Sustainable Farming Practices Boost ROI with Foliar Applications
6 Sep 243m 8s

Kelly Garrett from XtremeAg visits John Torrance in Gladstone, Illinois, to discuss sustainable farming practices. They focus on the use of NKBS from Meristem as a foliar application to balance nitrogen and micronutrients, which has shown positive results in both corn and soybeans. John highlights the importance of supplementing plants during high nutrient demand stages, rather than relying solely on early fertilizer applications. This approach has helped cut down on synthetic fertilizers, proving both sustainable and profitable, with a noticeable ROI.

This video includes paid sponsors of XtremeAg.farm. The views & opinions expressed in this video are those of XtremeAg.farm and are based solely on the experiences of the XtremeAg team. The use of brand names and/or any mention or listing of specific products or services herein is solely for educational purposes and does not imply endorsement by XtremeAg.

00:00 Is Kelly Garrett from Extreme Ag. I'm here with John Torrance of Gladstone, Illinois. John is an affiliate of extreme ag. 00:05 I was in the area today, so we stopped and looked. We've been driving around looking at his farm. His beans look nice. The corn looks nice. 00:11 The number one thing I notice is it's flat. It's not like my hills in Western Iowa. I keep saying it, but holy cow. 00:17 It looks like I would like to run the combine here and let John run the combine at my place. John, you probably don't have a 00:23 hillco on your combine, do you? I don't, yes. We have a hillco on our combine. Combine. Do you even know what a hillco is? 00:27 I do. I'd love to run one. Just you'd love To run one time run. It feels like you're on a boat sometimes. Yeah, I bet it 00:31 Does. Yeah. You know, John is asking me one of the things that we do to, to talk about nitrogen efficiency and things like that. 00:37 What we do is we're always trying to talk about the balance. You know, Mike Evans, my agro side, the balance of the plant 00:43 and looking at this soil muscato Yes. Is the soil type and the organic matter that's in it. You know, we've not verified this yet, 00:50 but we're talking about taking a SAP test to see how much nitrogen is available. And John, I bet there's a lot I looking at the corn, 00:57 looking at the soil, looking at the organic matter. I can't imagine how much nitrogen is being mineralized here. And you're using NKBS from meristem, correct. 01:05 As a foliar application. And I would tell you what you're doing in my opinion, is you're balancing that crop with the nitrogen. 01:12 You know, a lot of times in sustainable regenerative agriculture, we talk about nitrogen over application. That's true. But it is, it, it's not a complete statement. 01:21 Nitrogen is being over applied relative to the micronutrients, but you're putting those on with 01:25 NKBS. What results do you see? Uh, so positive, you know, obviously, or we wouldn't be doing it or you 01:31 Wouldn't do it. Yeah, yeah. Um, it's, you're getting an ROI, Right? Absolutely. Yep. 01:34 I can't tell you exactly what that number is. You know, hybrid, hybrid field to field is different, but we really like it 01:40 because it's a nice balanced micro pack. We all know that when this corn or beans are really surging, 01:45 they can't pull enough nutrients in on their own. They can't. We have to, we have to balance the plant, supplement the plant, because I don't believe all 01:52 of the potential you've got here can't come up through the root system. You've gotta supplement foliar. 01:56 Right, exactly. We feel like it checks a lot of boxes for us. It's a great product. There's no mixing issues, 02:01 so we just really like it and we use it, uh, on corn and beans both. And, and so then, uh, in my opinion, 02:07 what you're doing is very sustainable because you're balancing the nitrogen, you're assimilating the nitrogen 02:12 and you're increasing efficiency. And ROI on your farm, that's what it's all about. We really like the foliar application of MKBS. 02:19 Uh, you know, in the R stages, obviously, that's when the nutrient demand is the highest. And, uh, we just feel like we really need 02:24 to help supplement and feed that plant. And, uh, that's the most efficient way to do it. Why try to, you know, 02:30 apply more dry fertilizer if the plant's not gonna take it up anyway? Well, I agree. You know, uh, when 02:34 I was a kid, uh, you know, we started farming 25 years ago. We just front loaded everything 02:38 and then you just hope for the best. And now, you know, we we're cutting back on those early dollars and we're applying these foliar things in the R stages 02:45 and we see a big ROI from it every year. And it's sustainable because we're cutting back on that bulk synthetic NP and K 02:52 and we're treating the plants. So we're being sustainable, regenerative and ratting to an ROI at the same time. 02:58 Uh, that's what the goal of farming is these days. I it's, it's changed a lot. Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you.

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