Dairy Manure is rich in nutrients but applying manure directly to agricultural soils does not ensure good utilization of those nutrients for plant growth. In addition, the NPK content of dairy manure is not balanced for all crops, and this can lead to accumulation of Phosphorus, which, over time, can sour an agricultural soil. In general application rates are based on providing the amount of Nitrogen the crops need, but this often leads to applying more Phosphorus and Potassium than the crops need. Phosphorus is not highly soluble and tends to accumulate in agricultural soils.
But issues go beyond balance. Liquid manure, as it is often applied, is high in Ammonia, which can be used by the plant but if not taken up quickly it can volatilize and be lost to the plant. Nitrogen is an essential nutrient, supporting photosynthesis, and plant and cell growth. It is present in several forms. Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite are all present in liquid dairy Manure. But as we already noted, Ammonia can volatilize and Nitrates often leach below the root zone and can migrate into groundwater and surface waters.
One often overlooked but extremely important factor in row farming is the microbiota of the soil and their interaction with plants. Healthy soils have diverse bacterial and fungal communities and plants actively influence the microbiome of the soil through the release of root exudates. Symbiotic relationships are established in healthy soils between plants and microorganisms like mycorrhizal fungi. Mycorrhizal fungi take up minerals like Zinc and Phosphorus and deliver them to plants in a usable form. But long term application of chemical nitrogen fertilizers has been shown to reduce the abundance and diversity of Mycorrhizal fungi as well as a suite of other beneficial soil microbiota, worms and insects. Over the past century topsoil from almost one third of the US Corn Belt has been completely eroded, reducing crop yields by 6% in the region, despite the heavy use of chemical fertilizers. These degraded soils are not economically or ecologically sustainable.
Phosphorus is also essential for plants but it is not always available to the crops. Most plants acquire required minerals via two pathways. A direct pathway involves the direct uptake of dissolved minerals in water through the root system. A second more active pathway involves root exudates that work with soil fungi and soil bacteria. Root exudates are liquid secretions containing a variety of biologically active molecules. They inhibit harmful bacteria and promote symbiotic relationships between the microbiota and the plants. For example, when Phosphorus availability is low, the plant will upregulate genes that produce exudates that cause fungi to move Phosphorus into the plant. When Phosphorus is abundant, the plant down regulates these genes. So under chemical fertilization, Phosphorus levels may be adequate or high, but not be available to the plant because the high levels cause the plant to down regulate the genes needed to acquire the needed Phosphorus.
Potassium is also needed by plants, but mostly during fruit or grain development, to help move sugars into the fruits. Potassium is quite soluble and can also leach below the root zone. So we can see that maximizing crop production requires healthy agricultural soils. But delivering nutrients to the crops is not a simple matter. The interactions of plant roots and soil microorganisms is essential to optimal plant growth.
Clean Wave has developed an approach that solves several of these issues. We capture much of the Ammonium and Potassium ions in a natural mineral that releases them only under cationic exchange. And further Clean Wave’s approach also improves Cationic exchange capacity, stores water, and provides a substrate to support microbiota of the soil.
Clean Wave can also include a dry, water soluble Potassium Humate (Humi[K] WSG). It is important to note that this material is a soil stimulant and a transportation vehicle for carrying nutrients into plants. Once connected to the humic acid molecule, nutrients are carried into plants in available forms that help intensify the plant’s metabolism and stimulate the soil’s natural activities. Humi[K] WSG improves the efficiency with which plants utilize nutrients from the soil. In return, this enables a reduction in the amount of fertilizer historically required to maintain optimal plant growth. Obviously, this provides enormous economic and ecological value to growers wishing to reduce their fertilizer input costs and/or reduce the potential side-effects of heavy chemical fertilizers usage. If soils are found to be insufficient with Mycorrhizal fungi, then these can also be supplemented with the Humate and liquid or solid manure fertilizer.
Healthy soils not only benefit crop production Healthy soils actually store carbon from the atmosphere, while unhealthy agricultural soils release greenhouse gasses including NOx, a potent greenhouse gas.
It is essential for the sustainability of agriculture and the dairy industry that we improve nutrient utilization by row crops by employing known regenerative agricultural methods including no-till cultivation and specific crop rotations that offer symbiotic
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