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from the ground up in this issue VOLUME 3: ISSUE 2 SPRING 2015 Growing Champion Forages Managing Nutrients with Cover Crops Top 6 Benefits of Applying Calcium Feeding Restaurants
from the ground up
in this issue
VOLUME 3: ISSUE 2 SPRING 2015
Growing Champion Forages
Managing Nutrients with Cover Crops
Top 6 Benefits of Applying Calcium
Feeding Restaurants
10955 Blackhawk Dr., Blue Mounds, WI 53517844.554.6677 | MidwesternBioAg.com
Spring came early this year, and with it a short window for fertilizer application. How are your hay fields performing? Applying fertilizer after first cutting can help boost forage yields and quality for the remainder of the season. Set second crop and the rest of the season up for success with Midwestern BioAg’s forage fertility program.
Premium Dry Fertilizer BlendsOur premium dry fertilizer blends optimize plant growth and forage quality by providing balanced nutrition for your soil. Apply Midwestern BioAg’s premium fertilizers after first cutting to grow higher-yielding, more nutrient-dense forages.
Bio-Cal® and OrganiCalOur top calcium products, Bio-Cal and OrganiCal, deliver five sources of calcium and plant-available sulfur to improve forage yield and quality. Bio-Cal and OrganiCal can be applied after first cutting to provide both fast-acting and slow-release calcium for improved plant health.
Liquid, Carbon-Based FertilizersOur L-CBF product line can be applied foliar after each cutting to boost both forage yield and quality. Made from a molasses base, L-CBF contains sugar to help stimulate soil life. Put soil microbes to work for you and increase nutrient availability for your plants.
To place your spring order, call 844.554.6677.
HAY PRODUCTION IS A MARATHON. WE’LL HELP YOU FINISH STRONG.
3Midwestern BioAg 3
from the ground up
VOLUME 3: ISSUE 2 SPRING 2015
From the Ground Up is published quarterly by Midwestern BioAg. To subscribe, call 800.327.6012 or email [email protected].
© Copyright 2015, Midwestern BioAg, Inc.
10955 Blackhawk DriveBlue Mounds, WI 53517800.327.6012 | MidwesternBioAg.com
Growing Champion Forages
Managing Nutrients with Cover Crops
Top 6 Benefits of Applying Calcium
Feeding Restaurants
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4 From the Ground Up | Spring 2015
Todd Schroeder set a goal to win the World Dairy Expo’s Forage Analysis Superbowl contest in 10 years. With the help of the
Midwestern BioAg soil fertility program and his sales consultant Travis Klinkner, Schroeder achieved that goal last fall. It took the Cashton, Wisconsin, farmer only a few years.
In last year’s contest, the cash crop and beef farmer won the Grand Champion prize for first-time entrants and a cash award of $1,500.
Each year at the Forage Analysis Superbowl, more than $22,000 in cash prizes are handed out to top-finishing forage producers. In last year’s con-test, there were 486 entries from 25 states and provinces in seven forage categories.
Schroeder raises 800 to 1,000 head each year, bringing in Angus, Simmental, Limousin, and crossbred cattle at 400 to 500 pounds and rais-ing them to 800 to 900 pounds. He finishes 30 to 40 head each year as well.
Schroeder’s route to winning the Forage Super-bowl started in 2013 with a crop of soybeans. Af-ter harvesting the beans, he planted winter rye as a cover crop to build his soil capacity. In spring of 2014, Schroeder made two passes with a McFar-lane Reel Disk and no-tilled the corn.
For early-season growth, Schroeder applied both dry and liquid starter fertilizer. 19-6-14 was broad-cast-applied at 410 pounds per acre and 9-10-15 was applied at a rate of 250 pounds per acre as a row-assist starter fertilizer. These dry fertilizer blends provide sulfur, calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, manganese, iron, and boron for a more complete plant nutrition program. Schroeder also applied BioAg’s liquid, carbon-based fertilizer (L-CBF) 10-14-1 in-furrow at five gallons per acre to help stimulate soil biology.
When the corn plants reached the V 5-8 stage of growth, Schroeder side-dressed the corn with a combination of 20 gallons per acre of 28% liquid nitrogen and three gallons per acre of 10-14-1.
Growing Champion ForagesBy Jan Shepel, Correspondent
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Combined, this fertility program provided 165-60-95-70S of nutrients per acre, including Midwestern BioAg’s proprietary trace mineral pack. Midwest-ern BioAg’s low-pH fertilizers go beyond standard N-P-K blends to deliver the micronutrients plants need for optimum plant health. These premium blends are especially important when growing forages. Healthy, more nutrient-dense plants pro-duce healthier, more productive feeds.
To grow his winning silage, Schroeder planted seed from Master’s Choice, a partner of BioAg. At harvest, when Schroeder tested his side-by-side corn variety trials on the farm, Midwestern Bio-Ag consultant Travis Klinkner noted how good that stand of corn looked and urged him to enter the contest. “I thought it would be cool to see where we compare to other growers,” Schroeder said.
He also wanted to get data on how his crops fared after only two years with the BioAg soil fer-tility program. “We’re seeing tremendous results. I thought I was doing a good job before, but I really feel this new program is worth the investment. We are getting better quality feed.”
He plants 50 to 60 acres of corn specifically for silage each year and another one of his goals is to surpass the neighboring dairy farmers in produc-tion. That’s another reason he likes the Forage Analysis Superbowl contest. “It’s neat to see how you compare to farmers from all over the country. I was competing with farmers from Pennsylvania to New York to Kansas.”
Schroeder likes the floury corn varieties for their improved digestibility and plants a lot of Master’s Choice 527, 5661, and 5370. He has begun aim-ing for more non-GMO corn varieties in order to reduce costs given the lower corn prices of $3.50 to $4.25 per bushel.
Each year he works 550 to 600 acres of land, growing corn, soybeans, and alfalfa. This year’s crop rotation includes about 220 acres of corn. Since he isn’t a dairy farmer and doesn’t spread a lot of liquid manure, he especially likes the results he’s seeing from the BioAg soil fertility program. “Yes, it’s an investment and you need to put some money into it,” Schroeder says. “But you
need yield to get cash flow and I’m seeing yield improvements.” His silage varieties are making 28 to 32 tons per acre — that’s 11 tons of dry mat-ter per acre.
“I have definitely seen the benefits of getting on the program. It’s all about improving soil life to get better feed. It takes the stress off the plant and improves the soil structure. “It’s worth the in-vestment to get better quality feed.” On his farm, that has also translated into a new and improved cattle feeding program.
Because the World Forage Analysis Superbowl contest is held in conjunction with World Dairy Expo, one of the parameters used to measure forages is milk per ton. His winning entry mea-sured up at 3,799 pounds of milk per ton.
He laughs at the folks who ask him how many cows he milks because he only has beef cattle. “But I figure that the starch digestibility and feed quality that allow dairy cattle to make milk are also going to give me gain for my beef cattle.”
He encourages other growers to see how their forages compare by entering the Superbowl con-test. “It’s only a $25 entry fee and it really allows you to see how your forage program measures up.”
Midwestern BioAg will be at World Dairy Expo this fall. Farmers are encouraged to stop by the booth and talk about the soil program that al-lowed Schroeder to make such progress with his forages. This year’s Expo, titled “Dairy in Our DNA,” will be held September 29 through Octo-ber 3 at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison. o
Jan Shepel has over 25 years of ag journalism experi-ence and lives in southwestern Wisconsin.
“It’s all about improving soil life to get better feed. It takes the stress off the plant and improves the soil structure.”
6 From the Ground Up | Spring 2015
Farmers all over the Midwest are looking to cover crops to fill several niches — soil con-servation, nutrient management, and pro-
duction of an extra forage crop. Whether planted in late summer or after fall harvest, now is an ex-cellent time to start researching cover crop appli-cations and seed varieties.
Kevin Shelley, outreach manager for the Univer-sity of Wisconsin-Madison and UW Extension’s Nutrient and Pest Management program, says farmers are increasingly using cover crops after relatively short-season crops like wheat or small grains. “There’s a lot of interest,” Shelley said. “Adoption of the practice seems to be increasing for the reasons of providing supplemental feed, but also for soil health and nutrient management.”
Getting cover crops planted by late July or ear-ly August covers and protects the ground from summer washouts and winter winds. “It can offer substantial soil erosion protection,” says Shelley. Summer annuals like clover offer the additional benefit of fixing nitrogen that will be left in the soil for the following crop — often corn.
“Having a green and growing crop is more de-sirable than weeds in an otherwise fallow field,” Shelley adds. For dairy farmers, certain cover crops can offer 1 to 3 tons of dry matter per acre that can serve as heifer or dry cow feed. In addition, cover
crops add organic matter to the soil. Even if the above-ground portions of the plants are harvest-ed, the plant roots add to the organic profile in the soil.
Midwestern BioAg President Gary Zimmer has advocated the use of cover crops for over 30 years. “I never miss the opportunity to have something growing on my land,” says Zimmer. “Green plants feed soil life, build organic matter, and capture nutrients in their tissues. Those nu-trients will not erode, and they are in a form that is linked to biology so it’s easier for plants to ac-cess them.”
Many growers choose to put in a cover crop after wheat or a canning crop like snap beans or peas where double cropping with a more conventional crop would be risky. Oats or barley are two good options to plant after short-season crops are har-vested in mid-summer.
Legumes, like some clover varieties, can be an option, but Shelley notes that these can be risk-ier if the weather turns hot and dry. “The cereal grains need moisture to germinate and grow, but they [legumes] are a little more forgiving. They can make up for it a little later in the season.”
In addition to less establishment risk, cere-al grains offer the advantage of producing sig-nificant biomass as long as they are planted in
Managing Nutrients with Cover CropsBy Jan Shepel, Correspondent
7Midwestern BioAg
the right time frame — the last week of July to mid-August. There have been trials with oats and barley and some with triticale. Barley and peas planted together provide more top growth, and with decent conditions, can provide two tons of dry matter per acre at harvest, Shelley said.
Oats and barley often grow until November and continue to produce valuable forage because small grain production is dependent on photoperiod — in the shorter days of autumn, the plants don’t be-gin the process of producing grain as quickly.
They continue to produce sugars and don’t go into a rapid decline in quality. That is especially true with varieties of oats that are bred for forage use, Shelley adds. Soil conservation and organic matter are also improved with the use of cover crops. The value of organic matter is magnified if the crop is plowed down for “green manure.”
Working with a Dane County, Wisconsin, farmer last summer, Shelley helped plant oats and field peas after wheat and then knifed liquid manure into the standing crop. That crop was left on the field to be plowed down this spring.
“That was definitely a very impressive crop, pro-viding a lot of cover. There was all this green bio-mass waist-high in the field.” In that case, the crop reduces the farmer’s need for nitrogen fer-tilizer for the following crop.
The use of any variety of cover crop will encour-age earthworm growth, which in turn creates mi-cropores that channel water and nutrients into the soil profile. Some farmers prefer cover crops with a number of different species planted to-gether because biodiversity is good for the soil. “The different roots growing in the soil have a lot of different associations with fungus, bacteria, and arthropods that like one species or another,” says Shelley.
Another good time to plant cover crops is right after corn silage removal. Apply manure if avail-able and then establish a cover crop to hold the soil in place over winter, Shelley adds. “Having that cover crop in place lessens runoff and scav-enges nutrients.”
At that time of the year, it’s really too late to plant brassicas or legumes, but farmers have had good luck with winter rye. “The earlier it can be plant-ed, the better.” Trials have shown that cover crops sown from September 20 through October 1 are significantly better than those planted around October 10 through October 13 for nutrient man-agement or conservation planning.
In addition to cover crops holding soil nutrients in place over winter, they can provide 1½ to 2 tons of dry matter per acre when harvested at the rec-ommended root stage in the third week of May.
Midwestern BioAg growers have successfully incorporated cover crops into their rotations for years. “All cover crops have different attributes, and it is important that you choose the right cover crop for your farm,” says Zimmer. “I do ev-erything I can to promote healthy soil life on my farm, and planting cover crops is an essential part of my system.” o
Jan Shepel has over 25 years of ag journalism experi-ence and lives in southwestern Wisconsin.
“Getting cover crops planted by late July or early August covers and protects the ground from summer washouts and winter winds.”
8 From the Ground Up | Spring 2015
With farmers searching for new ways to increase yields, they’re looking more closely at nutrients and minerals.
Gone are the days when it was all about N-P-K. Today, growers are learning how to enhance fertil-izer performance, soil health, and plant nutrition.
Ag scientists are providing new information on us-ing natural inputs like calcium to get better results.
“Calcium kicks soil into high gear,” says Leroy Stuecker, a Midwestern BioAg customer who farms in Lee County, Iowa. Here’s why.
1. Calcium for Healthy Soil “Calcium is key to good soil structure,” says Firman Hershberger, a Midwestern BioAg Sales Consultant based in Kalona, Iowa. “It plays an important part in regulating acidity, or pH.”
Hershberger, who consults with Stuecker, explains that the optimum amount of calcium helps im-prove soil structure, creating the healthy, aerated soil farmers want. “It opens up the soil, allowing water to be better absorbed, helping other nutri-ents to be more available and reducing erosion,” he says.
However, calcium is not mobile in the plant, so a continuous supply is essential.
2. Calcium for Nutrient Uptake “I call calcium the trucker of all nutrients,” says Midwestern BioAg Sales Consultant Josh Elsing. “It takes the nutrients up into the plant where they need to go.”
Calcium enters the plant via water moving from the roots through the leaves. A good calcium source is a catalyst for helping everything else in your program move forward.
Hershberger says, “farmers using Bio-Cal® see better stalk strength in corn. That’s because of that nutrient uptake.”
3. Calcium for Early Season Growth Calcium leads to greater root mass and faster, better growth in spring. It also helps promote plant uniformity, a key factor among row crop and forage growers.
“They say when corn is in its early stages, you want it to never have a bad day,” Hershberger says. “Calcium helps with that — even early on, you can see uniformity and strong growth.”
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Top 6 Benefits of Applying Calcium
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Stuecker says, “We usually apply Bio-Cal in the fall. We see really good results with that. It seems to get our soils activated.”
4. Calcium for Healthy Plant Tissue Without going deep into plant biology, growers should know calcium is a component of cell walls, and is important for cell division, permeability of cell membranes, and nitrogen utilization.
Soils need calcium. But plants need available calcium. This means farmers need two types of calcium — slow release and soluble.
According to Hershberger, Midwestern BioAg’s Bio-Cal provides five calcium sources ranging from soluble to time-released. It also contains sulfur, which helps with nitrogen efficiency and turning organic matter into humus.
5. Calcium for Nutritious Forages In addition to cropping corn, Stuecker specializ-es in growing high-quality alfalfa. He sells it as feed for high-end Holsteins producing over 90 pounds of milk per day.
“They’re very particular about hay for these cows,” says Stuecker. “The soil and the hay are both
tested so the rations can be fine-tuned. Bio-Cal helps make my alfalfa more nutritious.”
“Bio-Cal helps make solid-stemmed alfalfa in-stead of hollow-stemmed. We want it to be filled out with nutrients,” says Hershberger.
6. Calcium for Higher Yields & ProfitStuecker is a firm believer in calcium, and in work-ing with a crop consultant. “Firman has been a big help to me,” says Stuecker. “With his expertise, we combine Bio-Cal with testing and fertilizer from Midwestern BioAg, and it’s a very good program.”
“That’s why my yields are coming up over the last seven years,” he says. “We’re up to 256 to 263 bushels of corn on some fields. With alfalfa, quality is the name of the game,” says Stuecker. “Bio-Cal is the foundation of my program.” o
“I call calcium the trucker of all nutrients. It takes the nutrients up into the plant where they need to go.”
10 From the Ground Up | Winter 2015
Feeding RestaurantsBy Holly Henschen, Correspondent
Kristen Kordet was working as a restaurant server when she found-ed a Community Supported Agri-
culture (CSA) farm in 2004. Since then, Kordet’s Blue Moon Community Farm has supplied that restaurant, L’Etoile, with the seasonal vegetables left over after fill-ing CSA members’ share boxes.
L’Etoile, established in Madison, Wiscon-sin in 1976, is a fine-dining meets farm-to-table establishment, among the first in the Midwest to consciously build its menu around local, seasonal food. French for star, L’Etoile remains a beacon for sus-tainably oriented restaurants. This model is cropping up more as consumers seek a clear connection to their food, the farmers who grow it, and the land it’s cultivated on.
The term “community supported agri-culture” was coined in the northeastern U.S. in the 1980s. According to the USDA,
there are about 13,000 CSAs in the U.S. CSA farmers typically sell shares in their operation to members who receive a box of vegetables every week. It’s like a subscription to produce. The contents of those CSA boxes depend on the time of year and other growing conditions. CSA farmers often peddle extra produce at lo-cal farmers markets and farm stands.
For years, Midwestern BioAg has ser-viced CSA growers and helped them grow great-tasting produce.
The short CSA supply chain inspires loy-alty from customers of farm-to-table restaurants like L’Etoile, said Kordet, a Midwestern BioAg customer who farms in nearby Stoughton.
“Most of the time, the person who grew that food is the one that’s delivering it to the restaurant. It’s special and increasingly rare. That food has a story,” Kordet said.
11Midwestern BioAg
That story begins with CSA farmers producing diversified and often heirloom-variety crops with an attitude of land stewardship. Chefs at trendy restaurants are helping tell their stories through menu items that change with the supplies and the seasons for diners seeking local, organic foods.
Lettuces are Greg Simmons’ specialty at Marigold Hill Organics, a Midwestern BioAg customer from Grayslake, Illinois. There, he grows the baby kale, arugula, escarole, and radicchio that make top chefs swoon. The farm sets up a stall at Chica-go’s Green City Market, which caters specifically to chefs on Wednesdays.
“There’s an extremely vibrant community of chefs and restaurants at the top of the dining world in Chicago that support local farmers and beautifully grown vegetables,” he said.
Marigold Hill Organics counts the One-Off Hos-pitality Group among its frequent customers. The group’s proprietor was named Outstanding Chef in 2013 by the prestigious James Beard Foun-dation, a nationally known culinary group. Sim-mons’ greens are served in Chicago restaurants including Blackbird, avec, and The Publican.
“These [chefs and restaurateurs] understand that they have to pay a little more to get the right prod-uct,” Simmons said. “It’s a little harder to grow organically. We baby this stuff. It’s nutrient-rich, fresh, and beautiful, and they understand that it costs a local farmer a little more to do it.”
CSA farmers use different methods to reach chefs who integrate their produce into unique dishes.
When John Binkley has veggies to spare from his CSA farm, he contacts chefs at downtown Madison restaurants like L’Etoile, whose chef was named Best Chef in the Midwest in 2013 by the James Beard Foundation, its sister restaurant Graze, and Pig in a Fur Coat, home to another James Beard Foundation-recognized chef.
“Every Sunday, I’ll send an email out to my chefs and tell them what I have and they’ll email back and say what they want,” Binkley said. In a few days, he delivers from Equinox Farm in nearby Waunakee.
“One of the things we move more volume of is tomatoes,” said Binkley, whose farm boasts 25 to 30 heirloom varieties.
Allison Parker’s Radical Root Organic Farm in Libertyville, Illinois is also a BioAg customer. She branched out in recent years from CSAs and farmers markets with a wholesale service for restaurants. Chefs from restaurants like Parson’s Chicken and Fish and Cellar Door Provisions in Chicago’s hip Logan Square neighborhood place a minimum order of $75 for veggies like bright heirloom beets and carrots.
“It started out with us reaching out to restaurants, but now it’s gotten to the point that restaurants are reaching out to us,” Parker said. “It’s nice that we have multiple outlets because it makes me feel we’re reaching more of a community.”
Responsible soil enrichment with products like Midwestern BioAg fertilizers is a top priority for CSA farmers. Designed for diversified crops, fer-tilizers like Veggies Plus, Veggies NKO, and Veg-gies Sol replenish soil and comply with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program guidelines.
“As farmers, we fundamentally believe getting the soil as healthy as you can is going to create healthy vegetables and healthy people,” Parker said.
By promoting healthy communities through local restaurants, farmers are looking out for their land, their crops, and the consumers of their vegeta-bles.
“It’s nice to know that all the produce I have to offer is actually going to people locally,” Binkley said. “It contributes both to the health of the land it’s grown on and the health of the people who are eating it because it’s wholesome, healthy food.” o
Raised on a third-generation cattle and grain farm in Il-linois, Holly Henschen is an active writer and blogger from Madison, Wisconsin.
“As farmers, we fundamentally believe getting the soil as healthy as you can is going to create healthy vegetables and healthy people.”
Midwestern BioAg, Inc.10955 Blackhawk DriveBlue Mounds, WI 53517
Each year, Midwestern BioAg celebrates our soils on the award-winning Otter Creek Farms. Join us for on-farm demonstrations including corn plots, soil health demonstrations by the USDA’s NRCS, ag technology, and dairy management. At Otter Creek, Midwestern BioAg products and practices have been applied for years. Curious what the Midwestern BioAg farm management program can do for your operation? Join us on August 18 and find out.
Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Location: Otter Creek Farms, 6620 WI Hwy. 130, Avoca, WI
Time: 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
JOIN US FOR OUR 2015
SOIL HEALTH SHOWCASE
