Exhausting crop profits in a tough year

Twelve months ago they were as near to broke as you could get but they played one last roll of the dice using a patented Canadian system of injecting tractor exhaust emissions into the soil at seeding.

The couple couldn't afford to buy the whole system so Ian made his own heat exchanger to defray costs.

Harvesting a 0.8t/ha wheat crop recently, Ian reminds himself of the leap of faith he took with Jodi.

And Jodi can't remember being as excited as she stands in a crop of Carolup oats going 2t/ha after copping many frosts.

The couple used no compound fertiliser, nitrogen or top ups on the crops this year. Yet in mid-July, plant tissue tests revealed luxury levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and all other required nutrients.

Ian is now excited at the prospect of also growing higher quality export hay and also improving pastures for a 2200 ewe flock (Prime SAMM-Awassi-cross) which he produces for the lamb trade.

"We think we are benefiting from reintroducing biological health as a priority in our soils. We've never had our lambs finish so quick," Jodi said. "They were in top condition and even our eight-year-old Prime SAMM ewes look fat and strong.

"The pastures where we inoculated with fungi/bacteria biology and included NTS soluble humate granules - which are high in available potassium and carbon - in a trial last year didn't hay off as quick and the quality of feed was excellent."

Since Farm Weekly's exclusive report in July, revealing the James' foray into a new world of crop nutrient technology, the pair have been flooded with phone calls from farmers throughout Australia keen to learn about the technology.

"We've been interviewed on internet rural live TV since the Farm Weekly story and we've even had New Zealand farmers ringing and visiting us after seeing the story on FarmOnline," Ian said.

So much for the crackpot theory.

"Results don't lie and the results we have got this year in one of our driest ever seasons gives us plenty of hope that we're at least a chance of managing our upfront costs and risks to produce profitable crops in extremely low yielding years" Ian said.

Jodi's enthusiasm bubbles over as she points to a trial paddock of Magenta wheat.

"Come and have a look at this," she said. "Can you see the line between where we only used emissions and where we used emissions with worm leachate (worm pee) collected from our own worm farms."

The latter was applied at a rate of 5L/ha with 50L/ha of water.

Harvest results reveal a gas-only plot yielded 0.8t/ha while gas and worm leachate yielded 1.2t/ha.

"If you can grow these crops in a drought year there has got to be plenty of potential for higher yielding crops in even an average rainfall year," Jodi said.

The irony, says Ian, is that taking a conventional approach to cropping this year would have been a disaster.

"I don't believe I would have yielded any more if I had followed the standard fertiliser recommendations but I would have squandered my profit margin before I even had a germination.

The system's inventor, Canadian farmer Gary Lewis (see story opposite page), visited Ian and Jodi last year after a keynote address at a Carbon Farming Conference Expo in Orange, NSW.

The fifth generation farmer from Alberta, has patented the emissions system calling it Bioagtive.

"It's all about letting Mother Nature do what she does best," he said. "Every plant has its own ability to make its own fertilisers.

"We are hitting brick walls with our synthetic farming because the introduced fertilisers interfere with soil biology.

"While we are still researching and testing the 30 different minerals contained in the engine exhaust emissions, it is clear the emissions are assisting the soil biology to unlock nutrients and make them plant available.

"In NSW, we have farmers growing 6t/ha crops on no fertiliser and the only problem they have is high protein in their malt barley."

Interestingly, Mr Lewis said the perception that "dirty emissions" engines had to be used was wrong.

"Our testing is showing that (reduced emissions) Tier Four engines may be better because of the finer particles created by the engine combustion.

"Remember we're talking about a micro world and there's still a whole range of factors in that world we need to learn about."

Farmers wanting to use the BAE system require a license from Mr Lewis' company, N/C Quest Incorporated.

The web site is www. Bioagtive.com

More information: Ian and Jodi James 0429 303131.