00:00 Spring of 24 is odd. It's wet. That, uh, that's a strange thing for us. So we're able to spend some time in the office going 00:06 through paperwork and research and looking at soil tests. And one of the things that I feel that Mike Evans 00:12 and I have validated here on our farm is the amount of nitrogen that is being produced by the biological system of the soil. 00:18 We take a lot of time and we're committed to having as great a soil health as we can, and that that's an ongoing education, 00:25 ongoing research to, to really define what soil health means and what we have validated about the amount 00:32 of nitrogen being produced is pretty fascinating. In theory. We really don't even need to put nitrogen on because the soil produces enough nitrogen 00:40 to provide us a corn crop, but that doesn't really start until the soil warms up. Like, you know, say the 1st of July. 00:47 So we had a nitrogen trial last year, sixty, a hundred twenty, a hundred eighty, two hundred forty pounds of nitrogen. 00:53 They all yielded within five bushel of each other, you know, so what does that tell you about the amount of nitrogen 00:58 that we are applying synthetically? It's we're way over applying. We also had another test in there. 01:02 It was zero zero pounds of synthetic nitrogen. That was by far the worst. It was like $150 negative per acre. 01:09 So we clearly need some synthetic nitrogen to get us to when the soil warms up. And that biological system really starts cranking, 01:17 which I said is approximately the 1st of July, give or take, depending on the year. We've also started SAP testing on our farm. 01:23 We feel that SAP testing gives us better data than tissue sampling for a couple reasons. Number one, it talks about the type of nitrogen 01:30 that's in the plant and how much of the nitrogen we are assimilating. And when I say is simulating, 01:35 I mean using it isn't just stored in the plant for excess vegetative growth. It's actually going towards yield. 01:40 American agriculture does a great job of producing a very sexy looking vegetative crop. We're trying to produce a reproductive crop. 01:47 There's a real difference there. And to understand that difference, we need good soil test data, 01:51 and I feel we need good SAP testing data as well, just because it's a micronutrient versus a macronutrient. Even The most important macronutrient 02:00 is what everybody feels. Nitrogen micronutrients are just as important. It takes the right balance of micronutrients to work 02:07 with the nitrogen, to assimilate it A plant, uh, you know, for, in this example, a corn plant takes micronutrients, 02:14 makes amino acids to convert the nitrogen to protein. When we don't have enough micronutrients to produce enough amino acids to handle all of the nitrogen 02:21 that the plant has, whether it's synthetic or soil applied, the crop is out of balance and we're not reaching our potential, we're wasting dollars. 02:29 Why put on all that synthetic nitrogen if you're not gonna provide their micronutrients to process it all, 02:33 to assimilate it all? So that's the kind of information that we're getting from the SAP testing. And when we work from the folks with agro liquid, 02:40 we like their products. We like their micronutrients because they're sulfate based. They're micro 500 and micro 1000 products. 02:46 Those are the kind of products that we look at using to balance the crop. And when I say balance the crop, 02:52 I mean provide the correct amount of micronutrients to use with the nitrogen that the soil is 02:57 providing. This application Of micronutrients is not a one-time shot. It needs to be spoonfed throughout the year. 03:02 That's what our webinar is about tonight as I record this video, spoon feeding the soil is slowly releasing this organic 03:10 nitrogen where we also need to slowly apply the micronutrients. Last year, we made three passes with the airplane 03:15 to supply the correct amount of micronutrients, and we were looking at our SAP test data. We're looking at what we needed to apply, 03:22 what we are getting from the soil, what we needed to supplement, and providing the right recipe of mixtures, providing the right recipe of nutrition. 03:29 Soil test data is very, very important to know the amount of nitrogen being released 03:34 so we can provide the right cocktail, if you will, of micronutrients to let our corn crop reach potential.