Advancing Eco Agriculture Newsletter

Fall Newsletter October 2015

Fall 2015 Newsletter 800-495-6603 page 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

John’s Thoughts Page 2Mastering Management Page 42016 Winter Events Schedule Page 7Building Soil Organic Matter Page 9Understanding Plant Photosynthesis Page 11

ADVANCING ECO AGRICULTURE

Winter 2015 Newsletter


page 2 www.advancingecoag.com 800-495-6603

John’s Thoughts…by John Kempf

Hi Friends,

Particularly in the agriculture community, it is often customary to begin a letter with a brief discussion about the weather. Farmers, perhaps more than any other profession, are very closely connected to what is happening in the world around them.

As I am writing this, it is the middle of December, and the weather in Orwell, Ohio could easily be mistaken for April. The plants and animals think so, too. Hydrangeas are breaking dormancy, and already have leaf buds which are unfurling, forsythia are blooming, and the tree frogs and spring peepers are singing in the evenings. If this continues for even a short period, it could be quite disconcerting for farmers growing perennial crops, such as grapes or tree fruit, with a greater likelihood of winter damage to the plant and reproductive buds.

2015 has been a very interesting year for Advancing Eco Agriculture. Each year, we learn new things about growing the healthiest crops possible. Over the last few years, we have worked hard to develop products which produce a very strong crop response, and we

are still learning about the incredible results they can produce when applied at the right time. This year, we learned about the unexpected effectiveness of a group of products to trigger bud initiation and blossom set when applied at the right stage on reproductive crops. Beans with as much as 40%-50% more pods, tomatoes with a very uniform and consistent fruit set, and no abortions, and similar results with other crops. Of course, we still need to make certain we have enough energy in the soil and in the crop to finish that yield. We will be describing our new bud initiation foliar at our seminars this winter.

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We know that healthy plants create healthy soil. Yet, not all plants are created equal in the types of soil response they produce. The literature describes the characteristics of “disease suppressive soil”. What exactly is disease suppressive soil, and how can we guide the soil we are farming in the direction of becoming a disease suppressive soil?

Over the last few years we have talked about the differences between oxidized and reduced forms of nutrients, and the need for the right microbial communities to ensure good mineral availability. The next step is the realization that different crops actually guide the soil’s microbial community in the direction of oxidizing or reducing soil environments, which is a critical part of developing disease suppressive soils. In other words, some crops will guide soils in the direction of being disease suppressive, and others in the direction of being disease enhancing. Plants may have a much bigger effect on soil health and the disease resistance of future crops than we ever realized. For example, oats, alfalfa, non-gm corn, and

a number of others produce a reduced soil environment which is disease suppressive. Wheat, orchard grass, fescue, soybeans, gm corn, and a number of other crops will lead to an oxidizing soil microbial community, which produces a disease enhancing soil.

We also gained more new insights into nitrogen management, and how the right forms of nitrogen applied at the right time can lead to greater levels of disease resistance as well as a number of other things. We will be talking about all of these pieces at our winter seminars throughout the country, and I look forward to meeting you and talking with you at one of those events.

Until then, enjoy the summery winter, and enjoy getting ready for the ideal crop year, as all optimistic farmers do.See you there!

John

Don’t Forget…Call in your prepay order today!

6% discount on all prepay orders by Jan. 31, 2015

800-495-6603Don’t miss our biggest product discount of the year!

*Shipments do not have to shipped by any specific date. Any order modification must be made 5 days prior to ship date.

John’s Thoughts…by John Kempf




Soil Tests, Plant Sap Analysis, Water Samples, Saturated Paste Reports, Lime or Gypsum, how much and when, what are microbes? Within farming, there are many areas to manage and lots of variables to consider. To be a successful farmer it is important to understand and be able to manage every part of the farm well. Three key components that you should focus your energy on as you plan your 2016 season are soil, water and plant health. In this article we will focus on the soil.

Soil is made up of four major parts: air, water, minerals derived from weathered rocks, and organic matter.

All of these parts of the soil are needed, and are needed within a normal range or balance. Soils which are out of balance will not produce the potential quality and quantity of crops. Just as a 3 legged stool will not stand if one leg is broken, so is it impossible to have a healthy high performing soil without a balance of the chemical, physical and biological properties.

Much of the minerals in the soil are ‘locked in’ naturally, and not in a plant available form. A lack of air (a physical condition known as anaerobic) will suffocate biology. A major role of the biology in the soil is to

unlock the minerals, converting them into available forms that plants can use. If the biology can’t function because of a physical condition there will be less plant available minerals. Too few minerals (a chemical issue) will lead to deficiencies within the plant and thus a sick and under performing plant.

Now let’s take a look at each of the 3 properties above because each one also has a specific balance that is important.

Physical: The physical components of the soil are air, water and organic materials e.g. clay, sand, silt, organic matter, silica and minerals. The balance of these should be 25% water, 25% air, and 50% organic materials and minerals. If there is 50% water and 50% organic material the whole system breaks down because there is no room for air thus microbes suffocate, root tips stop growing and atmospheric Nitrogen exchange no longer occurs. Neither does it work to have 50% air and 50% organic matter. There must be a balance!

Mastering Managementby David Miller, AEA Vice President of Agronomy Education

Healthy SoilPhysical

Biol

ogic

al

Chem

ical

25%

50%

25%

Air Organic Material & Minerals Water




Biological: If the soil has a good balance physically, you should be able to find five basic categories of creatures which are Bacteria, Fungi, Protozoa, Nematodes and Arthropods all performing a specific function to support healthy plant growth.

We often hear about soil organisms and the importance of having your soil “alive” with beneficial microbes. But a microscopic view of average soil is disappointing. It seems lifeless and sterile. As textbooks will tell us, the soil away from roots has very few active bacteria, and actinomycetes or fungi. They need food, moisture and usually oxygen to grow, so in most soil there are only a few very tiny bacteria visible. Most microbes remain inactive or protective inside thick walled spores until their microscopic environment has some suitable food for them.

So if we turn the microscope to a piece of decaying crop residue or look on the surface of a living root, we can see a much larger number of minuscule dot like or rod shaped bacteria, along with thin, thread like filaments of fungi or actinomycetes. This points out the importance of regularly recycling manure and crop residue as well as having a growing cover crop as much as possible, to provide food for the “volunteer army” of microbes that help improve your soil and crop growth.

Compared to hard, abused, low oxygen soil, a healthy regenerated soil will have a large number and a great variety of beneficial microbes, whether they are actively doing their jobs or are temporarily asleep waiting for their next meal.

Chemical: The chemical or mineral component in the soil is very important and directly influenced by the condition and vigor of the biology in the soil. It is important to know what the balance of minerals should be in the soil so you know what to look for on a soil

sample but even more important to understand the different levels of nutrient availability.

There are 2 million pounds of soil in the top 6 inches of an acre. In that 2,000,000 pounds there may be as much as 20,000 pounds Calcium, 10,000 pounds Magnesium, 30,000 pounds Potash, a couple thousand pounds of Phosphate and hundreds of pounds of micronutrients that are locked up in a form that is not available for the plants.





When you add all the minerals tested on a soil sample, the sum will usually not be more than 10,000 pounds of minerals, even on a high CEC soil. On a Saturated Paste report that shows what minerals are in solution and available for immediate plant use, the numbers are even lower.

Balance of the various minerals is important and there are ratios that we believe are the ideal target such as 70-75% Calcium, 15% Magnesium, 5% Potassium, etc. However it is even more important that microbes have the ideal environment so they can efficiently digest and unlock all the minerals that are in the soil that don’t even show up on the soil sample.

I like to use finances as an analogy for the chemical component in the soil. Can you imagine the response walking into your favorite restaurant and asking for a meal because you have a million dollars in assets? How about trying to buy groceries by showing the clerk your savings account balance which is $10,000?We would never dream of trying something like that. We all know that cash is the only way we get our meal.

Let’s say the locked up minerals in the soil were the assets on your farm; the numbers from a standard soil test were your savings account and the numbers from the saturated paste report are your cash on hand. Your plants will not be able to get minerals that are not in the right form and the biology is what transfers the assets and savings to cash. Get the point? Management techniques must enhance biology as much as possible because biology trumps chemistry every time.

There are, however, situations where the mineral balance must be altered with applications of rock minerals, thus it is important to understand the materials that are available and at what rates they need to be applied to accomplish your specific situation. This is a more intense topic than I have space or time for today, so perhaps we can take a look at that in a future article.

It is critical to your success for 2016 that you understand how to interpret a soil sample, as well as the water and plant sap analysis that I mention in the beginning, and put an application program together. Putting on too much of the wrong thing has messed up many soils.

So I suggest you attend seminars, read, and experiment, or connect with the team at Advancing Eco Agriculture and take advantage of the wealth of knowledge and experience we offer.

CALL 1-800-495-6603 now to learn more about our consulting service packages.





At Advancing Eco Agriculture we are always working hard to help our customers grow the healthiest crops possible. This means we are constantly learning new things, and improving our knowledge from year to year.

2015 has been an exceptional year for us; we have made tremendous progress in understanding how to consistently produce disease suppressive soils, and fine tune plants’ reproductive responses to produce the largest number of fruit and the largest sized fruit at the same time.

At our winter sales days this year we will be talking about the new things we have learned, and how you can use them for success on your farm. John will also be discussing the common factors shared by the most successful farms, and how successful farmers tend to all think and operate the same way in some very key areas.

Something new this year: We are also offering substantial discounts for orders placed and paid at the seminars. Come to the meeting prepared to take advantage of the product discounts we will be offering to attendees day of event only.

You will learn new techniques around managing soil nutrition, how to read plant sap analysis, make recommendations based on sap analysis, and other new topics. Be the first to hear the details of the new products in development at AEA.

We will also be introducing our new customer service team who will be taking your experience working with AEA to a whole new level. If you are working with a regenerative agriculture system, and you want to take your knowledge one step further, these meetings are for you. Register to attend today! We are looking forward to meeting you!

Call 800-495-6603 To Register For An Event Today

Agenda8:30 Registration9:00 Introduction9:30 Nutrition In Photosynthesis10:30 Break/Interaction with Consultants11:00 Building Soil Organic Matter12:00 Lunch (provided)1:00 Framework For Success in Regenerative Agriculture2:00 Q and A2:30 Discussions with Consultants

• Hear The Details Of Our Latest Products In Development• Learn New Techniques Around Managing Soil Nutrition• Study The Nuances Of A Regenerative Growing System• Explained In Clear Language By AEA’s Knowledgable, Hands-On Agronomists

2016 Winter Sales Days




AEA Winter Sales Days Schedule Call 1-800-495-6603 to register for any of these events, or register online at

www.advancingecoag.com/events.

Mar 15, 2016 – New York9:00 am - 3:00 pmCornell Cooperative Extension24 Martin Road Voorheesville, NY 12186

Jan 8, 2016 – Virginia9:00 am - 3:00 pmWoodmen of the World3045 John Wayland HwyDayton, VA 22821

Jan 12, 2016– Michigan9:00 am - 3:00 pm Banquet Center of DeWitt1120 Commerce Park Dr.DeWitt MI 48820

Jan 15, 2016 Sap Analysis Seminar9:00 am - 5:00 pmYoder's Country Market 14 S Tower Rd New Holland, PA 17557Jan 22-23, 2016 – Practical Farmers of Iowa ConferenceJohn Kempf Keynote Presentation and Workshop, 9:00 am - 4:00 pmScheman Building Ames IA 50011

Feb 26, 2016 – Eastern PA9:00 am - 3:00 pmYoder’s Restaurant and Buffet14 S Tower RoadNew Holland PA 17557

Jan 14, 2016 – Western PA9:00 am - 3:00 pmDutch Country Inn and Restaurant7920 SR 655 Reedsville PA 17084

Jan 25, 2016 – Ohio9:00 am - 3:00 pmEvent Center3558 US 62 Millersburg OH 44654

Mar 16, 2016 – NOFA NY ConferenceJohn Kempf Keynote Presentation and Workshop, 9:00 am - 3:00 pm441 Electronics Pkwy Liverpool NY 13088

Other Events


http://www.advancingecoag.com/events

http://www.advancingecoag.com/events



AEA has worked with many farmers over the years who have tried incorporating crop residues and growing cover crops without ever building soil organic material rapidly. In some cases, these farmers even lost organic soil matter. Naturally, many of these farmers have asked why they have not been able to build stable soil organic matter, despite using so much organic material and residue. Hopefully this article on crop residue will provide some answers.

There are two reasons why organic materials are not properly converted to organic matter, the first of which is simply a lack of biological digestion in the soil profile, which may be caused by too much water or a lack of air reaching the soil due to compaction. Soil compaction is a significant problem for farmers since oxygen is a necessary component of soil digestion. AEA worked with a farm in Northeast Ohio recently that had been drain tiled. This tiling, the first in 37 years, turned up a layer of crop residue that had been plowed down almost four decades ago. The goldenrod and ironweed tilled up on this farm was still recognizable, meaning this soil was compacted to such a degree that biological digestion could not take place.

While some soil profiles lack any biological digestion, others do digest organic materials but fail to produce stable humic substances. So the second reason why organic materials are not converted to organic matter is because of a functioning, but improper, biological digestive process. As an example, it is common to find farms on which a six foot tall cover crop like Sorghum Sudan grass is being grown, from which not even 1% of the cover crop’s total biomass will be converted into stable humic substances. Why this happens will require some explanation.

There are two different digestive processes that occur in the soil profile. The first is a soil dominated by bacterial communities, in which bacteria feed on crop residue and then incorporate the minerals and

nutrients from that crop into their own cells. Once this bacterial community goes through its population cycle, these minerals and nutrients contained within their cells become available to other organisms in the soil profile such as fungi, protozoa, or nematodes. From these organisms, the nutrients are eventually released into the soil profile in a form that is absorbable by plants. This mineralization process leads to very rapid degradation of cover crops and the development of nutrients that plants can absorb. In this process, then, the cover crop acts essentially as a crop fertilizer, not a soil builder. This crop’s nutrients, given the right temperature and moisture conditions, will be released and made available to the following crop in a period of 10-14 days, on average.

The second digestive process is quite different from the mineralization process, one in which the soil profile is dominated by fungi, as opposed to bacteria. When fungi ingest cover crop residue, they do not release nutrients from that crop back into the soil profile. Instead, fungi digest crop residue over and over again until it cannot be digested any more. At that point the residue is released back into the soil profile and is now referred to as a stable humic substance. Sometimes people refer to humic substances as if they are food sources for fungi, but this is incorrect, since humic substances are, in essence, the end result of fungal decomposition and cannot be decomposed any further. These compounds have a half life in the soil profile that can range into the hundreds of years. In order to build stable, long-lasting soil organic matter, it is essential to develop fungal digestive processes in the soil profile.

The point at which fungi reach the limit of their digestion of crop residues is determined by lipid (fat) concentrations. William Jackson, in his book Organic Soil Conditioning, notes that stable humic substances have a lipophilic acid content between 38-42%. For example, take two fields, both covered by crop

Building Soil Organic Matter




residue from a cover crop at a volume of 10,000 pounds of biomass per acre. One field has a 2% fat content on a dry matter basis while the other has 8%. The latter field will produce four times more stable organic matter and four times more stable humic substances than the former field. This happens because bacteria cannot digest lipids, whereas fungi can. So a mature cover crop should not be seen as a crop fertilizer, but rather as a soil builder, since it will be digested by fungi and will build stable humic substances.

Both mature cover crops and lush, immature cover crops contain a certain volume of lipids, but the mature cover crops are digested primarily by fungi and the immature cover crops are digested by bacteria. This occurs not just because of fat content, but also because of nitrogen-to-carbon ratios in the cover crop residues. The lush, rapidly growing cover crop will have a very narrow nitrogen-to-carbon ratio and a high

protein content required by bacteria. The mature crop residue has a less narrow nitrogen-to-carbon ratio, more amenable to fungi digestion. Farmers who apply nitrogen to crop residues are actually triggering the bacterial mineralization process again. Instead of nitrogen applications, farmers should use an AEA bio-stimulant such as Rejuvenate to rapidly enhance fungal digestion of crop residue without increasing the nitrogen-to-carbon ratio.

To sum up, cover crops have two different purposes: they can be used as a crop fertilizer or as a soil builder. One cover crop will never serve both purposes; it’s one or the other. To build organic soil matter from crop residue, it is essential to take the fungal, rather than bacterial, digestion route, using a product like Rejuvenate. When applied to crop residues in the Fall, Rejuvenate stimulates fungal digestion by speeding up the decomposition process, which in turn builds stable soil organic matter.

Building Soil Organic Matter…

This is an example of a prime cover crop growing in southern OH on an AEA program.




In the 1950’s French agronomists performed research on plant health and protein synthesis that led to discoveries about two different modes of plant growth: photosynthesis and proteolysis. Plants growing in photosynthesis mode have enough water, sunshine, and minerals to form complete proteins, but plants that lack any one of those elements are in proteolysis mode, in which plant proteins break down. In fact, plants are always in one or the other of these modes, even switching between them within a 6-8 hour period.

Since both of these growth modes hinge on the formation (or lack thereof) of complete proteins, it’s useful to describe, in a simplified way, some of the chemistry behind the photosynthetic process and how it relates to plant health.

During photosynthesis, plants produce the simple sugar known as glucose, made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen (C6H2O6). Glucose can be pictured as a short chain with 24 lengths that gets cut apart, twisted around itself, and then welded back together in a rearranged fashion that now forms a longer, more complex chain: a complex carbohydrate. The same thing happens with proteins, which are formed by adding nitrogen to glucose, forming an amino acid. There are 23 common amino acids in nature, all of which can be restructured and bonded together, like the glucose chain, to form complete proteins.

Building these chains can be compared to ‘welding’, and the ‘welding crew’ members that cut these chains and put them back together again in new, complex, ways are known as enzymes. Enzymes act as chemical catalysts, triggering the

formation of these new, more complex, chains. To use another construction-based analogy, enzymes can be compared to end wrenches, each of which only fit one specific size of nut or bolt. Chemically-speaking, then, these enzymes can only trigger one specific reaction: one enzyme may bond with nitrogen, another with sugar, and so forth. And just like end wrenches, these enzymes never get used up; they can trigger the same chemical reaction repeatedly.

All of these enzymes, in order to do their specific jobs, require what is known as an enzyme cofactor. These cofactors, which are trace minerals, act like ‘helper molecules’ that assist in chemical transformations. Interestingly, some agronomists believe that plants require 16-17 trace mineral cofactors, while many plant biologists think that number is closer to 60. That’s quite a variation in opinion and it matters since plants without the necessary number of cofactors leave many enzymes out of a job, and this understaffed plant produces a high concentration of short chains rather than the complex carbohydrate chains described above. These simple, short, sugar chains then shut down the plant’s communication system to become the main food source for nearly all disease pathogens and insects.

Understanding Plant Photosynthesis

1. Full capacity photosynthesis 2. Triggers bacterial digestion3. Triggers mineralization4. Triggers high levels of fats in plants5. Triggers fungal digestion6. Results in stable humic substances


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Winter 2015 Newsletter

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