Podcast Extra: Adjusting Nitrogen Management with John Kempf and MSHC
4/2/20261 hr 1 min
In this webinar for the Minnesota Soil Health Coalition, John Kempf discusses a paradigm shift in nitrogen management . John outlines how moving away from high-electrolyte "chemistry" fertilizers toward biological nutrition can build crop resilience and significantly reduce input costs . By understanding how different forms of nitrogen, such as ammonium and urea versus nitrate, impact plant physiology and water requirements, growers can navigate a transition to a system where soil biology provides the majority of the crop's nutritional needs .
In this webinar, John discusses:
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First 90 secondsJohn Kempf· Host0:00
I was asked to speak about nitrogen management in particular, and perhaps touch on phosphorus management as well, and how we can think differently about managing nitrogen from a plant health perspective and from a soil biology perspective. And particularly when we look at the, the macroeconomic conditions of what's happening and what's going on in the world. You know, many years ago on the podcast, I was having a conversation with Gary Zimmer, and I asked Gary the question, um, "If, if you could wave a magic wand and change one thing, and you're-- with, with the goal and the objectives of, of accelerating the adoption of a different form of agriculture, though," but at, at that point in time, Gary was referring to as a biological agriculture. "If you could wave, wave a magic wand and change one thing, what would it be?" And Gary's answer to that question was, "I would make nitrogen really expensive." And what he intended by that, what he meant by that is that what he had discovered in 30-some years of what he called biological farming is that you can grow your own nitrogen. And he wasn't even talking about cover crops. Cover crops were part of it, but he was t- speaking more about the soil biology and, and the discovery and the realization that soil health and the ability to fix and sequester nitrogen and supply nitrogen to a crop