BioAg Blog

Time is on Your Side, and Biology Can Be Too

The application of CX-1 and L-CBF this fall can be the first step to help ensure success next season. There can be 7,500 lbs. of stover left behind in a modest 155 bushels per acre corn field.
Secured within are:

  • 45 pounds of N,
  • 15 pounds of P2O5,
  • 92 pounds of K2O,
  • 6 pounds of S,
  • 18 pounds of Ca,
  • 18 pounds …

From the Desk of Gary Zimmer

It’s a nice sunny March day today. Spring must be right around the corner. Are you ready?

I have spent my career working on soil health, nutrient delivery and quality feeds and foods. Yield is minerals, sunshine and water mixed in a carbon biological base. It’s not about how cheap the nutrient is or how much I add, it’s about uptake, availability, and exchangeability. When this company first started, it was about the source of nutrients and how we delivered them.

Practicing Regenerative Agriculture

As more consumers care about clean air, clean water and clean food and want to buy organic foods more land is being transitioned to organic. Many organic farmers also talk about “regenerative farming”, but what does this mean? Regenerative farming is a system of farming that focuses on healthy, mineral-rich, biologically-diverse soils that grow healthy, mineral-rich food while also improving soils, crops, and the livelihoods of the farmers. A farm can be certified organic just by avoiding prohibited chemical substances, but regenerative organic farmers also do …

Systems Approach to Nutrient Use Efficiency

Read any agricultural publication and you will see several articles or advertisements about “soil health” or “nutrient use efficiency” (NUE). Midwestern BioAg has been practicing soil health and nutrient use efficiency for over 30 years and is truly the leader within the Ag Industry. So why are “soil health” or “NUE” just now becoming buzz words? Industry experts and growers are starting to understand that there is no silver bullet, no one product or practice to get to soil health or improved NUE.

Nutrient Use Efficiency on Organic Farms

Nutrient use efficiency means maximizing the amount of yield produced with the amount of nutrients that are applied. Enhancing soil biology is one of the best ways to get the most from your fertilizers. Here are a few practical tips on how to build soil biology:

Feed your biology all year.
Soil biology is the living organisms in your soil. This includes things like earthworms, bacteria, fungi and even protozoa, actinomycetes, and beneficial nematodes. All of these organisms need to eat, and by keeping living roots …

Nutrient Use Efficiency

In the current agricultural climate of low commodity prices and increased fertilizer costs, we keep hearing about nutrient use efficiency (NUE) as a key component of farming success. NUE is commonly defined as the yield per unit of input. But why is it important? To illustrate this, let’s use the analogy of two pick-up trucks. NUE is the difference between one truck getting 20 MPG compared to a different truck of the same make and model getting 35 MPG by using a higher-quality fuel source.

Gimme Some Sugar

Sugar: It has been part of Midwestern BioAg’s fertilizer line-up for over 25 years. Sugar is quickly becoming a staple in producers’ fertilizer programs across the country. In Nebraska, a study saw a 1.6 bushel per acre increase in yield across acres with foliar applied sugar. Another crop farmer sprayed his corn ground with a sugar and liquid carbon-based fertilizer mix with similar results. When tests were run in Ohio, researchers found a 6 bushel per acre increase in those acres treated with 7 pounds …

Is Fall the Best Time for Soil Sampling?

Is fall the best time to take soil samples? Many growers take soil samples in the fall after their crops are off. It’s a good time to sample for several reasons. In fall, it’s convenient to drive the fields and pull samples when there isn’t anything growing to get in the way, and soils tend to be drier. Fall also tends to be less busy than spring, giving more time for sampling. Knowing your soil nutrient levels in fall gives you time to put on a …

From the Desk of Gary Zimmer

I’m sitting at our big table in the farm office this morning looking out at the rain. Two months late, but here it is. We got so dry this fall it was hard to work down the corn stalks after seed corn harvest. Overall our crops are OK, and some are looking really good. We’re now gearing up for a fresh start next spring. We need to put on our fall fertilizers (mostly Midwestern BioAg calcium sources and manures), do fall tillage and plant cover crops …

Introducing REGALIA® Rx Fungicide

This growing season has been taxed by heat and humidity, creating ample opportunity for plant health issues to erode yield potential. At Midwestern BioAg, we’ve recently expanded our agronomy product line-up beyond plant nutrition to include a fungicide treatment option for our growers – REGALIA® Rx biofungicide. REGALIA® Rx is designed to provide defense against fungal pests on cereal grains, corn, soybeans, cotton, forage, peanuts, sorghum and sugar beets.
What is REGALIA® Rx Biofungicide?
REGALIA® Rx is a group P5 fungicide.