVENTH-GENERATION FLORIDIAN AND NUTRIENT STEWARDSHIP PROGRAM MANAGER FOR THE NATURE CONSERVANCY

Getting It Right With the 4Rs

As for Florida citrus, according to the USDA, in 2019-2020 there were about 400,000 acres of citrus-bearing groves with more than 53 million citrus trees in the state. Royal discusses the impact of the freezes between 1980 and 1985 that “forever moved citrus north of I-4 to south of there.” He says the 4Rs allow those farmers to grow more with less and to protect the environment, helping improve and protect water quality even as citrus greening continues to adversely impact groves.

“We have a patient on life support, and every day we’re doing what we can to keep that patient alive,” he says.

Royal gave the group a slide presentation focusing on Florida water quality problems driven by population growth. He also discussed Senate Bill 712, passed in June of last year, that is designed to protect Florida’s water resources by minimizing the sources of nutrient pollution. It’s tied into the 4Rs because its implementation helps address water-quality issues and objectives.

“Ag is a work in progress. Florida farmers are often multi-generational. My goal is to continue that family heritage,” Royal says. “I’ve got to take care of the land because the land takes care of me.”

According to the University of Florida Institute of Agricultural Sciences, the 4Rs are a simple management concept that can help growers implement appropriate management practices for fertilizer application. That, in turn, will enhance the sustainability of agriculture.

Currently, growers are required to provide nutrient application records to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services every two years as a result of SB712.

Prior to concluding the forum, the attendees describe some of the facets of the 4Rs that they’ve found beneficial and regularly implement. Glenn Beck says the practice helps promote “sustainability” and “longevity” while helping prevent abuse of land stewardship resources.

“You won’t find a better group of stewards than ag people – 99 percent of them are genuinely concerned,” he says. “They’re trying to get peak performance with the lowest impact possible.”

The Florida 4R Certification Program launched in January 2020. The state was the third in the United States to implement the program. ag

From left, David Royal, Mike Roberts, Michelle Miller, Rob Watson, Glenn Beck and Mark Beck.

ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING THINGS we do each year here is host leadership students from our local high school (Auburndale High School — Go Bloodhounds!) and give them a glimpse of what we do here at Adams Cold Storage and the role we play in how their food goes from the farm to their table. We actually have one of those students working for us this summer, earning money for college — that’s another thing we like to do as often as possible, but that’s probably a story for another column!

We take them into our state-of-the-art, 7.1-million-cubic-foot freezer and show them the technology that helps us keep track of our customers’ inventory; and how, with that technology, we are able to select over 400,000 cases for orders a month with over a 99.9 percent accuracy — which is higher than the industry standard.

We show them the food that comes from every corner of the world on its way to restaurants, grocery stores, cruise ships and airlines in opposite corners of the world. We talk about how we supply foods for the major zoological parks around the country and about how we supply the food that feeds Sea World’s famous whales. That goes over well.

We then warm them up, relatively speaking, in our 32-degree coolers and talk about how we store all of the school lunches for the state of Florida and how, when natural disasters hit, we help get the food from our facility to where it needs to go.

And it all happens in their little hometown in Central Florida.

These leadership students are not unlike most people in the general public: They have no real thought as to how food appears on their plate at mealtime.

The more time working in the food supply chain, the more I realize that part of my job is helping bridge that knowledge gap. Knowledge is power, and I firmly believe that the more people understand all of the effort it takes to responsibly grow, to safely store, and to efficiently ship their favorite foods on a consistent basis, the more committed they will become to taking care of all of the supply chain’s needs.

by BEN ADAMS, JR.

This column is sponsored by Adams Cold Storage, LLC, and the opinions expressed herein may not reflect those of CFAN or of its advertisers.

BIO: Ben Adams, Jr. is an owner and president of Adams Cold Storage, LLC, in Auburndale. He has been directly involved in citrus production, warehousing and distribution, as well as state and community support, since 1980. His facility incorporates some 250,000 square feet of multitemperature warehousing, and is AA rated by BRCGS.

FROM THE DESK OF Dr. Angle

Scott Angle is the University of Florida’s Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources and leader of the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS).

Nutrition Recommendations, and Hope, for Florida Growers

IF THERE’S ONE THING we’ve learned about HLB, it’s that nutrition can make all the difference.

We also know that what works in your grove may not in others. So a team led by Tripti Vashisth of the Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred is delivering personalized nutrition recommendations to 80 groves statewide, many of them in Hillsborough and Polk counties. The team analyzes soil and leaf samples, interprets results and produces reports tailored to each grove. And they’re doing it at no charge to growers.

Vashisth’s team has packed, toted, explained, and delivered kits to growers who signed up two years ago for what we call the nutrition box program. The boxes come with leaf and soil sample testing kits and self-addressed envelopes to send them to the lab.

Vashisth and her colleague Davie Kadyampakeni at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Citrus REC analyze the results. With the help of UF/IFAS citrus Extension agents, they let you know how you can do an even better job feeding your trees. It’s a personalized analysis of what’s happening in your grove.

Vashisth, a state Extension horticulture specialist and associate professor, has never waited for you to come to her.

As of this writing, she was planning to be at the UF/IFAS Extension booth at the Citrus Expo in Fort Myers in August. She has personally delivered citrus boxes and distributed them to growers in Hillsborough County, Immokalee, Fort Pierce, and Lake Alfred. At a Highlands County OJ squeezer, she spent an entire lunch answering questions from a single grower about manipulating flowering.

Vashisth has been able to figure out what’s useful to you because she asked. She surveyed growers who reported their operations had remained profitable and discovered something they had in common was a tailored nutrition strategy.

Anyone can do it with the right leaf and soil sampling, Vashisth said. It’s Vashisth’s hope that the growers’ experience in the nutrition box program will be habit-forming so that growers will continue to sample, test and adjust fertilization rates at their own cost once the program ends.

This kind of work has taken on extra urgency under new reporting requirements for the continued on page 30