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Base saturation, in my opinion, should be agronomy 1 0 1 for a farmer or an agronomist.
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And I don't believe that is, and that is a little alarming to me. So this winter, as you're studying your soil test
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and looking at your 26 crop, I would encourage you to become more educated on what base saturation means on your farm if you're not,
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if it isn't something you're proficient at. I'm specifically referring to a conversation on X that I was involved in with my friend Gavin Spore, Missouri.
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Gavin, uh, Gavin posted, uh, a thank you to me and said that, uh, he appreciated my suggestion of using a heavy rate of ammonium sulfate on, on some
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of his acres, uh, and, and how good the corn looked all year. And I, I don't specifically remember
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what Gavin's base saturation was, but he, he had some trouble. I don't remember if the mag or the cow was high,
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but what it was, and it was tying up the phosphate and, uh, it was also limiting the availability of the potassium.
00:01:05
The ammonium sulfate unlocked both of those. And, uh, just to make sure everybody understood, when I responded to Gavin
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and told him I appreciated the kind words, I said, everyone needs to understand that we're not looking at the sulfur in the ammonium sulfate application as fertility.
00:01:21
It was a soil amendment and if somebody pushed back because they didn't understand that, and, and so I'd like to explain obviously, sulfur's fertility,
00:01:30
but in this case that that sulfur to me is a soil amendment. When the hydrogen atom breaks apart the calcium phosphate
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bond or the magnesium phosphate bond, the sulfur becomes the most attractive thing to the calcium or magnesium, depending on what your problem is.
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And it's because of the molecular way to the sulfur. Um, the cal of the mag will be attracted to it relative to the phosphate.
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So if we put out a heavy dose of ammonium sulfate and by def to define heavy, it could be two, three, or even 400 pounds.
00:02:03
It depends on how far out of balance or off your base saturation is. It will very much amend the soil.
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Um, I've seen soils before where the, the Kinsey lab has said it would take a thousand pounds of sulfur to get that soil back to a perfect state.
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So please don't think three or 400 pounds of ammonium sulfate. While it sounds like a lot, it's really not 400 pounds
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of ammonium sulfate. It equates to 92 pounds of sulfate going into the soil, again, relative to a potential needed of a thousand.
00:02:35
It's not a lot, but it will make a big difference in your soil. You will see an economic return,
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which is truly what we're after. It will really help solve your problem. And so the reason that I say that, that sulfur is not viewed
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as fertility is because when it combines with the mag or the cow, I don't know that any of that sulfur, I sure would not figure on it ever being available
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to the plant because it's tied up the way the phosphate will. You're putting that sulfur out there to be held hostage
00:03:04
by the mag of the cow and to allow the phosphate to become available. And so when you do this, um, depending on
00:03:11
how bad your phosphate problem is, you potentially don't need to put out any phos. It's in your soil. It's locked up into a savings account,
00:03:19
and now it's being released. So again, the reason that I say the sulfur's not fertility is because it's replacing the phosphorus in that compound in
00:03:29
that molecule, and it will become unavailable later on in the season. You potentially need to address your sulfur needs
00:03:36
with a foliar application. That is why I say the sulfur is not viewed as fertility. 00:03:42.075 --> 00:03:43.725