Does Sugar Boost Yield?
17 Oct 239 min 56 sec

As a farmer, the plants you grow are primarily composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, which are the same elements found in sugar. It begs the question, why aren't you utilizing more sugar on your crops? Chad Henderson talks about his sugar strategy for his crop with Damian Mason and Concept AgriTek’s Derek Cattoor.

00:00 We're talking about sugar. You know what, it's a sweet subject and I'm really excited to cover it with Derek Couture here at the Farm Progress Show. And of course Chad Harrison, 00:07 one of the founders of Extreme Ag. Uh, last time this came up, first time it came up, I should say, 00:12 I was in your barn and you had all kinds of sugar products on skids and bags and all that. I said, Chad, this is kind of a cool thing, 00:20 but we didn't do this a decade or two or three ago. We didn't go out and spray sugar on these. Now you're using all kind of stuff. It's 00:26 'cause we wouldn't make it high quality whiskey then. So why am I putting all this sugar on? Well, You know, it's part of Ensis, you know, we're trying to get to that, 00:35 get to that, um, next point or next, next thing that goes on. And it's about feeding the plant, you know, 00:42 and we're talking about plant health and, and we're just trying to help this thing along. You know, I've done a bunch of tests on sugar and Derek may tell you, you know, 00:49 it's very hard if you get just a sugar product and you try to do testing on it. It's very hard to see a yield result from just sugar. It is, uh, you know, 00:58 unless you've got a plant that maybe is not as healthy, you know what? But it's the whole synergy around it is what we're going for. Well just, 01:05 just keep in mind that 80% of our plants are made up of car carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Yeah. You know, what's the basic components of sugar and carbon? 01:12 Hydrogen and oxygen. Yep. So answer me this. I just heard him say, you can't point to a definite, 01:19 absolute yield advantage with just putting sugar. I Haven't. I've never, I've never made just sugar yield on my farm. But you gotta look at what we're doing on the farm as well. 01:30 We have good plant health, but then I don't make a pass. Very rarely do I make a pass without some form of sugar in the tank. Correct. 01:38 And, and I think you're, you're getting, you're getting at a point of like a synergy. That's right. With with fungicides or, or with other products, other micronutrient products. 01:45 Yeah. You talk about plant health. Uh, one thing that I've noticed as an agronomist over the last several years, anybody using some types of sugars with a fungicide that is getting us 01:55 closer to what I call the 30% corn that looks like 20. Yeah. You know, that's what we all want. Yeah. We all want that. Stay green in our corn. 02:01 There's, there's something about sugars with that. Well, what has to do with bricks level? That's right. You know, 02:05 as we raise the bricks level of that plant, that plant is healthier. It can, it's wanting to take up more nutrients. It's working harder. 02:12 And then like with concept agritech, our, our big product is sweet success. Yeah. Okay. That's a molasses based product. Well, sweet ful what I use, 02:20 you know, 20 ounce rig. I mean it just, because it's not a, like we're not going and dumping gallons of it in. Yep. You know, so it's easy. 02:26 Don't You use it at every, didn't you tell me once you put it sugar in at most every pass? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if it's over the top, if it's a fo layer, well, even, 02:34 Even in, in furrows or even Intuit tube, I mean, it don't matter. That's something that's really come to fruition in the last couple years is 02:40 we're, we're putting quartz and gallons in the soil, pints and quartz over the top. Typically. Typically. 'cause one thing that I've trying to figure out as an agronomist is, 02:49 can you put too much sugar on at one time? I don't think you can in the soil, but over the top, I don't know. That's, 02:55 I don't know that I've put a lot of sugar on and we're talking about pounds and I don't know that you can put too much on it one time. You know, I mean, 03:01 it's just gonna affect the pocketbook just about the life. You, we want more passes instead of more pounds. 03:07 I was gonna say, but do you get to where it, you're, you're wasting it because it doesn't get absorbed. It's not saying it's wasting it. You're just, you're not wasting it. 03:13 You're wasting your, you, your, you're use of it, you're window of it, you know? Yeah. So 03:17 It can only use so much at its time. At time. Yeah. Okay. Correct. You know, and it's cheap. I mean, it's, it's, it's a cheap product to use. It's, 03:24 it's a, 'cause you know, everything we talk about extreme ag or concept ATech, you know, it's about a synergistic effect. Yes. You know, it's, 03:30 it's a systematic approach. You know, Gil, Kelly, Kelly Gary talked about a systematic, and that's what this is built into. It's a systems approach. 03:37 Are we, we've been, we've been using it. Now when you've got the products, we didn't use this, we didn't have all any sugar products a couple decades ago. 03:44 Are they with us forever? Are we gonna grow out of 'em because we find another thing that's better Until we increase the, the efficiency of photosynthesis, Uhhuh, 03:52 I think they're gonna be become a staple. Even even if you did increase that, you still gotta have the sugar. Yeah. I mean, it's part of the, 03:58 it's part of the post process and by adding more sugar to the system, you're essentially easing, easing some things on that plant. So, 04:05 so all I'm waiting on, since you got the sugar part figured out, is the sunlight and the jug when you get to that. I gotcha. He says, 04:12 well, and I, I want to hit two on forms of sugar. Okay. Right. There's a lot of different options out there as a co as companies go. Okay. 04:18 Concept agritech focused on a molasses, sugarcane, molasses, black strapp molasses. It's cold processed, so it still has bacteria in it, 04:26 stuff. It still has a biological component to it. It hasn't been pasteurized, which basically heated up. And why, why do they do that? 04:33 It's to keep it from growing. Yeah. Essentially. Okay. So, So this one then when you get, 04:38 when you get the tote and you don't crack the lid on and it sits in the sun, you'll see her kind of Yeah. We still have that, uh, 04:44 all still have that control. Sure. I Got, I got a neighbor let's say, and, uh, he, uh, doesn't put, uh, sugar on. Uh, and because, you know, just hasn't quite decided to start doing this. 04:54 There's probably still plenty of people that don't. Right? Yeah, Absolutely. Oh, 04:57 I mean, so, so give Me, don't you say 25% of the farmers use it? Oh, I don't think 10%, 10 or 15% at best. 05:02 Alright, so give the, gimme the, the five give. I'm gonna start next year. I've really sold Derek and, and Chad made me think about this. 05:10 I'm probably leaving some yield on the table, not because I can point to just sugar making the yield. It's, you said it's got the er effect with other stuff. 05:17 So let's look at it from my angle as a farmer and then I'll let Derrick speak on his name. My angle as farmer is we're putting a lot, 05:21 let's say we're going a herbicide patch, right? It's a cushion, it's a safe nut. It's a buffer if you feel buffer. Yes. It, 05:28 it helps in all those modes of action. You know, so that's why a lot of times I use it in that application. Okay, I'm gonna use it with a fungicide. Right. I'm gonna use it as a sticker. Yeah. 05:36 All right. So that's why we're using it with a fungicide. I'm gonna use it late, you know, maybe not these products, but a sugar product. 05:42 And with my irrigation system at the end, I'm using it to feed, photosynthesis to feed. So it's, it's the molasses face type deal. 05:49 So there's different, you can't say, oh, it's gonna help with this one thing. Correct. 05:52 It's whatever application on the farmer's side is where I fit into that piece of the sugar. Yeah. Uh, absolutely. Like we'll start in furrow typically, 06:00 or two by two simply to try to stimulate microbial activity. You know, what we're kind of finding is we don't need to be putting four or five gallons 06:07 of phosphorus in furrow. You know, we, we need to cut that back a little bit. Let's, let's try to get more, more work going on from our soil microbes, which 06:13 Then makes you think, can you, you need to talk about a lot reapportioning. So lemme get 06:16 This straight. We're gonna quit putting out fertilizer. Yeah. And we're gonna make less money with sugar, 06:20 but we're at least we're telling the truth right here. Well, and and like you mentioned earlier that I agree with you a hundred percent, 06:24 one pass of sugar by itself is not gonna give you a big yield bump. You've gotta have it incorporated into your entire system. 06:30 But what are you using it for? You're using it to buffer salts, nitrogen applications. Our sweet success product, in my opinion it is, 06:38 is stronger at buffering salts than maybe even a humic acid is. Okay. So, you know, it just depends what we're trying to do. 06:44 That's why I'm totes of sweet bull. Yeah. That's, that's where I'm, yep. Alright. So 06:50 I was gonna say for the person that's gonna start dabbling in this, and it's gonna start using sugar. So the thing is, 06:54 your recommendation is I'm gonna start next year. 'cause I, most people don't. What do I need to know? 06:59 Well, for me, if I was starting, I would definitely start, if you have infer two by two and a plant, I'd start with a platter. Okay. 07:04 I'm definitely, there's, there's good there. Start with a platter. Okay. If you don't have that, we're gonna start with a first herbicide pass. 07:11 Get you one feel and make the whatever patch you make, add that little bit of sugar. We're looking at a dollar an acre, $2. I mean, it's cheap guys. I mean it's just, and 07:20 Sugar goes in in furrow and gives you a bump or goes on foliar and gives you a bump. So you can use it a lot. It's very versatile. Very 07:27 Versatile. Very, it's gonna sweet. Success is also labeled as a, as a drift reducing agent. 07:32 So if you're applying it with DIC cam or anything like that, it Actually might be able to help two birds with one Stu 07:37 Like Chad mentioned, you know, it's a sticker, you know, So you say start with, if you can do it in Forrow, 07:42 if you can't then go with your first herbicide pass and start putting your toe in there. And then for the person that's gonna start next year, uh, three, four, 07:49 you use it all the time. Fungicide pass, do it again. Fungicides. Yeah. 07:52 But that's where like sweet fulvic is a better fit when you start talking about herbicide and fungicide applications. So 07:56 That's my last question. Is there, is there a right sugar for the right time and a wrong sugar for the wrong time? There's 08:00 Never a, I don't think there's a wrong sugar for the wrong time. Really? Now you may not get as much quality or No, no. Chad, 08:06 now if you're going and buying a 50 pound bag from Sam's Club, do not go to Sam's and buy that. They will follow you home and you're gonna get, 08:14 get talking along. Oh, I thought we were making whiskey still. That's what I'm talking about. We're gonna get talk law. All right. But I mean, 08:19 let's, let's talk about that one second. So at Sam, let's say we went to Sam's Club. How much stronger is your uncut sugar than Sam's Club? Well, 08:27 the biggest problem is that's dextro sugar. That's the largest sugar molecule there is. It's very difficult to get in the plant if you're flying it to the soil. 08:35 Actually, I think there's some competitors out there who's got some data on, on dextro supply to the soil being good. That's fine. At what X though? 08:41 Well that's, I'm pretty sure that it will be 10 eggs. And we're talking about bricks leveling our products. That's something ask the question is, what is the bricks level of your product? 08:50 Okay, what is the sugar content? What am I actually getting? How many, how many ounces or how many, many, 08:55 Or and this goes to why the wrong stuff might, it might be the wrong thing. And the reason to be the wrong thing is because it's the wrong 08:59 Place. Okay. We're still gonna lean towards the molasses side of it. It like, take something like a sweet fulvic that's gonna be more of a foliar application 09:07 typically. 'cause fulvic acid will help drive things in the plant as well. So you're kind of killing two birds with one stone. 09:12 I like to think about it as giving, you're playing a little shot of Snickers. Okay. Okay. 09:16 So the the answer on the wrong is you can harm yourself. Not very much. You can't, you're not gonna harm yourself too much. You, 09:22 You just, and then you gotta find a way to use it. Like if you go to there, you, it won't, it won't be this. All, all their stuff is, is easy, easy of use. 09:29 It works, you know, you can't just dump sugar. I'm not sure about dumping Sam's sugar in a tank. My sprayer and how it's gonna, I don't know how that's gonna fake. You know, 09:37 The talking sugars. That's, that's Derek Couture with concept tag. That's Chad Henderson. 09:42 I'm David Mason coming at you from the Farm Progress Show, talking about the sweets, sugar, more great stuff@extremeag.farm. 09:49 Till next time.

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