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[00:00:17] Rod: Happy holidays from A Better Way to Farm, where we spend each day helping growers improve their profits and increase their yields. It's the 12 days of nutrients. This is day 12. We're going to talk about Zinc. Before I get started, shout out to Jerry and Jane. I had to recycle one sweater and I'd pick this as my favourite. I really like it. I would love for you guys to post up some pictures of some Christmas sweaters that you have. Whether you're in them or they just started there hanging in the closet, but we'd like them.

[00:00:44] So guys, today we want to talk about zinc. And I wanted to tell you that I use the table of ratings. I told you earlier that it's Bulletin 167 from Midwest Labs, but when you type in 167, you don't find anything. So I want to make sure you know that you can go to Midwest Labs. I encourage you to do two things, print off the Agronomy Handbook. It's a great resource. Also, if you type in table of ratings, this one page sheet. Actually, it's not. It's a two page sheet and it shows you like how much potassium you should have based on your CEC. That stuff that I talked about there, it also just tell you how much, cause like zinc is not dependent upon CEC. How much you need and a good zinc reading and your soil test will be somewhere between 1.1 and 3.0 parts per million.

[00:01:31] Zinc as we know is important for seed formation and it really helps the hormones and the enzyme systems in that plant get going. And that's really, really important that we get that rolling so that we can get that crop doing what we needed to do. We know that the availability decreases very rapidly as pH increases and we know that at a 9.0 pH, zinc is unavailable to the soil. 

[00:01:55] Some of the things that will help create the zinc deficiency would include high pH, obviously. Also a really high phosphorus levels. That's why for 20 years, we have known that regardless of your zinc level in your soil, if your P one test is above 25, and/or your P two test is above 50, we want you to add a quart of zinc. Why? Because we know there's a 95% chance to a yield response that is exceedingly good. And so we want to make sure that we do that. Another thing that helps create, uh, induces zinc deficiency is cool, wet weather. And so if we're planting as most of us do, we don't wait for it to get super warm out. When the soil will go, we go, that's kind of how that works. And, so we want to make sure that we're addressing that zinc need there because cool, wet soils don't give zinc up very well. 

[00:02:48] It's important to know that zinc deficient plants always mature later. Some of the books that I was working out of said much later. How do we know if we have a zinc deficiency? How do we diagnose it visually? Well, you know, magnesium causes vein, you know, yellow streaks or stripes or yellow chlorosis, so to speak in the old growth. Manganese does the same thing in the new growth and it tends to be right across the whole plant. Zinc will typically just cause a yellow stripe next to the mid rib, on each side of the mid rib and it will appear in the old growth first. Now zinc actually translocate in the plant pretty well, and it takes phosphorus with it. So we don't want to be deficient zinc because that hurts us on getting our phosphorus moved around. 

[00:03:33] One of the big problems was zinc, especially if you're a sorghum grower. If you're growing milo guys, there are basically no visual signs of a zinc deficiency that show up. The only visual sign you get is big yield loss, because it's important for seed formation and you get a lot less seeds than you get a lot smaller seeds. So if you're a milo grower, this is something to pay really close attention to, just pull the soil test, send it to Midwest Labs and we can address that so easily. 

[00:04:05] Now there are people out there who would tell you to say, okay, look, we'll put on four pounds of broadcast zinc. When you do that, if you put on four pounds of broadcasting sulphate, you're putting a granule about every two square feet. There's a very low likelihood of your roots intercepting that granule. But if we take a chelated zinc and we apply it right in the seed trench and or we put it in two by two is, I have a lot of guys who need so much manganese and so much zinc that they put some in the trench and some two by two. A much more efficient way to get it and a much more higher yield response to making it work.

[00:04:42] And in the books, at any books that we were looking at, would tell you that it is always better to row place it or foliar feed it. It does lend itself to foliar feeding very, very well. One side note that I want to say, there are people out there who sell a liquid zinc sulphate, and I would suggest that you better try that in a bucket test. Most of the time, our experience would indicate that zinc sulphate does not play well with phosphorus. So if you're using a liquid phosphorous starter and you can find a liquid zinc sulphate, putting those together might create 200 gallon of a biggest gooey mesh you've ever seen. Please don't do that. 

[00:05:20] It's also important to know that too much nitrogen again, the overuse of nitrogen hurts us in so many ways and one of those ways is, it makes, induces zinc deficiencies. And guys, here's kind of the bell ringer for me. This is the part that I, I'm going to just kind of wrap this whole thing up with this. First of all, all the nutrients are interrelated. There is no question about that and we know that sometimes the shortage of this creates a shortage of that. Sometimes an excess of this creates a shortage of something else, and it's important to learn those and work on those. 

[00:05:53] And the point is, do everything correctly. It's not about just blowing out a bunch of nitrogen. It's not about just blowing out a bunch of calcium. It's not about blowing out a bunch of zinc. It's about doing it in the right way. That's why we run the soil test. And here's the last point on zinc and I'm going to close this part of it with this. Guys, adequate zinc means you need less water. Just having your zinc in an adequate level, will reduce the need for water by your plants. 

[00:06:21] Just like potassium, having adequate potassium in your plant reduces the need for water. And I say that because here's the deal. With everything, and I've talked about over the last 12 days of nutrients here, here's the real point. When we do everything correct and you know, it's never wrong to do the right thing, right? When we do everything correctly, we end up with a plant that is much more drought tolerant.

[00:06:49] Can we burn up? Of course we can. You can always have a, a drought so bad that everything burns out, but if we do everything correctly, we can take 10 days to two weeks of dry weather after everyone else is done. Guys, we have products that promote root growth. We have products that promote balance. We have products that promote plant health. We have products that are going to help fight off, ward off diseases, just because plant health help. Let's be honest, when you're healthier, when you've eaten better, when you don't do too much sugar and you do the right vitamins and you eat correctly, you ward off disease better. Okay? With that plant, if we do the same things, if it's eating correctly, then we can ward off disease better. 

[00:07:33] Proper nutrition makes everything and everybody healthy. And I just want you to think about it, you know, some of my friends up in Minnesota had a very dry year this year and the guys that we're working with has still grew really good soybeans in spite of all of that, because they made a difference. They made a switch; they figured out that there really is a better way to do this. 

[00:07:55] Guys, I've enjoyed doing this. I've learned new things every year that I run this series. We learned some new stuff and hopefully it increases the value. If you find value in what we do, please share this with a friend. Tag them in it, let them know that we're available. Come on over to the podcast platform at A Better Way to Farm. Give us a listen there; listen to some of the interviews that we've had. Stop by abetterwaytofarm.com and take a look at what's there and take the profit calculator test. 

[00:08:21] And guys, I just encourage you that you can go back and rewatch these 12 days of nutrients and hopefully improve your bottom line. That's what we're really all about is, how do we help you improve your bottom line. I often say everything that happens in agriculture is good for someone. Our goal is, is that everything we're doing is good for you because that's the bottom line. If it's not good for you, it's not good for anybody long-term.

[00:08:46] So guys, this will be the last one of these in the series. I hope you've enjoyed them. I hope that they've been a benefit to you. I really appreciate you tuning in and taking part. We do wish you, from our family to yours, the merriest of Christmases and we really hope you're having a better day. 

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