Motor Oil Info

Hay and Pasture are integral to the food supply of many classes of livestock. Hay is one of the most versatile of stored forages and provides ready supplemental food for animals that also might graze pastureland.

High quality hay has more protein that can produce healthier livestock, reducing the need for feed supplements and associated costs.

AGGRAND Natural Fertilizers are formulated to provide nutrients immediately available to the plant and encourage microbial growth within the soil. These microbes break down nutrients into forms plants can use and improve the soil structure by creating  passageways for the movement of water and air. Plants develop stronger and deeper root systems that can result in higher quality forage.

Converting to a more sustainable or organic system produces many noticeable short term benefits. However, the long term benefits often determine the real success of the system.

Reduction or elimination of environmental impacts.

Viable crop production in years when other farms experience crop failures.

Buildup of topsoil.

Satisfaction of becoming more dependent on nature’s ability to provide.

AGGRAND Natural Fertilizer 4-3-3 stimulates microbial activity in the soil and supplies additional nutrients to the crop. Microbes and other soil life require oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and trace amounts of other elements to proliferate. AGGRAND Natural Fertilizer contains the elements necessary for proliferation of soil life in the form of proteins, enzymes, hormones, humus substances, vitamins, sugars and synergistic compounds.

Higher application levels of AGGRAND Natural Fertilizer are required early in the conversion process as chemical fertilization is eliminated. It is possible to recoup the cost of high application rates during the first two or three years when growing high value crops such as tomatoes or melons, but most situations require a gradual decline in chemical fertilizer applications while maintaining moderate levels of AGGRAND Natural Fertilizer applications.

The choice of methods depends on the soil type, fertility levels, base saturation balance, type of crops and soil tilth. Biological activity is maximized when the soil chemistry is in balance. The first method to put into practice is soil testing. The saturation percentages of the base (Cationic) elements (Ca, Mg, K, and H) and the cation exchange capacity of the soil are extremely relevant to creating the right conditions for microbial and root growth and nutrient uptake.

Major adjustments to this balance take time; if the soil is too far out of balance, it may not be economically effective depending on the potential productivity of the soil and the potential value of the crops to be grown on that soil. Major adjustments in base saturation often involve addition of lime (calcitic or dolomite), sulfate and/or potassium sulfate.

Crop residue must remain in the top 4″ of soil for this process to be effective. For example, fungi are ineffective and lack of oxygen slows the ability of bacterial microbes to break down old corn stalk residue if it is plowed under and rests six or eight inches below the soil surface.

Under these conditions, it takes up to several years to break down. In addition, nutrients such as nitrogen and potassium, which are released as the residue breaks down, leach into the groundwater rather than becoming available to the roots that proliferate in the top 4 – 6″ of soil.

Crop residue must remain in the top 4″ of soil for this process to be effective. For example, fungi are ineffective and lack of oxygen slows the ability of bacterial microbes to break down old corn stalk residue if it is plowed under and rests six or eight inches below the soil surface.

Under these conditions, it takes up to several years to break down. In addition, nutrients such as nitrogen and potassium, which are released as the residue breaks down, leach into the groundwater rather than becoming available to the roots that proliferate in the top 4-6″ of soil.

The same practices that cause soil compaction also reduce microbial activity in the plow layer. When the moldboard plow turns over the soil, placing organic material underneath the more aerobic topsoil, it inhibits microbial breakdown of the residue into humus.

The first microbes to break down the residue are fungi, which funnel nitrogen out of the soil into the crop residue through their mycelium. The carbon and oxygen from the loose crop residue and the nitrogen from the soil provide the elements necessary for prolific fungal growth.

Continuous mono cropping of the land, especially with row crops that remove large amounts of nutrients from the soil, reduces the soil’s ability to produce viable crops year after year. In addition to reduced yields, the crops become more susceptible to disease and insect attack.

For example, successive corn crops without crop rotation leads to nitrogen depletion, and the farmer must add increased levels of nitrogen in order to produce a viable crop. Insects and other pests that attack corn are able to multiply and thrive on the susceptible corn crop, so the farmer must increase the use of pesticides. However, the pests develop resistance to the pesticides faster than the farmer can raise the treat rates or try new combinations of pesticides.

Salt Based Fertilizers such as Ammonium Nitrate and Potassium Chloride inhibit the natural systems in the soil. Their use maximizes luxury growth of many crops (and weeds), but because tissue solute levels (BRIX%) are very low and leaf cuticles weak, crops are more vulnerable to insect attack. Increased insecticide and herbicide applications become necessary, further degrading the natural ecosystem in the soil.

As the soil ecosystem degrades, it opens niches for pathogenic fungi, nematodes and other non beneficial invaders to populate the soil, and the farmer must increase the use of fungicides, nematicides and insecticides to control damage and diseases caused by the offending invaders. One can begin to see how the use of toxic chemicals creates a never ending upward spiral in the use of chemical inputs and an equal, but biological activity, which can result in reduced profit margins.

Converting to an organic fertility program will increase the productivity and quality of any cropping system in the long run. The length of time it takes to convert to a more sustainable system (one that reduces the number of non renewable inputs) depends on the degree of degradation of the biological ecosystem, which is impacted by the following:

The addition of toxic substances to the system.

The continuous mono cropping in the absence of a viable crop rotation plan.

The lack of attention to soil chemical imbalance (i.e. base saturation percentage out of balance).

Soil compaction from the overuse of heavy machinery on the fields.

Practices that reduce the presence of organic matter in the top 6″ of soil.

Each of these factors must be addressed in some fashion, but it usually takes at least three years to see meaningful results; it takes time to detoxify the soil and open the soil pores so the soil microbes can multiply and begin releasing nutrients as crop need them.