Total Acre, Lexington, Ky., has formed a strategic partnership with Sound Agriculture to empower growers to optimize crop nutrient usage, maximize return on investment and pro-actively promote climate-smart commodities, aiming to reduce nitrogen usage by 10 million pounds.
This national, multi-year partnership is focused on generating Climate-Smart Commodities--agricultural commodities that are produced using farming practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions or sequester carbon. Through the partnership, Total Acre members will be able to become more efficient with nutrients, optimize crop inputs, and reduce overall fertilizer use.
The program has an aggressive goal of removing 10,000,000 pounds of nitrogen this season and over 63,000 metric tons of CO2e over the next three years. This is a significant step propelled by producers that are proactively looking for solutions to replace synthetic fertilizer. Achieving this goal would be equivalent to removing more than 20,000 metric tons of CO2e, or 4,500 cars from the road each year.
The key to the program is SOURCE, a novel chemistry that activates both nitrogen fixing and phosphate solubilizing microbes to provide sustainable nutrition at the root zone when crops need it the most. Using SOURCE, growers can decrease nitrogen fertilizer use without sacrificing yield. Supporting agronomists will evaluate technology, application strategies and product options to ensure the best fit for every field.
"I am really excited to be hooked up with the Sound Agriculture team," said David Hula, instructor and partner with Total Acre. "With SOURCE Corn we've seen some terrific results out in the field this year. The product helped us get the most out of every acre while taking into account each farm's unique field characteristics, improving plant health, and maximizing ROI. And I'm just thrilled to get our Total Acre growers engaged in the fight to tackle one of Ag's biggest challenges."
Total Acre is tightly aligned with producers and excited to bring together leaders in agriculture to tackle two of the biggest challenges being faced by farmers today. First, input prices continue to place increased cost pressure on farmers attempting to remain profitable. Second, nutrients not fully used by the growing plants can be lost from the fields and negatively impact air and downstream water quality. By improving the efficiency of nutrients being applied, farmers can increase their ROI and decrease the amount of nutrients leaving the field.
SOURCE gives growers the confidence to fully optimize crop nutrients and allow plants to empower the chemistry to help draw nutrients more sustainability. Creating a more resilient crop, healthier soil and cleaner water systems. SOURCE uses a proprietary chemistry to activate existing soil microbes that allows plants access to more nitrogen and phosphorus. The product was created over a decade ago, and launched commercially for the 2019 growing season. Nearly five years later, SOURCE boasts win rates over 70%, creating positive yield environments that bottom-line increase ROI across the United States.
Categories: Kentucky, Business, Crops