How to Use Biofertilizers to Boost Farm Profits for this Season and Next
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to boosting farm profitability. Except when it comes to the flexibility of choosing the right management practices to maximize your farm’s profit potential. Learn from DPH Biologicals how growers can use biofertilizers for results that pay off this season and enhance better farm profitability over the long term.
Using Biofertilizers for Better Results, Higher Profits
Every field, every season, every crop and every farm budget is unique.
According to a recent McKinsey and Company survey of U.S. farmers, volatility in the agricultural marketplace is driving growers to pursue “continuous-improvement efforts.” Farmers are seeking out new ways to boost yields and reduce costs while hedging bets against increasingly prevalent abiotic stressors like drought and temperature extremes.
This is why biofertilizers are such a powerful tool for improving farm economics, says Alex Cochran, PhD., and chief technology officer for DPH Biologicals. Proven, easy-to-use biofertilizers and biodigesters, a type of biofertilizer, give growers a whole new set of tools for optimizing their crop potential.
But growers need to “do their homework” to craft a biofertility program that best matches their unique needs, Cochran says. Biofertilizers and biodigesters optimize yields, save on input and fieldwork costs and head off the risk of yield-limiting factors like disease or weather stressors.
“Every farm has different limiting factors and potential. Biofertilizers are very versatile tools with proven pathways to profitability. But because they are so versatile, growers need to understand how to craft a biofertility plan that best matches their specific needs,” Cochran says.
Quick Results With a Biofertility Foliar Approach
While the results of biofertilizers like TerraTrove™ SP-1 Classic™ as a planting-time soil additive are well proven, SP-1 Classic also generates immediate crop benefits when used as a post-emergence foliar application, Cochran says.
SP-1 Classic is a complete liquid biofertilizer composed of a diverse community of living microbes, a proprietary plant-based humus extract and algae that work together to stimulate plant growth, support reproductive processes and lessen abiotic stress.
For years, growers have reliably used SP-1 Classic as a soil additive, replacing up to 50% of their starter fertilizer with SP-1 Classic at planting without sacrificing yield performance. Or adding SP-1 to a full-fertility program to optimize results in high-yield environments – over a three-year study, 80% of corn growers in 220-bushel or more high-yield environments saw yield increases using SP-1 Classic as an in-furrow, pre-plant soil additive.
But recent field tests prove SP-1 Classic is just as powerful as a post-emergence foliar, giving growers more ways to optimize their crop results, Cochran says. A single foliar treatment of SP-1 Classic at three gallons per acre in Illinois corn fields returned an 8.5-bushel increase in yield. SP-1 Classic split between two foliar applications accelerated wheat green-up, resulting in a more than 5-bushel yield increase over untreated Washington state wheat fields.
And since SP-1 Classic tank mixes seamlessly with most other products, including glyphosate, growers can easily incorporate a biofertility boost without extra field passes.
When it comes to long-term benefits, biofertilizers can’t be beat, Cochran says. SP-1 Classic improves soil tilth by flocculating, aggregating and loosening the surface of tight soils for earlier planting conditions and better water-holding capacity. That leads to faster and stronger crop emergence and better season-long resilience to abiotic stressors like weather extremes, factors vital to a high-yield, profitable, growing environment.
OMRI-listed and appropriate for organic, regenerative and conventional production, SP-1 Classic is an easy-to-use liquid formulation that seamlessly integrates into broadacre and specialty row-crop practices via broadcast, in-furrow, foliar, drip or fertigation applications.
Biodigesters Turn Waste Into Nutrients, Reduce Post-Harvest Field Prep
TerraTrove Residuce Complete™ is another way growers can optimize their field biofertility potential to solve common crop management problems and boost profits, Cochran says. Biodigesters are a subset of biofertilizers, utilizing a unique mode of action to improve soil health and mine more available nutrients for better crop health.
Residuce features a unique blend of nutrient-cycling fungal and bacterial microorganisms that accelerate the rapid breakdown of tough organic residues. Faster post-harvest residue management means growers can capture and recycle the nutrients in post-harvest waste while turning around their fields rapidly and easily between planting.
A single application of Residuce combined with a nutrient source accelerates the breakdown of organic residues by more than 11%, captures more carbon in the soil and delivers increased N-P-K versus crop stubble managed through traditional tillage methods.
Additionally, growers using Residuce report less wear and tear on their tractors and field equipment and more time to get crops in during narrow planting windows. Growers are even using Residuce to support field management during tight turn-around windows in double-crop rotations, Cochran says.
Residuce is OMRI-listed for organic production and compatible with most crop protection and fertility programs. Tank mix for spray application of post-harvest field stubble.
Better Science, Good Communication Key to Biofertilizer Profitability
Ag retailers, crop consultants and agronomy advisers are crucial to communicating the benefits of biofertilizers and helping growers tailor the best biofertility plan to match their unique needs, Cochran says.
DPH Biologicals’ just-released whitepaper “Improving Farm Profitability with Biofertilizers” gives growers and their advisers an in-depth analysis of the economic potential of biofertilizers and lays out a road-map for using biofertilizers to boost increased short and long-term farm profitability.
For more information, visit www.dphbio.com or call 1-800-648-7626.