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[00:00:16] Rod: Happy holidays from A Better Way to Farm! Very excited to come and share the 12 days of nutrients. We're going to talk about copper. You guys know the deal here. We are working every day to help improve yields and increase profitability. Today, it's copper. We're going to talk about that. First thing I want to do is I want to share just a short blurb out of Hands-on Agronomy by Dr. Kinsey and then we will jump into what we know besides this. There is a phrase that isn't used very often these days. It's antagonistic action against plant pathogens. That comes very close to saying with Dr. Albrecht from Mizzou, that the anatomy of dealing with bacterial and insect attacks is seated in fertility management and not in buying toxic chemicals. Chemistry provides the physical structure of a soil so they can provide the correct environment for biology. When soil microorganisms do their job, the soil itself will in fact fight pathogens. 

[00:01:11] Guys, the fact of the matter is, the more commercial fertilizer we have applied as a general rule, the more we've increased our need for a lot of other things. And so the question becomes, how is it can we make that better? Well, obviously a good, complete, total soil fertility program, addressing everything we've learned. How different products, how different, like boron helps with microbiologies, particularly the mycorrhizae fungi, how different things help with different things. And copper is one of those that is a tremendous help in plant health and we've known this for years. Okay. 

[00:01:43] According to the books that I'm reading, the copper level should be at least two parts per million. A lot of people don't have that. A lot of people are very low. When we start looking at some of the things about it. Well, number one, it's been largely ignored. You know, the most common thing that the average person in agronomy says, well, you know, copper can be toxic, soaking water. Okay. Let's be honest. In 1993, there was a lot of toxic water on the Mississippi river valley. You know, it killed everything. I mean, I even know of instance of an individual where a lady was in a contest as he would drink the most water to win concert tickets. And she drank so much water she killed herself a few years back.

[00:02:20] So everything is toxic in the wrong amount. Copper can be toxic. However, when we haven't used any for a long time and we're deficient, that's a bad thing. It's been largely ignored. We know that excessive nitrogen ties up copper. That hurts stock stream. Those two things together really, really hurts stock stream. We know that copper works in conjunction with potassium and manganese, and when we have everything working right, when we're working, you know, copper and potassium and manganese are working together, then we're going to get a healthier plant and better stock strength. So if you've got a problem with lodging that would be something to think about and consider. 

[00:02:58] There are certain hybrids that just launch worse, that's true. That doesn't change the fact that we need to do everything we can from a plant health standpoint to make it better. We also know that the right amount of copper really helps with ammonium form of nitrogen uptake. That guys, let's remember that a corn plant will take up your nitrate and will take up your ammonium, but it will yield best if it has the presence of a 50-50 mix. If we get 50% ammonium and 50% nitrate, we get the best yield. So what happens is, and we tend to run on the nitrate side heavy very few times. Do we have ammonium on the heavy side? So the right amount of copper is going to help with making sure we get that into the plant in the form that is best for the plant.

[00:03:44] According to the Fertilizer Institute Handbook, my little yellow book, it just says that chelates are three to five times more effective as a source for copper. And so our chelated copper would be the product of choice that you're wanting to get to. Guys, here's the deal, last year we had tar spot in a big chunk of America. You know what? Just a handful of years ago, two, three years ago, we had tar spot six counties in Indiana. This year, we had it. Most of Wisconsin, Northern half of Illinois, some up in Minnesota and 75% of all the counties in the state of Iowa. It spread very rapidly. 

[00:04:21] Now, you need to be looking for hybrids that are tar spot resistant. There's no question about that, but we also need to be doing everything that we can do to give that plant the most healthiest environment to grow, and that would include a complete and balanced nutrition. And in particularly, we know that copper is the one of the nutrients that is largely responsible for plant health. In the absence of copper, we are going to suffer from a negative response from the side of plant health. We want to make sure that we're doing all the things that we can. 

[00:04:54] Hey, by the way I wanted to share with you. If you want to get this Midwest Labs, I call it Tech Bulletin 167. You go to Midwest labs. What you do is you type in table of ratings. Like it says right here at the top of the page, table of ratings, that's what you're going to want to take a look at. And so guys, you know, copper is the nutrient of the day. I believe it might be the nutrient of the year. We want to make sure that we're testing for it. We don't want to apply it if we don't need it, but if we do need it, we definitely want to put it on there in the right amounts. 

[00:05:26] Guys, I hope you find value in what we're doing. We invite you to go over to abetterwaytofarm.com, the website. If you haven't filled out and taken a shot at the profit calculator yet, take that quiz. Take a look at what you can grab there and we obviously encourage you to listen to us on our podcast platform in A Better Way to Farm. And if we can be of any assistance to you, feel free to reach out (641) 919-1206, text or call and feel free to give us a message right here on the Facebook page. I promise you someone will get back in touch very quickly. I hope you are having a Merry Christmas season and I hope you are having a better day.

 

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