Hey guys, Evan here with EZ Custom Ag, not out in the field today yet. Gonna finish up beans today. So that’s pretty exciting Gonna switch gears and head into corn tomorrow.
So wanted to talk a little bit about the stubble digester that we use. Some of our customers use after corn, we are actually planting cover crops after after corn,
but we use this in the spring on our corn stalks To help digest some of that residue, especially when we’re having such a big crop like we are this year So BW- Meltdown is made by BW fusion. That’s their In -house stubble digester They use the 501 team of bacteria So if you’ve listened to a lot of our other videos, we talk about how they have a 101, 201, 301, 401 and 501 Teams of bacteria. So the three that we actually use is 301, which is used in animal lagoons 401, which is an in furrow product and then 501, which they use as their stubble Digester in a nutrient release agent.
So when we look at what’s in here in the bacteria profile that they have in there We’ll start with the phosphorus. They have three strains of microbes in the 501 Group of bacteria that deal with solubilizing phosphorus and making it available to the plant Which is super helpful guys that are spreading dry phosphorus. A lot of it will get tied up into the soil This is a way to release some of that and actually make it usable to the plant also helping to release what is tied up in your corn stover soybean straw Whatever you’ve got left there. Our next ones are ones that deal with nitrogen.
So you got N2 fixers and ammonifying bacteria. So your N2 fixers are getting your nitrogen out of the air, you’re ammonifying bacteria are breaking down your organic nitrogen that would be in the plant material That’s why we see such a high number of different microbes working on that when we’re trying to digest the stubble So Why it’s so important.
You’ll see that we have multiple microbes on all these these. So when we’re looking at a set of strains of microbes, if we have one specific microbe doing that job,
if it’d be just like you and me going to a buffet or something, okay, I like to eat beef and noodles and mashed potatoes and gravy. You want to eat the fried chicken and broccoli or something. So we’re going to have totally different opinions on what we like. I like hot weather. You like cold weather. You like to go to vacation in the mountains.
I like to go to the beach. Whatever. So the microbes are the same way. They have different opinions on what they like. So one might like hot dry weather. The other one likes cool wet weather.
One is not going to perform to its full potential if it doesn’t have its right conditions. So having a diversity of microbes in there gives us the opportunity and kind of ensures success that we can we can hit that that sweet spot that Goldilocks zone for each microbe to have it do its its job.
So I for example two N2 fixers. If you don’t have the right weather, only one of them might work. But if that’s the only one you had in your product, you’re going to be in trouble. So if you ask how many strains work on each specific job when you’re looking at other products, I think you’re going to be really surprised to see that a lot of guys are just using one or unless you’re using a combination product like this, might be just doing one job specifically with one microbe.
So definitely a very unique profile with BW Meltdown and 501. So definitely look at that when you’re comparing biological products. But moving on, we have two potassium solubilizers, two zinc solubilizers, and then the ones doing the heavy hitting down here we have. So lignin, chitin, and cellulose are the three portions of like a corn stalk.
That’s what makes it hard is what we’re actually trying to break down. So you can see we’ve got a heavy load here. Two for lignin, ten for chitin, and 16 for cellulose. What we’re really trying to do is just melt that stalk down. We’re trying to make it soft, digest it to the point where it’s returning those nutrients back to the soil and making it available for the plant the next year.
So when you look at like an app like the Ag PhD crop removal guide, there is a huge amount of nutrients in the stubble or residue that you leave on the ground.
So it’s already been through the plant. So it’s in an organic form. If we break that down, it’s going to be plant usable. It’s not like trying to put, you know, pebbles of potash out there and hoping that it dissolves, gets into the soil solution is usable for the plant. So we’re already dealing with organic nutrients. Let’s get them broke down into the soil and able to be used for the plant for the next year.
So whether you’re in a no -till system or a conventional system, a stubble digester can be very beneficial to you. So when you’re making your fall spray pass or even your spring spray pass or spring burn down, give it thought to using a stubble digester and a nutrient release agent like Meltdown. And hopefully we’ll get some decent weather here and we’ll see you next time out in the field.