Bactifeed continues to help farmers improve the quality of their soils, which helps that soil produce better crops and reduce inputs. This fall, quantitative and qualitative datum were gathered from customers who have been using Bactifeed.
Many reported that the first thing they noticed was how much quicker water was taken into the ground. For many farmers, this meant that there would be no need for Sulfuric Acids to try to increase water penetration. This was a tremendous savings and also meant that they would not have to worry about the typical alteration adding acids to soil can cause to Ph levels. They also noticed that the regrowth of Alfalfa was better than they had ever seen before. In the photo below you can see the field on the left was cut on 22 March, 2010, and the one on the right cut on 24 March, with the photo taken on 25 March. This was before water was added to the field.
This farmer also noted that the water soaked into the fields much quicker, and that 24-28 days after water, he was able to get a soil probe 18″ into the soil, something thought unthinkable in years past. The best penetration they could get prior to Bactifeed was about 4-6 inches with the aggressive use of Acids.
One of the major benefits farmers saw with Bactifeed was the ability to increase the use of manure and reduce nitrogen inputs on their fields. One of the organic farmers now uses up to 25 tons/acre because the Bactifeed breaks down the manures and prevents a crust from growing on the top of the soils. Many farmers, particularly around dairies, have to take manure/dairy water run off from the dairies, which has proven to be a problem with ground compaction and yield reduction in the past. Bactifeed farmers, faced with similar situations, find that they can actually increase yields (in spite of high sodium levels in the irrigation water and dairy water) by using Bactifeed in their soil. Using the Bactifeed lagoon treatment would further prepare that water for use in the fields and improve farming conditions for the Bactifeed Soil Treatment.
Other farmers are noticing that their soils are much easier to work with, and that they spend fewer days and hours to rip and disk fields in planting preparation. When the prepping the fields for then next crop they find that tilling the field is not a matter of ripping and disking three or four times as in the past, but merely a one or two pass procedure. This procedure is also greatly expedited because the soils allow the tractors to get through the fields faster than in years past. All of which provides an indirect savings by using Bactifeed to improve the health of the soil.
Finally, practically unanimous among all farmers, their crops tested higher in Nutritional Values than ever before. One farmer saw protein levels in his Brome grass grow from 13.1 to 18.9. The highest level before Bactifeed was 17, and that was through a labor intensive and expensive concoction of chicken litter and other agents and was cost/time prohibitive. Using Bactifeed, he was able to watch the protein value climb virtually every irrigation. Furthermore, his crop advisor (who did not know Bactifeed had been added) was stunned when his soil probe went 3 feet into the ground and asked the farmer what he done to his fields.
Tissue samples came back indicating that many levels, to include Nitrogen and Phosphorus, improved from “Deficient” or “Critical” to High, indicating an abundant uptake of said minerals, all of which help the farmer identify how to best add exactly what the crop needs and helps him know that expensive fertilizers may be foregone because the plants have become more efficient and mineral absorption. This means costs drop, crop quality improves, and over time, yields improve.
Get to your Bactifeed rep as soon as you can to get 2010 pricing before 2011 gets here!
