Conventional organic farming involves a long list of what you are not allowed to do. There is barely a word about how to produce high quality crops, more profitably.
Mainstream farming is about pushing yield with increasing amounts of fertilisers and treating problems with an expanding array of farm chemicals.
Nutrition Farming®, by contrast, is all about how to grow good food, profitably and sustainably.
Here, the emphasis is upon achieving maximum health and resilience for the soil, plants, livestock, people and the planet.
It is a truly holistic strategy with a hard science-based, pragmatic focus where the goal is to address the root cause of the problem rather than the ongoing treatment of symptoms.
Here are four reasons why Nutrition Farming is the shape of the future
- The world is awakening to the desperate need for soil restoration.
- We have just 60 years remaining with functional soils, at the current rate of topsoil loss. Nutrition Farming focuses on the role of minerals, microbes and carbon in restoring, retaining and creating topsoil.
- We are what we eat and what we eat comes from soils that are often a shadow of their former selves.
- Humus stores all minerals and houses the microbes that deliver these minerals while protecting the plant from pests. Stable humus also stores carbon and keeps it out of the atmosphere for 35 years (reducing global warming). Nutrition Farming is about building humus.
- Nutrition Farming involves much better management of N, P and K, the most widely used farm minerals.
- Phosphate has peaked and will rise in price from here on in. Nitrogen is sadly mismanaged (agriculture contributes 80% of nitrous oxide contamination to the atmosphere) and potassium is a finite resource, the costs of which are also destined to increase.
- Life is short and you need to be passionate about your chosen profession. Nutrition Farmers rapidly reclaim that pleasure factor when they discover how to work with nature rather than against her.
Seven steps to becoming a Nutrition Farmer
The most common response after attending NTS training is “where do I start?”
Here are the seven steps that will change the way you farm and rekindle the passion, pleasure and profit in your profession.
Don’t drive blind
NTS offers Soil Therapy™ (detailed soil analysis and programing suggestions) and Plant Therapy™ (leaf analysis and suggested correctives) to ensure that there is some precision in your crop and soil nutrition.
Provide a kickstart
Provide a kickstart seed treatment with an advanced mineral/bio-stimulant formula like Seed-Start™, costs less than $2/ha and will be one of your best investments.
Seedlings can be treated with formulas like Root & Shoot™ and both seed and seedlings can be inoculated with a combination of mycorrhizal fungi and Trichoderma in Platform® to boost growth and resilience.
This kickstart is like mother’s milk for the young plant and is inexpensive insurance to help ensure a productive season.
Magnify everything
All fertiliser inputs in the soil or on the leaf can be substantially magnified with humates.
These multi-purpose inputs have been shown to increase nutrient uptake by one-third by increasing cell sensitisation (making the cell wall more permeable).
Include NTS Soluble Humate Granules™ with granular fertilisers at a rate of 5%. Fulvic acid, as ready to use NTS Fast Fulvic™ or NTS Fulvic Acid Powder™ as a D.I.Y. liquid, should be combined with all foliars.
Humates are also powerful natural chelating agents and they stimulate beneficial biology in the soil and on the leaf.
Discover foliar feeding
Foliar fertilising offers a dozen times more nutrient delivery efficiency than the soil can provide.
A well-timed foliar feed using Tri-Kelp™, Fast Fulvic™ and Triacontanol™ at the five-leaf stage can be followed up with those same ingredients and some soluble boron, just before flowering.
Foliar urea could be included if nitrogen is an issue. This foliar program can cost as little as $20/ha but the cost-to-benefit factor can be amazing.
Use the ocean’s gifts
Kelp and fish are biological essentials.
They feature the full spectrum of minerals found in the ocean. Nutri-Sea Liquid Fish™ also contains amino acids and fatty acids, which give a great response.
SeaChange Liquid Kelp™ or Tri-Kelp™ as a D.I.Y. liquid contains 40 times more cytokinins, gibberellins, auxins and betaines than any land-based plant and these essential nutrients can really expand the genetic potential of your crop.
Embrace cover crops
Cover crops are an important soil restorer. They do not steal moisture from the coming crop as many mistakenly believe.
Exciting new research shows that cocktail cover crops featuring cereals, grasses, legumes, brassicas and chenopods generate phenolic compounds that stimulate carbon sequestration (humus building) and can add 40 tonnes of organic matter per hectare back to the soil, equating to an increase of 1% organic matter, once it is digested.
Utilise compost and microbes
Compost adds stable organic matter and minerals back to your soil while also introducing a diverse microbe workforce.
It is also a major triggering mechanism for humus-building organisms in your soil.
Many Nutrition Farmers become avid compost makers or at least use compost, in recognition of the fact that it is the undisputed king of soil fertility.
Brewing compost tea from quality compost or task-specific microbes from cultured inoculum can compensate for a lack of suitable compost and help invigorate and restore soil life and plant health.
Contact Nutri-Tech Solutions phone 07 5472 9900
www.nutri-tech.com.au
For more information see Tree Fruit January 2015
