By Philip A. Wheeler, Ph.D.

One of the ways businesses that produce real goods – like agriculture – rather than just shuffling paper can save money is through increased efficiency. Efficiency can come from better utilization of manpower or from increased output by the manufacturing involved. Both are applicable to farming. Although the best possible economic scenario is to own “no steel” other than a pick-up or ATV, reality is much different. Utilizing custom planting, spraying, harvesting, etc. is widely practiced in some crops, but many farmers are still going across their fields multiple times doing something with their own equipment.

The best way to increase the efficiency of those trips across the field is to multi-task, and no, I’m not talking about surfing the web or watching videos. I’m talking about doing multiple field operations with each pass of the tractor. Field operations can include plowing, disking, “fitting”, fertilizing, planting, cultivating, side-dressing, foliar feeding, inter-seeding, “topping”, harvesting, and residue management. Doing only one of these field operations at a time is extremely inefficient! All but the most antique tractors can be modified to do multiple tasks, and in most cases, it is can be done with off-the-shelf-equipment. This, however, requires pre-planning and some winter days in the “shop”.

In an ideal situation, a tractor would have two saddle tanks that could contain two different liquids, one for ground application (either broadcast or side-dress) and one for foliar feeding either from a front or rear boom. A seeder should be available for the front of the tractor so that cultivators or other towed equipment can be used to cover the seed while inter-seeding the next economic crop or adding a cover crop to a current economic crop. A field sprayer should be quickly modifiable to allow the nozzles to be turned backward for foliar feeding so that the liquid rolls up under the plant leaves. Greater efficiency is gained by negatively charging the fluids in the tank or as they leave the nozzle. The negative charge will attract them to the positively charged plants.

Once you have the equipment modified, you usually have to modify your thinking. If you think that plants grow from fertilizers, then think again. Plants only grow by the use of energy produced internally or absorbed from external sources. Plants use phosphorous, magnesium, iron and sunlight and water to produce the sugars that subsequently are used as sources of energy to make all the necessary components of a plant and to build new cells (grow & reproduce). All the other major and minor nutrients that are incorporated into the plant end up as only 5% of total volume and the rest is carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The initial energy to grow a plant is stored within the seed. This allows it to grow until the photosynthetic process takes over.

Since plants grow from energy, logic would dictate that a grower wishing to cut costs would try to take advantage of all the free energy he can get. It order to get/use the free energy, one must understand the sources and their implications.

The next source of energy, after photosynthesis, is the Chemical Energy added and created when a new material (fertilizer/compost/soil conditioner/etc.) is added to the soil. Some of the energy is stored in the material itself. This energy was put there by nature such as found in natural deposits of lime, gypsum, K Mag, KS Plus, potassium sulfate etc. The rest of the energy comes from the reactions of the new material with the soil with all its’ components. Dr. Reams taught that Calcium is the main element that other elements react with. The energy produced comes from both the electromagnetic spin of each element as well as the standard chemical reactions (oxidation & reduction) any time an acid and base or electrolytes are in a water/soil solution.

When a recommendation was made to a farmer years ago by our lab to use ammonium sulfate, he vehemently refused. “I’ve just spent several years liming my soil to bring it up to 6.8 pH. I know that ammonium sulfate will acidify my soil, so I’m not going to use that.” What he didn’t understand is that nothing is going to happen in his soil unless the pH does change throughout the day and night from a chemical energy standpoint. Changing pH or changing temperature and pressure are the only reason why chemical reactions will continue to take place and produced the energy needed for crop growth. And if he is a chemical farmer, he won’t have much biological energy either. No wonder yields in conventional farming have “peaked”.

The earth’s moon cycles also provide constant change to the temperature and pressure in the soil which can help produce the needed chemical reactions that produce the chemical energy portion of the “big picture”. Solar days and yearly seasonal changes all add to the constant change. A grower would have a difficult time trying to change the sun, moon and stars, but he can make pressure changes using sound waves. That is the basis of the technology and equipment called Veges Sound™ Unit. When it is played, the sound/pressure waves travel through the soil and atmosphere where increased chemical and biological activity increases nutrient uptake. The subsequent energy produced can then be used by the plant for increased growth, reproduction or immunity building.

There is a third form of energy that was the basis of my Ph.D. work. That involves the frequencies given off by the elements of compounds when they are in the ground and are therefore subject to the Shuman Resonance, otherwise known as the earth’s vibration. The earth’s vibration is usually listed as 7.8 cycles per second. When I subjected a pure sample of MAP, 12-62-0, to the Shuman resonance in a lab with Dr. Phil Callahan, the resulting frequencies were just the right wavelength to be absorbed by microbes and fine root hairs. The earth’s Shuman Resonance vibration comes from the constant lighting strikes on a world wide basis. The day the lighting stops is the day all life on earth starts to collapse if it can’t quickly adapt.

The materials added to soil to keep the changes happening do not need to be strong chemical fertilizers nor in large amounts. Any non-pesticide material that will produce chemical, electromagnetic and biological reactions will produce energy. However, some materials commonly used in conventional farming produce electromagnetic patterns that are harmful to the soil system, even though they may produce some beneficial chemical energy, such as KCl. That is the basis for using Radionic instruments to predetermine the energy compatibility of any material going on your soil or plant.

So how do you translate all this chemistry and physics into cutting costs? The above shows that having a steady supply of anything “new” creates the physical and chemical energy as long as it will resonate with your soil. The cheapest additives are manure and urine directly from grazing livestock, cover crops, lime, gypsum, local mineral deposits, food wastes, carbohydrates such as sugar and molasses, and homeopathic (energy) products or instruments that broadcast them. However, with today’s fertilizer commodity prices going through the roof, one can save money by buying natural sources of major and minor minerals, even if they have to be trucked from a distance. Some conventional and natural/organic fertilizer companies have chosen to use the intense buying pressure of foreign countries as a reason to raise the domestic price to equal their international price. In my opinion, I would put MAP, DAP, 0-0-50, 0-0-60 and elemental sulfur in that category of P-K-S sources. Other companies have kept their domestic prices lower, while selling into overseas markets at a higher price in US dollar’s. These companies include the suppliers of natural mined phosphates, gypsum, and KS Plus, covering the P-K-S nutrients. You also get some Mg, Ca and a broad spectrum of very valuable trace minerals in these mined US market priced nutrient sources. K Mag falls somewhere in between for pricing per unit of nutrients.

When considering mined mineral sources consider the value of KS Plus* [0-0-8-24S-1Fe] using 0-0-50 (potassium sulfate) as a cost basis @ $1100/ton or $1.10/unit of K or SO4:

K: 8% = 160# x $1.10 = $176.00

S:  24% = 480# x $1.10 = $528.00

Micronutrients (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, B, Mg, Na, Mo) = at least $100

Total comparative value of KS Plus [$163] compared to above mineral sources at $804/Ton. *June 08 pricing.

Consider the value of Tenn Brown Phosphate (23% P2O5) using MAP (11-52-0) as a cost basis @ $1250/ton‡. Subtracting out the value of the N leaves $1000 of P205 value or $20/unit of P2O5. Total value of Tn Brn [$125], not including calcium or trace mineral values would be $20 x 23 units = $460. Other US natural phosphate pricing would be similar in range. ‡Oct 08 pricing.

The next vast area of energy production is Biological Energy. Microbes cover almost the entire earth’s surface including under bodies of water. They regulate most of the processes that go on in that layer. In soil, they provide a constant source of energy by constantly reproducing, consuming each other or plant and soil material. These are all oxidation/reduction processes which add new ions, compounds, heat and frequencies to the soil medium which then become part of the energies used by crops to grow or reproduce.

If you want a good education in all the biological species and/or reactions they perform, I would suggest you consult a textbook or various publications from Acres that can provide that detail. More importantly, how do you re-establish populations and create an environment that fosters their presence?  Because of conventional farming practices, most US soils are sadly lacking in a good mix of bacteria, fungi and beneficial nematodes.

One could make a good argument for saying that a grower shouldn’t add microbes to his damaged soil because they will die off. He should use cover crops and fallow to let nature clean up the soil before adding any new microbes. On the other side, the microbes and/or their by products (enzymes, hormones, B vitamins) can help speed the recovery of soil. The addition of carbohydrates such as cane sugar, dextrose (corn sugar) or fructose (fruit sugar) or molasses can give a quick food boost to microbes that have been offered only N with no carbs to help them digest it. On the other hand, growers who feed a lot of carbs can also end up with lower bacterial levels as the bacteria will die off once the food source depletes. Only adding N leaves much of the N on conventional farms to convert to nitrates, leach out of the root zone and contaminate ground water. If you want to save money and still use chemical N products, always add a carbohydrate to your N and cut back the application rate to take advantage of the increased efficiency of use.

Free bacteria and fungi are everywhere! They are in your manure, in your unfarmed fence rows, in your garden and in the local woodlot, no matter the size. You can brew your own microbial teas without making compost, but you will probably get a better mix of species if you compost first. The fungi are just as important as the bacteria, so be sure and use leaf mold where you can physically see the white mycelium growing in the dark damp leaf layers. Fungal organisms are stimulated by acids, so liquid fish is usually used in compost tea. That is also a reason to use liquid fish as an excellent source of protein N and you get the fungal and bacterial stimulation thrown in for “free”. Apple cider vinegar is also an excellent fungal stimulant as well as a trace source of bio-active potash. It would probably be wise to get a good book on compost tea making, as it is easy to end up with a not-so-beneficial mixture (Ron killed everything he applied it on).

One of the most cost saving microbes is mycorrhizia or root fungi. They extend the surface area of the plant root thousands of times and help to bring nutrients to the plant. Phosphorous is one of the most difficult nutrients to make available in the soil and mycorrhizia are the fungi to do it for you.

There are lots of commercial bacterial and enzyme products on the market. They can certainly pay for themselves if you jump start the bacterial process that feed on the organic matter in your soil and turn it into available and long term humus and glomalin. (Please refer to Oct 08 Acres article “Soil Carbon”, Page 30. You may also refer to the article on page 16, “Farming in the Peak Water Area’ for excellent cost saving water techniques.)

Hidden from our view are other sources of energy that are usually never talked about in agriculture. Dr. Rudolph Steiner identified these as originating from cosmic sources. The most basic process is the absorption of energy into the earth from June 21 to December 21 and the subsequent release of the energy for plant growth from December 22 to June 21 (opposite in the southern hemisphere). This provides the spring flush of growth we experience in the northern hemisphere. You can use all the energies Steiner identified as well as ones that have been identified by others since his time to enhance the processes that your crops would go through in the natural process of germinating, growing and reproducing.

Because these energies are captured in “esoteric ways”, the acceptance of the use of the energies in the US has been limited. The original proponents of using Steiner energies called themselves biodynamic. Australia was a much more fertile ground (pun intended) for the spread of the biodynamic concepts and our own home grown Hugh Lovel has immigrated to Aussie Land and is doing very well. Another home grown proponent, researcher and producer is Greg Willis. He has taken both the understanding and the production to new levels. I urge you to visit his website http://theccdsolution.com/  and download some of his free publications. Click on “click here for more pdfs” to download a copy of his new The NEW WHOLISTIC™ Agriculture Field Broadcaster Handbook a 150 page document presenting his technology and products.

Greg’s products with the captured energy patterns are called field sprays. The field sprays can be applied with conventional sprayers or they also can be broadcast through “Field Broadcasters”. The energy patterns are then influencing your property 24/7/365. The total cost of broadcasting these energies for a ten year period would be about $1.00 per acre on a 200 acre farm. Now that is real cost savings!

The one nutrient we haven’t addressed is Nitrogen. The improper use of nitrogen since the 40’s has caused incalculable harm to farmers, US soils and the American populace. This was all brought to you by our federal government wanting to keep munitions manufacturers (corporations) in business. The over use and misuse was quickly aided and abetted by our glorious land grant institutions who were in turn aided and abetted by the chemical corporations who used them for “research”.

There is lots of free N available. All you have to do is grow legumes with proper rhizobial inoculation, and they do the work for you by fixing N from the atmosphere into nodules on their roots. This fixed N can then be used by the plant fixing it as well as subsequent plants when the legume is incorporated. Or, if you can’t get legumes into your rotation, there are azobactor bacteria that can fix N both in the soil AND on the LEAF SURFACE without the presence of a legume. There is brand new technology that puts multiple strains of bacillus into a cyst form that is very stable in the atmosphere and protects itself from solar breakdown for several weeks or longer. The cysts germinate, use the carbohydrates produced at the leaf surface for energy and proceed to fix N in an amino acid form that can be used by the plant without the use of internal energy for assimilation by the plant. Vitamin B, a growth stimulant, is also produced by the accompanying microbes, along with vitamin C and E.

As much as 50 to 55 lbs of N/acre have been established using these organisms in the soil and when used on the leaf surface. Since the N is being slowly produced, the plant is able to utilize it as needed with resultant yield increases of 50% or more on a variety of crops. This means that farms using sustainable/organic/biological methods and practices with reasonable to good organic matter and biologically active soils can probably cover most all their N needs through the addition of the azobactor as a foliar. Low organic matter/transitional growers will want to include the soil azobactor as well as the usual fish/seaweed/carbohydrate programs.

Protein N is a much better buy than raw nitrates and ammonium compounds. Fish hydrolysates from whole fish offer the maximum amount of protein N. Compost can also provide similar fixed N. Both are excellent food sources for the nitrogen fixers. The better the quality of your microbe populations, the less chance you have of losses of ammonia to the atmosphere or nitrates into the ground water. The percentage of applied N that is actually used in conventional agriculture is economically unacceptable. Bruce Tainio estimates that only 2% of applied chemical N is utilized by the plant.

So there you have it: Increase equipment efficiency, keep chemical and bio-physical reactions going all the time, let the world of microbes do their thing, use Steiner/Greg Willis energies, buy low cost nutrients from natural sources, fix your own N and take charge of your farm. Happy growing!