"Best?"

[furrowtickler]

Joe, shane, Ag-guy, ado - what are your opinions/thoughts on this product? We are going to get into it this spring after researching it and talking to farmers who are using it. Too many benifits to ignore.

[AG_guy]

Are you talking about the company

Best Envirnmental Technologies

[furrowtickler]

Yes, and their CFF. Looking at adding it to the Alpine and with the herbicide.

[AG_guy]

Furrow i think you know were i stand on soil health and plant health. Also i have said straight out that today fertilzer rates have been destroying our soil and this is why in the last 10 years we have seen fungicides used alot, higher input costs, and crops that drop yield if everything is not perfect. Also these input costs are out of hand. Its almost as if they want to keep you in debt so you have no choice to buy there products.

I have been studying this for some years now and the evidence is right there in your soil tests but yet retailers still don't except this. For this reason i stand behind these biofertilizer 1000% and this has to be put into practice before we loose our soils life .

With that being said what do i think of BEST. I think enough of what they are doing that i called the company and i am now an indendent rep for BEST and will be doing consults through out the year when possible and starting this fall full on. I also have two other companies i have spoke to and should be representing them as well.

With the three companies i WILL be able to fix any soil out there and be able to help in growing some of the best crops out there.

[furrowtickler]

We have been working above ground trying to max out yeilds and the more I see products like Dyna grow and hopefully Best work, we can get our soil back in shape. We quit NH3 8 years ago and that alone has improved our soil tilth dramaticaly. Alpine does nothing to harm/improve the soil but is 70% more efficient than 12-51. I beleive by adding CFF to our program we will get results that others are seeing. I agree the more salts we add to the soil(fert,glyfos ect) the more harm we are doing in the long term health of the biological activity in the soil profile.
I heard about best a few years ago, I just wish I would have listened a little closer. Also adding 2-3% O.M. in three years is impresssive.
Adding more acres and iron is going to kill some of the farmers, but getting more out of what you have and having sustainable soil will be much more profitable in the next few years.
I have heard so many guys say this - "I would rather farm x instead of 2x", but they end up doing it anyway. The industry is pushing us to do so.
Thanks Ag guy for your opinions here over the last year it has pushed us to look deeper into out own farm and look farther out side the box.

[Jay-mo]

Does BEST have a website containing more info?

[AG_guy]

www.bestenvirotech.com.

This is just another reason why i wanted to represent this company. They own there own soil labto, so we can send your soil and tissue tests there. When we can send in samples the BEST reps can talk to the lab and the lab can talk to us. We can really narrow down whats going on in your field and focus on certian aspects to get improvments happening quick.

Now when i mean quick you need to realize that damge caused my over using products has happened over 10-20 years there is no product that can reverse this in one season and retials will try to hit on this that there was no improvement in the first year. there will be changes you will just have to know what to look for and we can show you. Most retails can figure out your bill faster then whats going on with your soil test.(ouch) If you adopt these practices you will not spend more time in the field thats not how it works . Your inputs will be reduced and a good average yieled can be attained on good years and even the bad. When canola on a good year runs 35 bu/ac so will you and higher but when in a bad year when everyone gets 30 you'll still be at 34-35.

Jay - Furrow and everyone else pick up the phone and call a rep and ask questions. It doesn't cost anything and you will find education is high on our list. It not like a ag retail that just tells you half the story, we educate you on what happening and how to fix it. We don't want you depending on us for everything if we educate you then you can see the problems and know the solution. I don;t belive in keeping guys in the dark so they always have to come through the door and maybe i can sell them something. education is key. And another thing if your going to do this don't do this 40 acre try, do 160 acrs min. Its easier for us to work with one field as a whole. If you just use it on 40 acre then what condition is that 40 acres in ?? Your soil and zones within your soil change throughout your field. And when you see it work and then apply it to the whole field you have a section that will be in year two and the rest of the field will always be behind. Which doesn't make sense.

[FarmRanger]

Hey guys, if someone is telling you that they've increased soil organic matter by 2 to 3% in 3 years, your BS detector should be screaming like an air raid siren. The math just doesn't work. Even if every last bit of carbon sequestered by your growing crop was sequestered into your soil, it's just not possible.

All I'm saying is do your homework before you bet the farm on this, or any other new practice.

[AG_guy]

ranger what are you talking about?? that wasn't even mentioned ANYWHERE in this conversation.

Ranger do your homework soil micro oranismism and soil live have been around longer then human life plants have been around just as long, But yet most guys no nothing about them. The circle of life is very simple follow the natural circle and it pays do shortcuts and it will bite you in the ass. farmranger you are likely a guy who doesn't like new thing or change and thats fine. keep farming the way you do nobody is trying to stop you. Listen to your retailer or whoever instead of actual soil scientists or or people with PHD's in soil microbiology .

Ranger do this look up how nutrients are converted to plant available nutrients . look up the nitrogen cyle ect and notice how its done break the cycle by removing soil life and see what would happen. the cycle is broken pretty simple.

[FarmRanger]

My apologies if my previous post was perceived as an attack against your company.

Quoting furrowtickler at 19:52
"I heard about best a few years ago, I just wish I would have listened a little closer. Also adding 2-3% O.M. in three years is impresssive."
unquote

I just assumed that furrowtickler had been told this by someone from that company. If they said that, then I would be skeptical of any claims they make. I'm not saying it's all BS, but just warning the readers here to use their judgment if someone makes outrageous claims about any products performance.

FYI, I will adopt new technologies that make sense and are proven, and I do think that the health of the soil biosphere is extremely important to the long term productivity of my land. The single practice of the elimination of tillage has shown dramatic improvement of my soil over the last several years, without the benefit of other any commercial soil additives.

[Ron]

Ag_Guy, Furrow mentioned 2-3% OM increase just above your post.
What the heck is BEST? I looked at the website and it doesnt tell me anything other than "we are wonderful, our products fix anything, we have your solution" What are the products?

Thanks
Ron

[AG_guy]

Sorry to jump the gun but it blows me away at guys who say watch out for ag products. Oh and its not my company.

To start biofertilzer comapanies have been around for 30 years some 20 some 10. If you added up the acres just in manitoba, saskatchewan and alberta that have these products on would be likely near 2 million acres maybe three. Biofertilizer it used all over the world from Egypt to Aultralia. Biofertilzer has been backed by some of the top researches in the world including biologist from the USDA. Soil health and life and protecting it from harmful substances goes back 60 years and further. Over fertlization was even mentioned back in 1921 and the effects it can have. This is not a new thing its been studied and talked about even before you were born.

The problem been the effects takes time to destroy the soil life and lately we have been hearing more and more of these comments . 15 years ago weeds weren't this bad, we never used pesticides or fungicides 15 years ago, My fertilizer bill keeps going up and up but my yield doesn't, my soil is harder the it use to be , i have salinity were i neer had it before, i can't pay my bills so i have to sell the farm we have all heard these comments. The reason being is that what we were warned about is happening the decline of our soils.

Biofertilizers 100% start rebuilding soil life and rejuvenate soils. They reduce the amount of fertilizer your killing your soil with. They can replace 40 lbs of in ground nitrogen with one litre of product. Everything in these products are natural and very high grade so small amounts are needed, plants love whats in these products and so do the microganisms. But they also found spinoffs like increased root mass, seed protection against soil disease, the increase soil tilth, they speed up decomposition, they can get rid of salinity, and the list goes on and on. And most of it is foliar applied so it also increase herbicied intake so beter kill. When you start bring your soil back into health your plants become less stressed and healthier. When this happens typically fungicides are not used pesticed used are alot less, You plants can deal with weather better and less fertilizer is used just like ot was 15-20 years ago but we keep todays yield because we are still adding the same amount of nutrients just a different way.
take 46-0-0 its 46% nitrogen whats the other 54% 0-0-60 whats the other 40% and prills in the ground is one of the most inefficient ways to fertilize.

Each company is abit different BEST CFF is pretty simple and can be customized to what you need . You can ad a little bit more or less of what ever you need. So if you want a half a pound more an acre of boron done, if you want more copper done without buying another premade bag of product that usually has other nutrients you may not want in there added to your blend .

In the three provinces there are at least 5 companies that are out there doing this with huge sucsess. Guys are having more money in the bank, using less inputs, crops are better, soil is better and yield is better. Most products run about 5 buck an acre and maybe two or three are used, so your into it for 10-15 bucks an acre. But then your Nitrogen us cut back anywere from 10-50 pounds, P,K,can usally be cut back, fungicieds are not used, and some guys are cutting there herbicids 25 -50% so it's not costing anything more just using what you got better.

The key is to leave your soil in better condition in the fall then when you sarted in the spring. If you can do this then what you are doing is rebuilding your soil, managing your soil for the next year, and making sure your profits are has high as possible and having that soil for the next generation.

Biofertilizers have been around longer then most every product you use on your fields today.

If i was sitting at your table with a group of farmers what i just talked about would only be about 15% of what i could talk about.

So what does BEST do, they are in the biofertilizer industry and what biofertilzerd do they do. I've mentioned i have ties with another comapny to that i think do some outstanding work as well. Each company is equal just they have done testing in different areas so depending on your soil ect would depend on which company is the right choice on your farm.

I do consult on this, I don;t charge a fee for this , i don't give away free pens and hats and foam drink coolers, i don't do discounts ( i treat everyone the same) I don't keep calling you every second day, I give you as much information as i possibly can then you have to make the decision yourself . All i ask is that there are a few people there like yourself and 3-5 farmers there to. Think about this for the fall.

[FarmRanger]

Urea, or 46-0-0 is 46% nitrogen atom by weight. The N in urea is in a form that plants can actually use in soil. 100% nitrogen would be N2 gas, and not much good to plants as a fertilizer. Same goes for the K in potash.

What we don't know is what is in bio-fertilizer. If one liter replaces 40 pounds of nitrogen, I want to know how it does this. Is N2 gas being fixed from the atmosphere for use by the plant? Is tied-up nitrogen just being released back into the soil, like when we kill soil organisms with tillage? Can I read for myself the scientific methods used in their research papers to verify claims? Have these claims been scientifically verified by other unbiased independent scientists? If not, does it work better than pixie dust?

Just wondering.

[AG_guy]

When your sick and go to the doctor do you question whats in your perscription and ask if its pixie dust and say is it BS and ask for proof that it works, or do you just open your mouth and swallow cause he says it works ??

You put more effort in argueing about somthing that can give you better crops and more money then your own life. 85% of all farmers who purchase these products never ask whats in them or pick them apart. they look at the history, go by other farmers buy it apply it and are happy and are repeat buyers. Dam rager your retailer must be tired of having to know whats in EVERY chemical, fertilizer pesrticide, fungcide, what the ink is made out of what the paper is made of.

If you want to argue with 30 years of proven track record and hunderd of happy farmers and thousand of improved acres and farmers who are more then happy to give video testimony and over the phone references then so be it. I guess there are some guys who just don't need to make any extra money they have lots.

[FarmRanger]

When I go to the doctor, I make sure he has his medical degree hanging on the wall of his office. That makes him a trustworthy source. If my neighbor tells me to take some medicine, I would check it out with my doctor first. Does that make me a dinosaur?

You did peg me on one thing though, my retailer knows I want to know whats in any product he's trying to sell me. I usually check it out with trustworthy sources, like the crop protection guide, or even some internet sources. When I checked out Best, all I got was what Ron summarized "we are wonderful, our products fix anything, we have your solution".

My next question would be “WHY don't they tell you what they're selling?”.

I had an experience back in the 80s with a salesman in my yard trying to sell me a product with lots of claims about salinity control. He was reluctant to tell me what it was made of, and I wouldn't even consider applying it without that information. So, he phoned his supplier, found out what it was, and after telling me, I found out that the active part of the molecule, that was supposed to do the job was exactly the same found in a common fertilizer. The other part of the molecule was Sodium, as in Sodum chloride, or table salt. I informed him that his product couldn't possibly be better than a common fertilizer product available from my local retailer for 1/10th the price.

Oh, and he had pictures and testimonials too.