Temperature

[bucket]

Yes that is very true , it is quite the gig they have going . They all want to sell high inputs and not one offers brix testing. Most don’t even know what it is.
So many get duped into high end fertility and fungicide and totally don’t know brix levels. They have a lot on the high input treadmill.

Furrow

after googling it ...is it as simple as they make it out to be ?

You have to know where your plant numbers are but that 150 dollar optical refractometer can tell you that much?

I have wasted more than that last night breaking shear pins on the swing away and the grain all over.

[Guest]

http://blog.nutri-tech.com.au/the-beauty-of-brix/

I find this has been helpful

[Guest]

We did quite a bit of testing on forages we were grazing, got a handle on it now so usually don't bother testing - can taste a bit of alfalfa and get an idea where it is. Pet peeve with Brix testing is where do you get a garlic press that doesn't break when you dry to squeeze moisture out of grass? I've broken about 6 of them and the wife gets mad when I steal hers!

Had the exact same problem so I made my own with a pair of vice grips. Just google brix plant sap extractor and pick the one you like

[FarmJunkie]

From what I know about Brix levels the higher the sugar the less likely bugs will eat your crop. I guess that might include fungi bugs.

[furrowtickler]

Furrow

after googling it ...is it as simple as they make it out to be ?

You have to know where your plant numbers are but that 150 dollar optical refractometer can tell you that much?

I have wasted more than that last night breaking shear pins on the swing away and the grain all over.

Basically yup

[furrowtickler]

From what I know about Brix levels the higher the sugar the less likely bugs will eat your crop. I guess that might include fungi bugs.

Yup it’s all about maintaining sugar levels around 15 or so
Below 8 and your crop will be far more susceptible to bugs and diseases

[Guest]

Awful close here last night , 1 degree maybe

[Guest]

Awful close here last night , 1 degree maybe

Every degree increase in Brix improves your crops ability to withstand frost by .5 degrees.

[seldomseen]

I was swathing canola last night and when I came home at 4 there was ice on the truck windshield and the truck thermometer said +1! Doesn't look like anything in the garden was touched but I would not be surprised if some low areas had a bit of frost.

I hear lots about how hot it has been this summer but the canola I was swathing last night is L230 that has been 103 days since planting. Seems like a lot of days for a"hot" summer.

[grassfarmer]

Austranada & Furrow, have you started a revolution here? Guys that only this morning were worried whether the frost would kill their weeds before they had a chance to kill them with Roundup are looking up Brix on Google. Will the enthusiasm last when they find it isn't a magic scoring system to allow corner cutting on existing inputs but a whole new way of looking at things - realizing that conventional farming systems (including grass farming) have led to terrible Brix levels and this is an indicator that unhealthy soils = unhealthy plants = unhealthy food = unhealthy people.

Vive la Revolution!!

[Guest]

Austranada & Furrow, have you started a revolution here? Guys that only this morning were worried whether the frost would kill their weeds before they had a chance to kill them with Roundup are looking up Brix on Google. Will the enthusiasm last when they find it isn't a magic scoring system to allow corner cutting on existing inputs but a whole new way of looking at things - realizing that conventional farming systems (including grass farming) have led to terrible Brix levels and this is an indicator that unhealthy soils = unhealthy plants = unhealthy food = unhealthy people.

Vive la Revolution!!

Guys like Gabe Brown and Rick Bieber, pioneers of regenerative farming routinely get Brix readings up to 20. Very little if any acid based fert and "cides".

C'est merveilleux!!

[furrowtickler]

Not really a revolution at all , it’s called thinking for yourself and not being told what to do by mainstream AG. Mainstream AG is out to sell you more shit you don’t need and only benefits them

[grassfarmer]

Furrow, I wasn't meaning that what you were doing was revolutionary - it was the fact that farmers who are farming blindly conventionally were suddenly taking an interest in the word Brix. I hope they follow through on this interest and break out in this new direction. It would maybe finally lay to rest the claims that farming is more about luck than using your brains.

[FarmJunkie]

There’s definitely still luck involved.

[farmaholic]

I am humble enough to realize Mother Nature is the boss and makes the rules and deals the cards....its how I play my hand within the rules she makes is all I can control. Oh yeah she generally plays the last card too....