NEBRASKA | Jbneb - 1/23/2025 19:53
A couple questions for you:
I have been told if you have higher cec soil (15+) or higher organic matter (2.5+) humic won't show much without using way more than would be economically feasible. I assume they think there is plenty of humic type matter in a 20 cec soil that has 4% Om, so an application won't do much? Your thoughts?
Also heard to make a humic better, you raise the ph so that it will hold more humic content. The downfall is when that is mixed with something neutral or more acidic, that extra then falls out of suspension. Blackmax is noted for that right along with a few others I have used. I think you showed your product being an 8.6 ph, is that an issue you have when it gets tank mixed?
I assume between the strip till and planter use that you have done on your field that you have done a lot of side by sides. Across all of those side by sides what kind of yield bump are you seeing when you use the 5 gallons that you talk about?
You have talked about all of the nutrients that are freed up and more easily accessed by the plant. The theory being that you can use less fertilizer bc of this. While I agree that is a good thing, if there is no yield bump along with that, doesn't that just mean I'm giving $40 to a humic company instead of $40 to the fertilizer guy? Where does the farmer get ahead in that setup?
A) my guess is a company that sells fertilizer told you that about OM and CEC. As you can see from my soil tests that my OM 3.1 is and CEC is 19.2. I see great results and have seen better results each year. What I don’t buy anymore is fertilizer
B) I have never heard the theory of raising pH to make a higher % Humic. However there is a limit to what can be held in suspension. Higher % Humic does not make it better, it only causes more fallout due to more being in it. It does not make it more effective. Look at cost per % of Humic, then look at usability, then go with works best for your operation.
C)the biggest misnomer with any product on a farm is “no yield increase= doesn’t work”. This is not the way to look at most products, but especially Humic acid.
1) Humic acid frees up nutrients that have been unavailable in the soil.
if your normal corn recommendation for your yield projection calls for 60 lbs of P and 20lbs of K, and 5 lbs of S, plus zinc, etc…. And this cost is X
AND by spending $40 per acre on Humic ( which I do on my farm) frees up this nutrients so I don’t have to buy from my retailer… then you take what that cost is X would have been ( easily $60/ acre) then you are already $20 ahead.
SO, that means that there is no need for a yield bump in this situation order for you to come out ahead. And I am by no means not saying you couldn’t have a yield bump, but what I am saying that the only thing we can control as farmers is our inputs. There is ZERO reason to buy something that is already available.
The focus needs to be on ROI |