KOZGRO, Inc. - What is Happening To Our Top Soil

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO OUR TOPSOIL

Today, farmers in the United States and around the world face the same problem, how to maximize crop yield and quality, while keeping production costs down. The success of any farm program is based totally on production verses expenses. As soils are farmed season after season, crop production costs increase sharply, while in a lot of cases, crop quality and profit margins decrease.

How can this problem be overcome? The farmer can farm more acreage to make up for the smaller profit margin per acre farmed. In many cases, farming more acreage is not the answer due to the increased capital needed for equipment, labor, etc. Another solution is to farm virgin ground. In many areas there is not enough virgin ground available, or the virgin ground is too expensive to bring into production. The third and most promising solution for the farmer is to increase crop yield on the acreage he is farming, while maintaining or decreasing his costs of production. This sounds easy, but is it?

For years, farmers have been advised to use more commercial fertilizers each season for better crop production. Time has shown that this may not always be effective in either cost or production, yield, or crop quality. When commercial NPK fertilizers alone are used on relatively virgin soil, yields do increase for a period of time. As the seasons continue, more and more fertilizer is required to maintain these crop yields, but with time, yields tend to fall off, instead of being maintained. Why?

The problem with today’s chemical agriculture is the fact that some farmers think they can simply grow crops solely with chemicals. They tend to disregard their soil’s condition completely, as it simply represents a growing media for the crop. What they fail to realize is that unhealthy soils, no matter how many chemicals used, cannot maintain high quality, or high yields.

Due to continual farming over the years, our soils have become extremely susceptible to both water and wind erosion. Erosion is defined as the wearing away of the land surface by running water, wind, ice, or other geological agents. Due to modern farming practices, soil erosion has accelerated at an alarming rate. Even the best productive farmland is extremely susceptible to both wind and water erosion today. Why?

Farmers today watch helplessly as their productive soils erode away at an ever-increasing rate by both wind and water runoff. Even their irrigation water is eroding their soil away. Continuous cropping, crop residue removal (both physical and burning), non-selective insecticides, nematicides, soil fumigants, and harsh fertilizers, have all contributed to the present critical condition of our agricultural soils. New cultivation and harvesting equipment, have also added to today’s erosion problems. Farmers have disrupted the natural humus cycle that breaks down plant residue into organic matter and finally into humus. Without proper humus in the soil, excessive erosion proceeds unchecked.

There are two methods commonly used to control furrow erosion in irrigated farmland that show some promise today. The first method accomplishes this by working grain straw into the furrows, especially at the lower end of the field. The straw is incorporated into the furrows by a specially designed machine. The straw slows down the water runoff, thus decreasing soil erosion. The second method uses a variety of polymers that are incorporated into the soil. The polymers are made up of synthetic materials that absorb water. Both of these methods have some success in decreasing soil erosion under some conditions, but in many cases are cost prohibitive. The problem with both methods is that they deal with the symptoms, not the cause of soil erosion.

The only way to solve the problem of soil erosion is to restore our soils to their once healthy, productive state. The Kozgro’s organic fertilizer and plant food, AFB, not only adds humus to the soil, but sets up the environment to break down plant residue into organic matter and finally into the useable form, humus. AFB also helps to reestablish earthworms and other beneficial microorganisms in the soil, creating a healthy living soil. These healthy living soils have very little problem with wind and water erosion.

KOZGRO WORKS WITH NATURE - NOT AGAINST NATURE