1. Crop growth comes from carbon

   The primary nutrient for crop growth and productivity is not nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium.  By a substantial margin (with the exception of water if we consider that to be a nutrient) the nutrient needed in largest amounts is carbon.

   Although the carbon in the atmosphere may be excessive for climate stability and should be drawn down by cropping systems designed to increase organic matter retention, atmospheric carbon is nowhere near enough to maximize genetic potential.  To grow a robust, healthy, and efficient crop we must have soil biology cycling carbon and greatly increasing the CO2 in and around our growing crops.  

   Nitrogen fertilization shortcuts the natural biological process.  Often, most of the growth response from a nitrogen application comes not from nitrogen uptake by the plants.  Rather it comes from the increased available carbon solubilized in soil by the nitrogen application.  Nitrogen is still an essential nutrient, but with sufficient biology in the soil it's needed in much lower amounts than is typically recommended.

 

 2. Build wealth all year

   Since carbon is the most often limiting nutrient for crop performance it stands to reason that a profitable farm will be successful in increasing the availability of exchangeable carbon.  There's only one feasible way of achieving this; increase photosynthetic capacity!  Photosynthesis is the pump that brings atmospheric carbon home for us to use.  Increasing photosynthetic capacity involves keeping plants growing as much as possible during the year, and fertilizing properly to ensure that mineral nutrition is not limiting our plants photosynthesis.

   As a practical reality, growing for increased carbon capture and long term profitability may mean changing rotations and crops grown to allow for more acres to be covered in crops in the winter and shoulder months.  As an example, few crops have greater carbon capture potential than corn, but in New York grain corn seldom allows for adequate cover cropping and without a living crop through the winter most of the gains are lost.
 

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 3. Manage-Measure-Manage

   A profitable farm measures what they manage, and manages what they measure.  Purchasing mineral fertilizer without measuring needs with soil, sap, and/or dry matter tissue tests, becomes a gamble with poor odds in the farmers favor.  Over application of fertilizer hurts more than the checking account, most mineral nutrient deficiencies are caused by others in excess.  As a general rule profitable farmers will use smaller amounts of better quality fertilizers to enhance microbial life while supplying the crop.

   A profitable farm will be continually running small scale experiments.  Things like microbial inoculants and stimulants can be very cost-effective, but seldom respond exactly the same way on any two different fields.  The bottom line is-you don't know until you try.  There's homework that can and should be done, a system that works most places is more likely to work for you, but if you have the ability to measure results never do something new on the whole field.

 

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 4. Don't fight, synergize

 

 

   Browse through any conventional growers trade publication and what do you see in the ads?  Words like combat, fight, destroy, assault, blast, trigger & spear; lately we’ve noticed a softer approach using terminology like protect and control, but the harsh war-like terms are still in the background.  Who profits from war?  In a broad sense only the manufacturers and merchants of war material make money from combat.  It's no different in the agricultural space, many of the profits go to the manufacture and distribution of the weapons.

   By contrast; on farms with healthy soil, chemical protection and rescue treatments are the exception rather than the rule.  It is not normal for truly healthy plans to be attacked by disease and insect pests.  Weed pressure does not completely go away but becomes much weaker as soil biological life and nutrient balance increases.  The synergy of nature is now well validated in scientific research, although the whole system is seldom put into a practical understanding outside of private companies like AEA.  There may be exceptions even on the healthiest farms where weather and other environmental stressors create the need for rescue chemistry; most farmers are not starting with healthy enough soil to be able to quit such inputs cold-turkey.  The profit-minded farmer must always view pest-negative chemistry as a short-term fix to buy time to produce plant-positive cures.

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 5. Grow for your customers desires

   Profitable farms grow crops and livestock that have profit potential.  This seems like an “oh duh” statement but if you evaluate your neighbors cropping habits you'll find that many of them are trying to make a living growing crops where they have no reasonable competitive advantage.  For example, few places in New York and New England can grow commodity corn and soybeans for the same price as they can be grown in Illinois and Iowa.  That's not to say that we should never grow corn and beans, but it's not smart to compete on the commodity market, the corn and beans we grow here should be marketed for a premium price to local needs.   Organic, food grade for local markets, and in some cases non-GMO can have good profit potential.

   Outside of the commodity markets, our region has growing conditions well-suited for forages and some fruits and vegetables.  Although no one can produce yield and marketable quality more economically than the biological farmer, it's a lot more rewarding to grow product that is in demand by consumers.  Since labor is often the most limiting resource when evaluating new crop opportunities and most farms need to build soil health to optimize profit potential; many farmers should evaluate the possibility of growing a higher value crop on fewer acres, covering the rest with lower intensity forage or cover crops.  Alternatively, value adding with grass raised and pastured livestock is working well for some of our customers.

 

At Cayuga Ag our aim is to provide the best available tools and information support for farmers & growers with the profitable mindset described above.  If any of this resonates with you give us a call to discuss how we can add value to your operation.