Customer review – Improving water storage capacity and drought tolerance of plots
Improving the water storage capacity produces healthier, more resilient crops that root deeper and therefore produce a higher yield and are more drought tolerant. The number of days that can be grazed and driven on per year is also increasing.
In addition to the pH, important points of attention to improve the situation are the Ca/Mg ratio on the clay-humus complex and improving soil life.
Practical experience and various tests in the country show that there is still a world to be gained here.
We spoke with Richard van Cleef from PG Kusters B.V. about a good example at a livestock farm where the grassland had not been able to grow for years.
Richard said the following about this:
Customer review – Improving water storage capacity and drought tolerance of plots
''For a livestock farmer, the yield from a plot of grassland remained far below the level. Where you should normally be able to mow 5 times, we only just achieved 3 meager cuts here. The surrounding plot remained too wet, the roots were too shallow and the grass was too hollow, so you could continue to overseed and irrigate. The grass came on and went away again.
Richard continues: “After repairing the pH and the Ca/Mg ratio, the situation did improve, but not as you would wish. Research from a Chroma analysis at PHC showed that due to years of one-sided fertilization, the microbial soil life was too low and not in balance, as a result of which the organic matter present was not converted into humus and humic acids. We sprinkled TerraPulse on this to accelerate the nourishment and balance of soil life and the fertilization strategy was adjusted to maintain the new soil life. Within 2 years the worst producing plot turned into a top one. Of course the basis has to be good, but TerraPulse has given the final push we needed.
Initially, there was resistance among livestock farmers to using TerraPulse because of the price. It is not a cheap product, but if you see that a plot does not do what you expect it to do, it is always too expensive. Due to the various measures, we saw significantly higher yields, which was the result of much better and deeper rooting. The roots and soil life have become much more vital, which has greatly improved vertical drainage. We also saw that the turf was able to maintain itself well in the dry summer of last year, while it was only rained once in April."
Customer review – Improving water storage capacity and drought tolerance of plots
Terrapulse
TerraPulse contains several components that are essential for nourishing and balancing soil life. The fact that TerraPulse initially seemed expensive later turned out to be the opposite. In addition to a greatly improved turf, a much better yield, much less flooding, no more overseeding, less irrigation, much fewer working hours.
Richard adds: “Although Terrapulse has made a nice contribution to the soil problem in several cases, it is not as simple as simply spreading TerraPulse and waiting until the problem is over. You first have to make sure that you know what is going on in the soil.
To this end, we see that the use of a Chroma analysis, in addition to other analyses, can be a good tool to gain insight into what needs to be done to improve the soil.”
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