Tips to reduce mineral input costs

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With the cost of fertilisers and farm chemicals rising almost monthly, it is time to start looking at fertiliser efficiency, mineral needs and maximising all inputs. 

Graeme Sait (Nutrition Matters) recently wrote an online piece urging the agriculture industry to pay attention to the soil life’s role in improving output and how to better manage the inclusion of important minerals that lead to higher yield and thus improved profitability. 

He notes that this agriculture cost crisis may encourage farmers to investigate sustainable farming practices and as a result find themselves in possession of previous resources in the soil that they may not have been aware of. 

In his article, Graeme covers nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as the key mishandled minerals. He explores how to better manage them to see better soil fertility which results in better profits. With the right management and monitoring, you can enhance productivity, lower input costs, and create greater sustainability.

We have outlined Graeme’s key points below. 

Nitrogen

How to improve nitrogen management and reduce input costs:

  1. Stabilise nitrogen inputs

Large amounts of nitrogen applied at planting are ineffective and can cause valuable soil carbon to be burned up. Always use humic acid to stabilise starter N. When ammonium N or nitrate N fertilisers are combined with 5% soluble humate granules, it produces a supply of nitrogen that is not susceptible to leaching and is also less likely to be lost to the atmosphere.

  1. Foliar spraying of urea

Cost-effective and energy-efficient, foliar fertilisation is 12 times more effective than soil fertilisation. When applied as a foliar spray to a broadacre crop, just 12kg of urea per hectare can have the same effect as applying a side dress of six times that amount, with the added benefits of zero leaching, zero volatilisation and instant protein formation. Remember to always combine your foliar urea with humic acid.

  1. Grow your own nitrogen

A green manure crop comprised of legumes can provide the equivalent of 200kg of urea to the subsequent crop. Even young cereals contain a significant amount of nitrogen if they are turned in before flowering.

  1. Improve nitrogen recycling

Protozoa are important creatures that get nitrogen from the bacteria they eat. Most broadacre soils don’t have any protozoa, but they do have a lot of bacteria. To get this nitrogen to your crop and reduce the amount of applied nitrogen, you can make protozoa tea. In his article, Graeme writes about this process in more detail.

Phosphate

Considerations for better phosphate utilisation:

  1. Stabilise this unstable mineral 

Include 5kg of soluble humate granules for every 100kg of granular phosphorus fertiliser. A stable phosphate humate is formed as the granules of soluble humic acid dissolve at the same rate as the DAP/MAP. Phosphate is now available to you for the entire season, rather than just the first half. This is just one benefit of humic acid.

  1. Increase uptake of applied phosphate

Another benefit of humic acid is that it promotes a well-studied phenomenon known as “cell sensitisation,” in which the cell membrane becomes more permeable and can take in 30% to 34% more phosphate.

  1. Release locked up phosphorous

Acids released from legumes can free up phosphate that has been locked up, while clovers can give both nitrogen and phosphate to a cereal crop by growing under it. Other tricks include using seed treatment with mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), and lastly, including fulvic acid in liquid injection programs at planting.

  1. Alternative phosphate inputs

Chicken manure contains a wealth of nutrients, including nitrogen, potassium, calcium, sulphur, and trace minerals, and is five times less expensive per unit of phosphate than DAP.

  1. Introduce phosphate solubilising bacteria

Using highly productive bacillus strains, phosphorus can be solubilised. Bacillus megaterium, bacillus subtilis, bacillus amyloliquefaciens, bacillus pumilis, and bacillus licheniformis can all access your phosphate reserves in addition to providing numerous other advantages.

Potassium

Monitoring potassium levels for better mineral management:

  1. Utilise a potassium meter

When checking for K deficiency, tissue testing is often ineffective and won’t reveal a problem until the entire plant has been watered out and you stand to lose some yield no matter how hard you try to fix it. 

  1. Foliar spray for potassium deficiency

If you keep an eye on things, you’ll quickly learn how much potassium is necessary after flowering, when the potassium drawdown is at its greatest. The recommendation to remedy a potassium deficiency is foliar spraying 8kg of potassium sulphate per hectare in at least 100 liters of water with 250g of Soluble Fulvic Acid powder.

Contact Goldsuite today to see how we can help you grow profitable harvests.

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