Measuring The Results of Biologicals
There are a lot of promises made when it comes to using biologicals, but how do you know if they are actually working? And what exactly are they working on? Damian digs in with the folks from
Holganix
, and looks at crop and soil responses in order to answer one BIG question: Are These Biologicals Really Doing Anything?
00:00 Previous video we addressed the questions that you have asked us about biologicals. Do they work? What are they, why do I need them? 00:07 When do I apply them? What if I just wanna start dabbling with using biologicals? Will we address that in a previous video? And you know what, 00:13 in this video we're gonna talk about actual measuring. It's neat to talk about these cool things. Oh yeah. It enhances earthworm activity. It creates more porosity. 00:22 But what does it actually mean to you and your bottom line? Well now we're gonna go to the tailgate. 00:25 We're gonna look at the testing cuz there's three kinds of testing that happened out here. First looking at the field, secondly, looking at plants. Thirdly, 00:31 look at the actual soil analysis. That's what we're gonna do in this video. So the first test is a walk in the field. 00:38 The second test is bringing the shovel out. You're the shovel man. You dug up stuff. Tell us what we dug. Mike Windrow, 00:43 you helped him get the right samples cuz there is a lab going on here at Garrett Land and Cattle. 00:47 Keith's Mike Windrow works alongside Kelly Garrett as an agronomist. You did a lab out here. We're doing it with organics. What are you showing me? 00:54 And where do we get these plants from? So yeah, we've got a lab out here. We went off our John Deere monitor so we knew where the lab was. So treated, 01:02 untreated. We walked out to the line I, and when we got out there, I said, I'm gonna go six rows and go 10 plants down that way. It was just even that way. 01:10 All the plants were, I, we weren't picking them. Yeah. So we, we walked out six rows high counted 10 said Dig this plant. He dug it. 01:19 Did that on the treated side. And here's our difference. And the product we put out here was what? 01:24 Organic Bio. Bio. Okay. Organic bio went in that time of planting. Yep. It's an inferral biological, it was an 01:30 Inferral. That's for him was an inferral. Okay. That plant. What Do you think then when we look at this wing grove, 01:35 you're the agro agronomic guy. And then Chad, I want you to tell me your thoughts. Uh, this is the treated side. This is the control side. I'm looking at these roots. 01:43 Obviously we got more roots over here. We got bigger roots, we got bigger stalks. This is what they want us to see. 01:48 Is there anything I'm missing that maybe a person like you that's a farmer looks at? 01:52 Well, I mean you wouldn't think it to look at it with eye, but there it's the same growth stage. I mean when you just glance it, 01:58 oh well look like, like it's whole leaf behind it, you know? Yeah. But it's not there at the same growth stage. That's impressive. 02:03 And then the next thing is, like I said, the stalk diameter. We really like the stalk diameter. These, I mean, 02:07 there's nothing wrong with this plant. I mean, if you had a whole fill pull these, you'd be like, oh yeah, I'm good right there. Look at the roots this there, why 02:12 Nice roots on these controls. But, But when we look at the others, there's more the, the, the brace st. Bra roots really stick out to us as well. 02:19 Okay. Sometimes too many brace roots mean that we got compaction. Wingrow. Is this indicative of, of compaction or is it just doing those addition to that? 02:28 So your brace roots are gonna be your stabilizer for the stock. Um, what what's impressive about the control versus the treated is the longer roots. 02:36 I mean we're, this is obviously no compaction. We're down through the compaction layer. We're getting down to more nutrient available nutrients that are lower up here. 02:46 We're, we're higher on the soil, so we're going to have the nutrients up higher. Obviously it's been dry all spring. 02:54 These are reaching for more moisture and that's gonna make your plant be bigger, stronger. Um, as you can see, like Chad said, they're difference in sizes. 03:03 They're at the same growth stage. A lot of that is coming from the roots that are getting to the moisture and the nutrients. 03:09 Brian Moore fell to the previous video. We said you were kind of the skeptical farmer and you are an Iowa, Iowa farmer yourself. You're also now a dealer for organics. 03:17 If you'd have dug these up before you were a user, you'd say there's nothing wrong with that corn plant looks. Absolutely. No. Would've thought that. 03:23 So how you got this, but here's the thing. Where do you think the benefit is? Is it a year like this, the moisture? Is it the porosity? Is it the, you know, 03:30 is it, is ease. Ease of, uh, breaking up compaction? What's the thing that you think is the biggest payback on starting to dabble in organics? 03:37 I think, uh, one of the biggest things is compaction. You know, given that plant the opportunity to rot down, 03:43 and especially on a dry year like this with not a lot of moisture, we're still rotting down, getting down that moisture. Chad, 03:49 You're, uh, which I said we're doing this test, the first test is going out in a field and walking it. Second test, taking the shovel and pulling up plants. Third test, 03:55 we're gonna actually look at the soil samples and the data and the analytics when you look at first thing in the field. Secondly, this, 04:00 what do you see that maybe I don't, I'm with, I'm with Brian on that. You know, I mean, it's just a, the availability to pick up more nutrients and pick up more moisture from the 04:10 longer root system with the organics is gonna be impressive. And every year, you know, you don't know. I mean, 04:15 it could be moisture this year or it could be compaction next year. You know, every year is a new battle. So it's like, okay, 04:21 I'm gonna fight compaction all the time. No, no. It's, it's fighting whatever is not normal to the plant or to the ground. And since the purpose of this video is talking about actually measuring results 04:29 of biologicals, are you measuring the results of biological at your place in the same fashion that I just said? First off, the eyeball test the walk test the dig test, Evan. 04:38 Is that what you're doing? Yep. You know, we're always in the field looking, walking and checking, you know, and you know, I'm, you know, 04:43 these folks is pretty rough on some folks trying to make a bunch of corn. You know, I mean, it, they take a shovel and I mean, 04:47 we should just start digging plants. You know, it's hard to make a ear coin when it's laying back here in the back of the truck, you know? But no, I mean, I understand why we're doing it. You know, 04:54 we have a good time with it. But, uh, but no, we, you, you have to, uh, verify what's going on out in 05:00 The field. Well that's the good part, what we're doing here, extreme ag. And I wanna tell you this, dear viewer and listener, 05:04 we're all about measuring results. You know, it's cool to dig in and see somebody's promotional video about, hey, we can help you three more bushels here. Add this, add this. 05:11 We're doing some data, data analytics here, and we're actually gonna give you the numbers you can use to make your decision whether it's time for you to start using biologicals in your farm. 05:19 Up next we're going to the actual data of the soil analytics. So I'm with Mike Batson, he's a sales agronomist on the with, uh, organics. 05:27 And we're talking about actually measuring the analytics of the soil, uh, by using this product. So it's kind of impressive. 05:33 You got basically a little miniature lab set up in the back of your truck. Mike, tell us what you're doing here. Okay, 05:37 We're running a microbiome test. It's microbiome meter and what I've got, I've got the control where there's no wholeganics from out in the field. 05:45 And then I've also got where we had, uh, the bio 800 product and we mix, uh, just regular water with a, uh, solvent solution powder that, 05:55 uh, breaks down the fungi and bacteria, breaks it loose from the soil particle. Right. And then we can measure that and 06:02 Okay, what are these little things around here? What Do wets Okay. And what do We mix it 06:06 In with that? Okay, once the test is done, it takes, once it's all mixed up, it takes about 20 minutes to run the test, right? 06:11 We'll take three drops and we place it on this medium here. Yep. And right in the center. 06:16 And then we've got an app on the iPad with an algorithm that, uh, runs the calculations for us. And then it, uh, 06:24 makes a PDF file that we can share with customers and keep it as a tracking device to see if we're increasing or, you know, in the future. 06:32 Mr. Batson, you do me a favor. We, we shot you in the field with the soil probe and then after you take the soil probe out, you take actual soil, but then you stick uh, wand down there. Yes. 06:41 Tell me about that device right there. I thought that was pretty cool. You bet. This is a Chrysler lab, uh, soil probe and basically what you do take 06:48 This thing off. Yeah. So you're wiping it down. Yeah. The first thing you do is find out where you're gonna go. Yeah. And then you take a regular core out, 06:54 just like you would normally send it off to a lab. I understand. And then what we're gonna do then is take our soil probe here, put it, 07:01 put it in, and we, it's got the depth on here. I saw you shoved it up to about, you shoved it about six and a half inches, I think 07:06 It was 6, 8, 10 on up. And then once we've got it in there, we make sure the hole is covered up so it's saw that's dark and then we push the 07:14 button and it basically runs a calculation on the test. It's just like getting a soil test in your field and it does everything. You have to put it in the bag and sends the lab out. 07:24 We do that to check it from time to time and to calibrate it. But once that's done, uh, the algorithm continues to build and it just, 07:31 the more you use it, the better results you get out of it. So we've taken about 800 to a thousand so far this spring, 07:38 between three of us with three different probes. Okay. And uh, basically what we're doing is, uh, checking the NP and K or organic matter, uh, 07:46 ccs, the trace elements like boron, manganese, molybdenum, uh, zinc and sulfur. 07:52 And the real benefit here, we're gonna Brian Hansel who's with organics. The benefit here is that you are doing this against a control. I mean, correct. 07:59 You know, you say okay, this is just soil sampling, but it's not soil sampling just to do soil sampling. It's soil sampling where you did your treatment using a, 08:07 a biological versus where you did not. That's correct. To see if we do increase all those things. Yes. It's not gonna change the n P and K. That's correct. It's not, 08:13 it's not gonna change your CECs, is it? Well There's, we've got some data that shows over time. Uh, we've got growers that's been using our product for over six years and they are 08:23 moving it and we've also had That organic matter also Also in the turf mix. So using biologicals we think can enhance CEC count and can bring up, 08:32 uh, organic matter. Absolutely that percentage. Okay. What else are we gonna possibly see? Cuz I wanna look at those numbers here in a second. Brian, what else? 08:38 What we see that the viewer listener right now is going, okay, wow, this is pretty cool. What, what more are we that I'm not even thinking of? 08:44 I mean, I think the couples, yeah, I think the bulk density is a big conversation. So I know if you, if you look at consistently and we were just talking about this, you, 08:51 you're with the farmer so many times you're walking across the field and they're like, I can tell this soil is more open. Yep. Right? So there's a, 08:57 that sense of it cuz it's softer when you dig in it, when you, you probe at it, you can tell the difference and 09:01 Bulk wins the mike for the first one. It's like going, wait a minute man, I'm, I'm an amateur agronomist. I'm I'm new in this farming game means it's 09:07 Basically a test to show us what our compaction levels are. So bulk density means poor space. If you've got more porosity, 09:14 you've got a less, it's a lesser bulk density. And you say, I'm not sure that's good it is because it's under 09:19 Rain. So if you get a good rain and you get that inch and it comes a little fast, you're ready to absorb it because being, 09:24 cause they're running down in the ditch because it's not Packed down. So bulk density, you want to be low And are those numbers, 09:30 I mean I don't remember reading about this and you know, uh, the old days about bulk density, is this a newer thing? 09:36 It's always been there but it's on the forefront now. It's Come, we're thinking about it, we didn't need to think about it. Okay. 09:41 Key thing here just to understand what we're testing here is the amount of bioactivity or soil, 09:45 total amount of activity and the other is how much bacteria versus the larger bugs, the fungi and the produce. So we show as a ratio. 09:52 So what we've spawned a lot and even this great Iowa dirt, we see a lot of 80% bacteria, 20% fungi ratios. Yep. 09:59 And what we can show with our product is we're consistently moving that number on the fungi up. You want 10:03 More, you want More fungi to bacteria. The relationship core For prop and fields today is bacteria dominance. We have too much bacteria. 10:10 They eat your inputs but isolated from your plant. You need to release those. And big bugs are the ones that actually turn over the nutrients. 10:16 So you need a higher ratio of big bugs and that's what's missing. Got It. We want more fungi or So up next the numbers we're gonna be giving you the 10:23 numbers that we just pulled with Mike's analysis. Now we're at the fourth step of measuring the effectiveness of the biologicals. I've got Brian and Mike here. You saw us obviously the field. 10:35 You saw us the back of a tailgate. Saw Mike with his mini lamb and no he was not cooking meth. It was actually doing soil and alert. 10:42 Show me what we got here because I'm thinking this is pretty cool. This was the normal stuff we've got and calcium and all that. 10:48 I would get that Leno normal soil sample. Right. But you did it in real time. Well within about a half hour of it. Going to a sideline going back, correct. 10:55 Yeah. And so again, this is where in that field we went into control and we did four samples and consolidated it and we went into where we had a organic and did the same thing. 11:04 And the very first thing that jumps off the page is that we already have a measurable difference. It's been down four weeks. 11:09 Our bulk density is actually lower where the whole organic sit. So Bone density is this line right here. Yeah. Bone density means again, 11:15 we're creating a more force space cuz the less dense it is, the more ferocity we have for this number is 1.17 grams per cubic centimeter and 11:22 Our 1.14 with organics. It doesn't seem like a huge difference. Mike, should I still be excited with Yes. One point. What's ever the 1.14? 11:30 Yes. Yes and no. We're all looking for a home run. There's no such thing as a home run. But we are moving the needle and over time we can track this and we have tracked 11:39 this and past we've got farms that's had it on five to six years and we're moving with the knee. 11:45 You talked about the difference, uh, that we can make with biologicals of moving the fungi to bacteria ratio. Actually Brian brought that up and I didn't realize most soils are Abe of 11:54 bacteria, lymph fungi. He said, well real is about 50 to 50. So we did use a needle on that in just four weeks of utilizing by last. Yes. 12:02 We've got a test called microbiome and uh, we basically show where we have the bio 800. All right, uh, at or 363, uh, 12:13 is the living organisms that we have in the soil versus 2 93. So we've increased the number of living organisms and then show me that fungi of 12:21 bacteria, okay. On where the bio 800 is, where it's 61% bacteria, 39% fungi, and on where the control is, where it's 65 bacteria and 35%. Okay. 12:32 So we're starting to make some movement on that in four weeks time. What does your experience tell you? I mean, are we, 12:38 are we gonna keep that ThinLine moving? Insistently? I think the beauty of our role of the fire right, is to continue to document the journey. Cuz rebuild your soil takes time. 12:46 It took a while to break it. Now it's gonna take a while with all the backup, but if we're measuring it and seeing the progress, you'll see it in the planet, 12:52 right? But more importantly here, we can see season to season so we can make a better decisions. Cla Got bulk density. 12:57 I got the fungi bacteria ratio and then the other one EU fo out, uh, organic matter. Is there a movement or we really are jumping? You got, 13:04 did we expect a little bit of that take? It takes a Year to rebuild organic matter, but the only thing that builds organic matter is buds eating organic material 13:11 and we're building the population of buds. And that's already, we're already showing that trend. 13:15 Got it. So if you're skeptical about, uh, biologicals and many of you are and we were too, this is the next step where we're just not talking about, oh, you know, 13:23 throw it out here. Even if you weren't bushels, we can get some roots. We've shown you the field, we've shown you the roots, 13:27 we've shown you the lab and the methods of testing and now we're showing you what we actually got back for our met with the testing, the measurements. 13:34 So anyway, these Mike, he's Brian. Stay tuned for more great stuff here. Extreme ag working with, uh, 13:39 companies like organics on biologicals at measuring the effective outcome that you can get farming using them on your farm.
Growers In This Video
See All GrowersChad Henderson
Madison, AL