SOS by Christine Jones

[tweety]

Nothing left the land in the old prairies. It was a closed system, nothing left, nothing exported. No need to add anything.

Your solution of 'replacing' sulfur is to mine it deeper? Remove it all to depths that not a single plant species of any kind can reach any longer?

Then when you have exported all that to china in canola wheat alfalfa barley peas beans beef chicken pork, then what?

You have not even begun to explain how any of this is magically REPLACING the sulfur you are removing. Sorry, but animals running around on the ground magically producing carbon doesn't cut it.

Maybe someone else can ask it in an even simpler way?

[tweety]

BTW, i have asked Gabe, and he says he's not replacing it either. He doesn't know how to other then add it like the rest of us dumb ass inputs buyers.

[greybeard]

Isn't that sulfur from Fort Mac free if you live down wind?
If elemental sulfur has solved all your sulfur problems,you don't have a problem.
Are you ready to replace all of the nutrients on a removal basis or just the macros?
Worldwide, farmers are all nutrient miners.
Grassfarmer summed it up with "The eye of the herdsman fattens the cattle".
You can't buy a crop. Somebody else can do it cheaper.
If this research comes to fruition and lets you do it cheaper you better be an early adopter.

[Hopalong]

Good story in March 7 Economist magazine.
Says meat and dairy products could lose out to more sustainable versions made from plants.
Could be quantum change if it happens.
Better for farmers to adjust and adapt rather than resist change (my thought).

[grassfarmer]

Sounds like it is you that needs it in simpler form.

I never said you would pull sulphur up from 5 feet, that would be ridiculous given that it is derived from organic matter. If you have organic matter at 5 feet you wouldn't be short of sulphur.

The solution is to build organic matter at higher rates than has ever previously been done in agriculture. That can be done by harnessing the free inputs (sun and water) to produce huge amounts of biomass then mob grazing with cattle.

I don't, nor would ever, remove the nutrients you conventional grain farmers do by shipping tons of grain off the farm every year. We export very few of our nutrients with our production system and we have always bought in "fertility" through feed, typically byproducts of conventional grain production like straw.

[binthere]

so it is ok then for orgainic farmers to replace nutrients from straw that is a by product of conventional farming methods? well that sounds fair.

[tweety]

Holy cow grassfarmer, greybeard, its like listening to a yuppy soccer mom talk about rDNA

[Braveheart]

Great article grassfarmer. Thanks for posting it.

[rkaiser]

So sorry that you are caught in the web tweety. Hope your family stays healthy and you find a way to keep making money and off of "YOUR" land... LOL

Such a different hologram that it is hardly worth trying as you say. Soccer moms? LOL

[rkaiser]

Hay Tweety - have you ever looked at your big yellow head and little orange feet in the mirror and asked yourself why you are a farmer?

Is it so that you can "own" something and build and empire?

Is it so that you can feed the hungry people on the planet?

Is it so that you can support multinational corporations that profit from your labor?

Is it so that you can support a corporate government that controls your mind and uses your money to support their dictates over the people they are supposed to be leading?

Just wonderin....

[grassfarmer]

Randy re the big yellow head and orange feet - He must have believed what the advertisers told him and drunk too much SunnyD. LOL

[tweety]

Great answers on how you actually make sulfur.

[greybeard]

Everybody but you seems to know sulfur falls from the sky.
Poor example.
As long as it works for you, were all good.

[blackpowder]

Read the article. Good topic. Too bad it was written as an infomercial.

[tweety]

It doesn't fall from the sky greybeard.

The question once again, how does your system actually produce sulfur, and from what source, rather then continuing to mine in a non sustainable manner?

If you and grassfarmer can't answer that, you've been officially exposed as a fraud and liar on the topic.

Sulphur is not mobile in the plant, so a continuous supply of sulphur is needed from emergence to crop maturity. A deficiency of sulphur at any stage of growth can result in reduced yields.

For the first half century or more sulphur deficiency was not a concern on most soils because a large pool of organic sulphur was made available as organic matter mineralized. Over time, the pool of organic sulphur has declined significantly, mostly due to use by crops, particularly high sulphur-using crops such as canola and alfalfa.

So even by using an alfalfa and cash crop rotation, sulfur continues to deplete. Yes you can find deeper sources in the soil to pull it up and have it stored in a plow down if the crop isn't removed (alfalfa etc) but in short time, or if you bale it and move it off the land either thru a cow or selling bales, its gone too.

I would hope you could take this topic seriously as its critical to sustainability, stewardship, and food production.

Can you do that?