Pretend for a minute that the porposed fertilizer reductions are actually about the environment, or emissions.
If we were actually serious about doing this, for all the right reasons, I suggest it could be done, without cutting production, and while inreasing profits. Using existing technology.
My definition would be cutting fertilizer or fertilizer emissions per unit of production. Any other measure is irrelevant. lbs of N per bushel of production has room for improvement.
1) Drainage. Organized, coordinated, large scale. I realize this doesn't apply to all areas of the semi arid prairies, but where excess water is a recurring scourge, the losses due to denitrification and leaching and poor ROI on fertilizer applied, effective drainage would cut fertilizer use per unit of production by a wide margin. Instead we have layers of bureaucracy and NIMBY's and environuts blocking any attempts. In most places it is a very contentious issues with every man for himself with no access to public or communal drainage networks. As an added bonus, ( at least here) the lower areas have such high OM and deep rich soil that they don't require nearly as much fertilizer, specifically N to grow even more yield than the dryland.
2) Irrigation How many dryland acres do not reach the potential that they were fertilized for due to lack or water, or weren't fertilized to their most cost effective potential due to concerns about lack or water. There is no shortage of water across the prairies. Proven to be very effective across Southern Alberta and into Saskatchewan. Providing the ability to fertigate, to apply nutrients at exactly the right time and rate, reducing risk of leaching, denitrification, or run off. Increased production per acre would reduce over all emissions/energy input per unit of production, since most other inputs are fixed. It doesn't require more seed or herbicide or fuel to grow the crop when the yield is double or triple.
Even better yet, irrigation and drainage together to help repair saline soils so they can grow to the potential that they are fertilized for.
We have already wasted billions on climate scams, if we would have invested that into drainage and irrigation, we would have something very tangible to show for it that would last for generations to come.
3) Accurate long term weather forecasts This might be a pipe dream, and might involve technology that doesn't yet exist, but if we spent a fraction the money on this that we waste on prognosticating about global warming, there are bound to be improvements. If I could know my upcoming growing season weather before seeding, I could plan accordingly. cut back on the low areas and grow water tolerant crops on a wet year, give the low areas everything on a dry year, grow short season crops on a frost prone year, etc. Opposite for those in dry areas of course. This would reduce the wasted fertilizer on places or times when mother nature doesn't cooperate.
4) Encourage livestock, especially livestock integration with grain. And this should have been #1. I don't need to explain to this crowd why this is necessary. The current mindset and profitability and subsidies and insurance have exactly the opposite effect. Shipping all the nutrients to intensive livestock in feedlot alley, or overseas, where there is already an excess of nutrients is not sustainable long term. I really think that tweaks to crop insurance and other programs could encourage livestock producers and grain producers to work together on using by products, and grazing stubble and spreading manure further than the 10 acres by the barn, and returning the nutrients directly by feeding in the same place where the nutrients came from. We are hollowing out our cattle sector at an alarming rate, and they truly are the most sustainable form of agriculture we have. If we really wanted to encourage sustainable organic production, it is going to require massive amounts of livestock. The attacks on livestock by animal rights and global warming zealots and NIMBY's are doing immeasurable harm to any attempts to reduce fertilizer use or get to sustainable agriculture.
I will add more as I get time. What else do you have to add to the list?
If we were actually serious about doing this, for all the right reasons, I suggest it could be done, without cutting production, and while inreasing profits. Using existing technology.
My definition would be cutting fertilizer or fertilizer emissions per unit of production. Any other measure is irrelevant. lbs of N per bushel of production has room for improvement.
1) Drainage. Organized, coordinated, large scale. I realize this doesn't apply to all areas of the semi arid prairies, but where excess water is a recurring scourge, the losses due to denitrification and leaching and poor ROI on fertilizer applied, effective drainage would cut fertilizer use per unit of production by a wide margin. Instead we have layers of bureaucracy and NIMBY's and environuts blocking any attempts. In most places it is a very contentious issues with every man for himself with no access to public or communal drainage networks. As an added bonus, ( at least here) the lower areas have such high OM and deep rich soil that they don't require nearly as much fertilizer, specifically N to grow even more yield than the dryland.
2) Irrigation How many dryland acres do not reach the potential that they were fertilized for due to lack or water, or weren't fertilized to their most cost effective potential due to concerns about lack or water. There is no shortage of water across the prairies. Proven to be very effective across Southern Alberta and into Saskatchewan. Providing the ability to fertigate, to apply nutrients at exactly the right time and rate, reducing risk of leaching, denitrification, or run off. Increased production per acre would reduce over all emissions/energy input per unit of production, since most other inputs are fixed. It doesn't require more seed or herbicide or fuel to grow the crop when the yield is double or triple.
Even better yet, irrigation and drainage together to help repair saline soils so they can grow to the potential that they are fertilized for.
We have already wasted billions on climate scams, if we would have invested that into drainage and irrigation, we would have something very tangible to show for it that would last for generations to come.
3) Accurate long term weather forecasts This might be a pipe dream, and might involve technology that doesn't yet exist, but if we spent a fraction the money on this that we waste on prognosticating about global warming, there are bound to be improvements. If I could know my upcoming growing season weather before seeding, I could plan accordingly. cut back on the low areas and grow water tolerant crops on a wet year, give the low areas everything on a dry year, grow short season crops on a frost prone year, etc. Opposite for those in dry areas of course. This would reduce the wasted fertilizer on places or times when mother nature doesn't cooperate.
4) Encourage livestock, especially livestock integration with grain. And this should have been #1. I don't need to explain to this crowd why this is necessary. The current mindset and profitability and subsidies and insurance have exactly the opposite effect. Shipping all the nutrients to intensive livestock in feedlot alley, or overseas, where there is already an excess of nutrients is not sustainable long term. I really think that tweaks to crop insurance and other programs could encourage livestock producers and grain producers to work together on using by products, and grazing stubble and spreading manure further than the 10 acres by the barn, and returning the nutrients directly by feeding in the same place where the nutrients came from. We are hollowing out our cattle sector at an alarming rate, and they truly are the most sustainable form of agriculture we have. If we really wanted to encourage sustainable organic production, it is going to require massive amounts of livestock. The attacks on livestock by animal rights and global warming zealots and NIMBY's are doing immeasurable harm to any attempts to reduce fertilizer use or get to sustainable agriculture.
I will add more as I get time. What else do you have to add to the list?
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