Winter 2018 Newsletter by AgroLiquid

The Natural Chemistry Lab Part II Understanding Soil Health

2018

WINTER

Connecting It All Albert Bancroft

Making Sound Financial Decisions Galynn Beer

The Natural Chemistry Lab Part II Galynn Beer

Understanding Soil Health Zouheir Massri, Ph.D

The North Central Research Station focuses on harvesting and collecting data. The latest in product development results, fertilizer trials in your area, and all research is available at agroliquid.com

Albert Bancroft Senior Marketing Manager A competitive edge towards your profitability may not be a path as easily traveled as years past. As Galynn Beer point out in his article, Making Sound Financial Decisions, investment versus reward is a management consideration that requires constant evaluation. As the potential margin a crop will produce has narrowed, collaboration with available technology is crucial. Many of the available technologies may have begun as tools for achieving the highest yields a field would produce, because we know producing more bushels per acre means profit margins will grow, right? That was great – and probably true – when we had $7 corn, but now we see a definite tipping point in those margins. We appreciated the boom in our ag economy as it allowed companies to explore and innovate. Now we have a library of tools and data that we

need to apply in our current markets. It’s time to utilize what we learned during that period of exploration, and find the sweet spot for your operation’s profitability. It may seem counterintuitive for a fertility company to study the changes in technology to lower our product rate or recommend split applications, but that is exactly what AgroLiquid is doing. We are on a journey to apply the right rate, at the right time, in the right amount. Oh, I didn’t forget the last one - I’m just confident that AgroLiquid’s full line of proprietary products will provide your right source. We are, and have always been, positioning our products to Prosper the Farmer. When you think about the whole host of inputs and practices required to produce a crop, it can be overwhelming. Especially when you consider how they can – and should - be analyzed in connection, not just separately. Compatibility

is an area that the grower can continue to be in control their destiny. Throughout the growing season, it seems like something is always being chased - a bug, a fungus, a weed. That’s where AgroLiquid can step up with a product line unmatched in compatibility. Now, just because you’re out making a pass with a crop protection product, doesn’t mean I’m suggesting you throw fertilizer in for the sport of it. Things like tissue sample, aerial imaging, and well-seasoned agronomist recommendations are critical in these decisions. But, if midseason crop nutrients would help you hit your yield or quality target, AgroLiquid can meet your needs. It doesn’t stop there though. Managing your data in conjunction with these tools during the season is critical for the development and execution of next year’s plan. You’re probably saying, “of course, we have talked about data management for decades”. That’s true. And, you’re probably tired of hearing about it. But, our ability to collect it and store data, analyze it and truly use it to change our management practices has never been easier than now. For sure there is still a lot of questions about what we do with all this data we’re collecting – and even with all of the tools

it still sounds like a lot of work. I’m not saying it’s not, I’m just suggesting it’s worth it. Our crop fertility can only work so hard on a plant that was planted at the wrong time, at the wrong depth, and (I hate to even think this, but…) with the wrong combination of nutrients. While you may not think of this as a technological advancement, AgroLiquid has an outstanding team of agronomists and sales staff. Our people have extensive farm and crop knowledge, and they stay current with the latest agronomic information, changes in technology, and market information. They are another resource to find that competitive edge. Our network of Retail Partners are the best in the business, and they care about all of these fine details. They are here to partner with you to attain your cropping goals. They aren’t concerned with selling you every gallon they possibly can – they will get you the right products for your needs and goals. AgroLiquid partners with retailers with the same mission as our company’s, “To Prosper the Farmer”. We want to be an ally for you as you’re taking aim at your bullseye. Look us up. Let us help. We have the products, people, and passion to be a productive part of your management strategy.

Making Sound Financial Decisions Galynn Beer Senior Sales Manager

Some of the biggest advancements come from the biggest challenges. Every piece of equipment used in agriculture has been improved over the years because of challenges in the form of competition or to meet a need in the industry. Track tractors emerged as competition challenged each equipment company to improve their products. Seed companies constantly innovating to gain a competitive edge has contributed to increased production potential. So as challenges occur, human nature means we find ways to improve to become more efficient. Low commodity prices are challenging agriculture to find ways to innovate and increase efficiency in order to provide profits for growers. For many of us in agriculture, our built-in response is to cut costs. This can be done to a point, but there are limits. And we have to be very careful how we do this. We instinctively move to lower cost inputs, such

as a non-mainstream seed, or maybe seek the lowest cost-per-pound fertilizer, or we cut back on herbicides or fungicides. Our biases from past experiences dictate these decisions more than current circumstances. I have noticed some trends over the years of watching fertilizer purchases. Micronutrients seem to be the first part of a fertilizer program to fall victim on the chopping block. Micros are the highest cost per pound, so whether cutting them is a sound decision or not, they are often the first nutrients to go. Large farms will leverage their buying power for cheaper prices of inputs and maybe even financing. Smaller growers will have to find other ways to produce profits. Improving yields is one way to help. But you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just chase yield. There is a point you spend more than the crop returns. Are there other ways? The answer is yes. It isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t easy, though, and will require good management.

Growing up on the farm, most decisions were made on cost, yield, or income per acre. Not much thought was given to return on investment. Many crop decisions are made based on the net profit per acre. There is some merit to that, but few farmers factor risk into their expectation of return. Risk can be defined as, “the possibility of adverse outcomes due to uncertainty and imperfect knowledge in decision making”. In this example, that means the capital invested in raising a crop is a risk carried by the farm until the crop returns on the investment. If a crop returns $100/acre, but requires that $1,000/ acre be put at risk, is that better than a return of $75/acre, but only requires $500/acre be put at risk? A case could be made for both to be right. But a key component is how much risk is involved? If spending $1,000/acre provided a guaranteed return and the $500/acre carried a large amount of risk, then maybe a 10% return is worth it. But risk and the amount of capital that has to be put to work should be evaluated. Generally, returns in today’s economic climate run very low, probably in the single digits. Risk management is critical. There are many risk derivatives in the market to lock in prices, but risks of crop performance still exist. Let’s look at a few ways to manage risk when it comes to fertilizer investments. It’s no secret that competition for growers’ business is fierce. Many companies put on the full court press in the fall, immediately after harvest. Purchases at this time generally provide the lowest prices. They are however, made in the face of a great deal of uncertainty in the future. Price fluctuations could influence a cropping decision, or yield goals. Weather is a huge unknown. Will ideal planting conditions exist? If you are in the arid west, will water be readily available to irrigate crops, whether it be corn or almonds? One way to manage risk is to make decisions as some variables become more known and uncertainty is reduced. Technology allows extended decision windows and while inputs aren’t always the lowest cost inseason, risk is reduced and so confidence in a return increases. There is value in that. Putting money at risk should be done with an expected return. The higher the risk, the greater return that the money should provide. So an early investment in fertilizer,

even if it is the cheapest price, should carry a higher expected return. In a time of low returns, fertilizer products that have the versatility to delay decisions into the growing season have significant value. Side-dress on corn used to only consist of nitrogen. But AgroLiquid provides products that mix well with nitrogen and can be applied in-season. Delaying part of the potassium investment until side-dress, or being more certain of yield potential before investing in a micronutrient like boron makes good financial sense; your capital is at risk for a shorter period of time and some of the risk is in the rear view mirror. A decision to purchase boron in the fall just because there is a good deal on it can very risky because so much time and uncertainty remains before that investment will pay you back. AgroLiquid provides a form of nutrients that can be added in season. The cash goes out in June and comes back in 4 or 5 months rather than cash being out 10 months or longer. If you are managing a permanent crop, combining nutrients with foliar applications or applying through drip and micro-jet irrigation allows a producer to better gauge the yield potential and determine if an investment in crop nutrition will provide a return through increased production. In a challenging economic period, one area where there are gains to be made outside of controlling costs and increasing yields is through wise financial management. Early decisions can provide best prices, but a lot of uncertainty still exists. In-season decisions may cost a little more, but more certainty provides confidence in spending. Both practices may fit your operation. Good evaluation of spending and expected returns related to risk is an area that is often overlooked and where efficiencies can be learned and implemented that create better profits in all conditions. A key is having tools to make decisions when results are more certain. AgroLiquid makes all nutrients needed for crop production and has many options that allow producers to meet a cropâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needs in-season, when the outcome is more known.

AgroLiquid Sales Account Manager

The

Natural Chemistry Lab Part II Galynn Beer Senior Sales Account Manager In the Summer 2018 AgroLiquid newsletter, I wrote the first of a two-part series regarding the complexities of soil. The soil is an asset you may own, or you may lease, but much of the first article talked about what is needed to maximize the productive capacity of that asset. Owning versus leasing may dictate investments you are willing to make, but to produce a crop, an investment into crop nutrition will be necessary. First, a quick review of part one. I discussed the nutrient holding capacity of the soil indicated on a soil test as Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC, highlighted in blue). Also, there are some key cations that comprise most of the holding capacity of the soil. The main cations are listed as percentages of base saturation. Calcium (Ca) should be around 70%. Once that numbers starts getting higher than 75%, then it can have some negative

impact on other nutrients (reference the green ovals on this soil test analysis to see the impact of high Ca). Magnesium (Mg) should be around 15%. Potassium (K) would be optimum at about 5%, sodium (Na) should be less than 2% and hydrogen (H) about 10-15%. They should total 100%. Hydrogen is the ion that causes acidity, so the more of it you have, the more acidic your soil will be (the orange ovals show the relationship between hydrogen and acidic pH, which is a pH<7). You correct this by adding desirable cations to replace the hydrogen. In high pH soils, you may need to add elemental sulfur to remove some of the cations. Good crop production can be obtained on less than an optimum balance of these cations, but numbers in the ranges given will help crops endure stresses of the growing season.

With that overview, you can see that when looking at a soil test, there are many relationships that exist among nutrients and you shouldn’t just evaluate each nutrient on its own, or address it according to the number listed. In the example shown, you’d be tempted to look at the weak bray phosphorus (P1) test and apply a very high amount of phosphorus. But if that phosphorus is broadcast, the excess Ca represented by the 84.2% is just going to tie it up, rendering it unusable by the crop you are intending to feed. So when you are thinking about fertilizing your crop, you need to stay focused on what the crop will be able to use and not what you are applying to the soil. Much of the phosphorus that is in the soil on the test with the high Ca will never be used by the crop. The calcium-phosphorus bond is too strong for the plant to be able to extract the phosphorus from the calcium. This just illustrates one of many possible reactions that can limit the ability of a crop to utilize nutrients in the soil. Over time, some of the phosphorus will separate when Mother Nature provides rain and a fractional amount will be released. Now for another critical area of a soil test, which often growers don’t focus on or even have tested for . . . micronutrients. At the bottom of the test shown, these levels are listed. It is common to think that soils either have them or they don’t. Certainly, there is some truth to that. Soils in some areas of the country are naturally high in specific nutrients. Minnesota soils typically have very high

iron levels, which is interesting because at one time much of the Nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s iron ore originated there. But also impacting micronutrient levels significantly is the balance of the soil. High levels of Ca, Mg, K and Na can crowd out micros. Often, zinc, manganese, and iron are the most common to have limited availability with excesses of cations. This can easily be seen when crops that have a high demand for these micronutrients are grown on these soils. Soybeans grown on the soil test with 84.2% calcium would be highly likely to exhibit a chlorotic look because iron and manganese are limited in availability as shown on the example soil test. Soybeans have a higher need for these nutrients than a crop like corn. Citrus is another crop that demands a lot of iron and manganese and would suffer in this soil. The valuable part of a soil test, the reason you should routinely have your soil analyzed, is that this overview will help you prioritize investments into your asset of land. If you own the land, you can embark on measures that are longer-term fixes, such as implementing some practices to correct imbalances. Over time, the elevated calcium in the example could be lowered. But if your asset is rented, a long-term investment to correct imbalances can be a difficult decision; you are fixing someone elseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s asset. If it can result in a fast payback, then maybe it is worth it. If your investment increases the productivity, then the owner may decide to try to grab more value as a result of improved productivity by increasing rent. So your improvement may actually cost you twice on a rented asset;

once for the improvement and a second time if rent is raised. The overall soil test can help tremendously with making these decisions, or even having a conversation with the owner of your land to ensure you can recover your investment into their asset. Decisions regarding crop nutrition can be complex as yield expectations rise and economics remain challenging. AgroLiquid takes measures to mitigate the impact of imbalances that exist by protecting our nutrition from many of the reactions that can occur. The purpose for using fertilizer is to feed the crop. Thinking about fertilizer in terms of how much is used by the plant rather than how much is applied to the soil is a critical step. A complete soil test is a good indicator of how much efficiency can be expected with applied crop nutrition. AgroLiquidâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unique protection improves efficiency dramatically. Couple that with a staff that has a thorough understanding of the nutrient relationships in the soil and you will receive a value that goes beyond the return on your investment. The fall is the most popular time to soil test. Crops are harvested and attention can turn to the future. Future investments into fertilizer should begin with a soil test; they should end with a decision to get the most value out of your fertilizer dollar by adding skilled interpretation of the test with protected nutrition. AgroLiquid is where you will find both.

Understanding

soil health Zouheir Massri, Ph.D Soil Physics & Fertility Research Manager North Central Research Station Agriculture often gets a bad rap for contributing to environmental problems. And, in fact, we have learned many lessons about how we treat the soil. We know that thousands of years of plowing, deforestation, and erosion have left some soils in dire shape. When the soil is degraded, it releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and this has had serious consequences for the climate. However, healthy soil can be a major sink for carbon, meaning it actually removes carbon from the atmosphere. But this fact hasn’t been well-known. Agricultural practices like no-till farming, increasing crop diversity, the inclusion of cover crops, application of microbial products, and composting, are all proven ways to put carbon back into the soil. However, increased tariffs and farm economics, and increased regulations complicate the process of farming, and therefore land stewardship. While growers are understandably trying to maximize crop yield, they also need to work toward a renewed commitment to the land. Sound agronomic decisions enable environmental benefits and a better cropping system.

Soil, as a dynamic natural body, is teeming with life that performs numerous ecosystem functions including recycling of dead and decaying organic matter into plant nutrients. Plants cannot differentiate between nutrients supplied by organic and/or inorganic amendments. Therefore, replacing what is taken out of the soil to produce a crop will keep it fertile and productive as possible. The strategy is to shift from soils cultivated with marginal inputs to soils economically managed to unlock the soil’s potential and make organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium available to plant uptake. What is “soil quality”? Soil quality is related to soil functions - or what it does - and the three dimensions of soil health represented by the biological, physical, and chemical compounds. To improve soil quality, the soil’s capacity, as a dynamic and biologically active entity must be improved. This serves to sustain multiple ecosystems. So, soil health is a finite and dynamic living resource. The difficulty lies in that the three-dimensional aspects of soil health may not directly or immediately impact crop yield. With growers

already facing difficult markets, this can pose a real economic concern. But, the long-term impact of increasing the productivity of the soils can have a positive impact on a grower’s bottom line. A vital and healthy soil will be highly adverse to environmental threats and will suppress disease. There are benefits to converting from tillage to no-till practices, which include building the soil organic matter over time. One problem we have environmentally in agriculture is water quality – nitrates and phosphorus are leaching into the water supply. The more organic matter in the soil, the more water-holding capacity is has, so less nitrates and phosphates phosphorus are leached into the water system. When plants photosynthesize using the sun’s energy, they take carbon dioxide from the air, and transform it into carbon the plant uses to grow leaves, stems, and roots, and store the excess carbon in the surrounding soil. The stored carbon feeds microbes and fungi, which in turn provide nutrients for the plant. Increased microbial biomass means enhancement of communication between microbes and plant

roots in the rhizosphere (the ‘hot spot’ for soil microbes is in this area of soil surrounding plant roots). The microbes supply the roots with minerals and the roots exudates provide the microbes with energy-rich sugar. Nutrients for energy - a fair trade - and the return is great in enhancing the plant’s ability to take up water and nutrients from the soil. The soil microbes, directly and indirectly, mediate about 90% of soil functions in decomposing dead matter into soil organic matter (SOM). The microbes respire carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) to the surrounding soil and air, making essential nutrients, such as nitrogen compounds, available to plants and other soil organisms. This process also results in stored carbon in soil humus, and decomposing humus which releases CO2 to the air via soil respiration. Root-mediated rhizospheric communication with soil microbes and soil organic carbon is considered the most diverse and integrated ecosystem thus providing an improved environment for soil health. All organisms in the biosphere need nitrogen to build their DNA,

RNA and protein molecules. Because plants transfer carbon into the soil via photosynthesis, the nitrogen cycle becomes critical to building strong healthy soil. Current research indicates that the length of time soil carbon persists in humus and other soils organic carbon components depend on many ecosystem interactions between soil organic carbon and microbes, minerals, moisture, and temperature. The arising question now becomes how growers measure soil health and improve it in a manner that is economically viable. Is it a management system to adopt and improve, or it is a parameter to routinely measure, and finally how to couple soil health with yield. In agriculture, improved management practices have to make sense in dollars and cents. Sustainable agriculture means stewardship of the land, air, and water â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but it also means doing this in a way that is profitable over the long-term. Sustaining, and further improving crop yield, is the best objective of soil health. Continuous improvement of crop yield is extremely dependent on how we plan to invest and sustain the soil ecosystem to withstand

environmental threats and stripping of key nutrients needed to sustain agriculture. Soil microbial respiration activity tests directly measure biological activity and are the best indicator of the biological status of the soil community. Unfortunately, soil microbial activity respiration tests are still expensive, few laboratories are conduct the test, and it is time-consuming. However, Agroliquid has developed a gel-colorimetric method to appraise soil health using accurate spectrophotometry readings measured directly in the field, without the need of soil preparation, systematic spectrometer calibration, and laboratory incubation. The method was tested in the field and can be run in the lab. We are only beginning to understand what is right beneath our feet. What we do understand is that we need to allow the plants to capture carbon dioxide in their leaves and pump the carbon down through their roots to feed hungry microorganisms living in the soil.

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