The Biological Farmer: A Complete Guide to the Sustainable and Profitable Biological System of Farming by Gary Zimmer

Author:Gary Zimmer [Zimmer, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781601730510
Publisher: Acres U.S.A.
Published: 2015-01-22T05:00:00+00:00

Example 3

High CECs (12-25). From Wisconsin and Illinois.

Test Wisconsin Illinois

CEC 13.5 22.9

OM 3.2 4.4

H 0 19

P1 (ppm) 47 34

P2 (ppm) 56 58

% Base Saturation

K 4.4% 2.2%

Mg 36.8% 29.7%

Ca 58.9% 49.1%

ppm

K 229 194

Mg 595 815

Ca 1,588 2,246

pH 6.8 5.8

S 17 14

Zn 2.3 3.9

Mn 9 15

Fe 59 165

Cu 1.0 2.1

B 1.3 0.08

Here I have used only two examples. You can find many more typical examples. Farm fertilizer programs need to be put together for individual farms. You can tell by looking at the soil test how the farmer is farming. In the Wisconsin sample, note the high magnesium level along with the high P and K. This is a crop and beef cattle farm. The farmer told the fertilizer supplier he didn’t care about quality; he had lots of cattle to feed and wanted tons. The farmer was sold nitrogen and potassium and applied them at high levels.

With this heavy soil and high magnesium, if your objective is to just change the Ca:Mg ratio, it will be a long uphill battle. The dolomite lime quarry is near this farm. Magnesium is high; certainly don’t add more. Adding high-calcium lime to soils with this high pH won’t change much. Adding more potassium or magnesium at this time would certainly not give much of a return on investment, it might even give a negative return.

This farmer needs calcium. Here again a gypsum or kiln dust source is much better. The pH is high, so adding calcium with sulfur works the best. Due to the high CEC, these soils have potential to hold more nutrients, and if you want to change them, you have to add more fertilizers and liming materials. If this soil has the mineral balance, good biological activity and soil structure, it will have the potential for a 200-bushel corn crop with little more than sticking seeds in the ground and adding a little nitrogen. If you look at the corn yield averages for Illinois, you will see that that is not what they are harvesting. Many heavy soils have their limitations — physical, biological and chemical. They also have a lot of potential.

For the Wisconsin farm we put on 1,000 pounds BioCal (a calcium, sulfur and boron source) on all soybean and forage fields, and the crop fertilizer was MAP (50 pounds) along with ammonium sulfate (100 to 200 pounds) with two pounds zinc, five pounds manganese, one pound copper and one pound boron added. Modifications were made for specific crops, and additional liquid nitrogen was side dressed for corn at 20 gallons per acre. Crops have greatly improved, but to change these soils will take time.

For the Illinois farm, there is not the very high CEC. It has lots of potential, but is a farm with poor crops. This farm was only using nitrogen in the anhydrous form at 200 pounds actual as the corn fertilizer and nothing for soybeans. That high excess nitrogen surely did contribute to the low calcium and low pH. What do you think the soil structure and biological activity looks like? Hard, tight ground with not a worm in sight.

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