How Soil Health & Biology Cuts Fertilizer Costs

Introducing Biologicals 101

Host: Good afternoon, and welcome back to Farm Talk in the North Dakota Corn Studios. It’s a Wednesday, and we’ve got a new feature we’ll be doing weekly at this time — it’s called Biologicals 101. Helping educate us is our friend Brady Krchnavy with New Age Farming. Brady, how are you doing today?
Brady: Doing good — how about yourself?
Host: Doing well. So, is this a busy time for biologicals, or is it downtime?
Brady: It’s always kind of a busy time. We’ve got products like residue digesters going out the door right now, so yeah — always busy.
Host: Today you could tell folks your story, for anyone who doesn’t know you.

Brady’s story: from the family farm to fungi

Brady: The story’s worth knowing, especially in what’s kind of the wild west of biologicals now. When I started there were maybe 50, maybe 100 companies — now there are a lot, so you’ve got to keep an eye on things. I grew up farming in southeastern North Dakota, down in the Englevale area. I thought I’d farm my whole life. But when commodity prices hit in the late ’80s and early ’90s, we were one of the ones that didn’t make it. We rented out our land and I had to go find a day job. That’s the chip on my shoulder — I want to help farmers so they don’t end up like me. I was working at an ag radio station when I found a booth at a farm show that said “mycorrhizal fungi.” I thought, I know every foliar fertilizer out there — what’s this all about? After years of soil science and soil biology, I learned how our soil is supposed to work, and how badly we’ve treated it.

Formulating fresh, diverse products

Brady: We formulate our own products and bring them in fresh every year to ensure viability. That’s a big problem in the industry — companies make a product and let it sit in a warehouse for two years, and by the time the farmer buys it, none of the biology is working. We pride ourselves on quality and diversity.
Host: Is farmfungi.com the best place to find you?
Brady: Farm Fungi is basically our MycoMaxx site. NAF Biologicals is our main site — you can also go to newagefarmingllc.com. We’ve got seven or eight sites, but NAF Biologicals is what most people use.

Why soil health matters

Brady: I did exactly what the co-op told us — put the fertilizer out, sprayed the weeds, and prayed for rain. Soil health and regenerative agriculture are the same idea: a fully functioning soil with the correct bacteria and fungi to convert the fertilizers we put down into something plants can use. We’re not getting all the nutrients to our plants because we don’t have the microbes to do it. Between anhydrous and tillage, we’ve done a lot that’s detrimental to the soil.

Why one-size-fits-all biologicals don’t work

Brady: A lot of companies throw out a package and say “we’ve got 1,000 microbes.” But how many is your corn actually going to use? Your soybeans? It’s the shotgun approach. With our DNA soil testing and our lab, we can see the exact microbes you need, field by field. That’s something nobody else in the country is really doing.

DNA soil testing and sampling season

Brady: This is a good time, with folks out soil sampling. Our portal’s busy. We’ve also got a residue digester that works down to 55 below, so up north it works all winter. All these soil samples let us build a biological and fertility plan for next spring and save growers a lot on fertilizer.
Host: People send soil to your lab?
Brady: Yes — our lab’s in Nevada. With DNA testing it takes longer than a standard test, about two to three weeks on average. A lot of guys are waiting on these samples so they know how much fertilizer they can cut.

Cutting fertilizer costs: the trial data

Brady: I’m looking at a yield-data map from a company down in South Dakota. One plot got 100 percent of the nitrogen, MAP, and potash with none of my products. The next got a 30 percent fertilizer reduction plus our MycoMaxx and Bionic products. The yield difference was zero — and the savings was about $30 an acre. That’s gas and diesel right there.

Bigger roots and drought resilience

Host: A bigger root system would help during drought, wouldn’t it?
Brady: A hundred percent. I’ve got fields around Casselton, and you know how dry it was up here this year. Our first field averaged 192 bushels at 61 test weight. That’s unheard of — everybody around us isn’t even close. For drought and stress, good biology is a huge help.

Freshness, viability, and certificate of analysis

Host: Where’s the best place to reach you and see results?
Brady: You can find pictures, tests, and field results. Farmfungi.com has so much you could spend days on it, and NAF Biologicals walks you through our DNA testing and products.
Host: You make sure the product hasn’t been sitting on a shelf for a year.
Brady: That’s a big problem in the industry. Large companies produce a huge batch, ship it out, and if nobody’s selling it, it sits for years. By the time the farmer uses it, it’s not good anymore. Viability is huge. And one more: if you’re going to buy a biological, make sure you get a certificate of analysis — that tells you exactly what’s in it.

Wrap-up

Host: Brady, it was a good kickoff. We’ll do this every Wednesday at 2:33, with different topics in the weeks ahead. Thank you for your time — farmfungi.com is the best place to go.
Brady: Lots of information there. Set your alarm for 2:30 every Wednesday — we’re going to dive into the fungi and bacteria and what they do.
Host: Biologicals 101 — a new program. We’ll be back with our friends from the North Dakota Farm Bureau next on Farm Talk.