The agent BioAktiv-P stimulates soil life, speeding up digestion of crop residues and humus formation. As a result, more nutrients become available to the plants and the soil becomes looser. This stimulates the root system, thereby increasing yields. Livestock farmer and arable farmer George Luijten from Etten-Leur tested it in his crops and is enthusiastic about the effect.
George Luijten often tries new things on his farm, he says at the kitchen table. The livestock and arable farmer in Etten-Leur, Noord-Brabant, values the health of his soil and livestock. He got in touch with Roy Smets of the company Topturn Special Products and decided to do trials with BioAktiv-P. Topturn has the exclusive rights to distribute BioAktiv for the Benelux and Denmark.
Luijten has a cropping plan with grass, fodder beets, alfalfa and corn. Last year, he sprayed BioAktiv-P at the same time as a foliar fertilizer in alfalfa and corn.
He is enthusiastic about its effect. He does not yet have hard numbers after a one-year trial, but he does have a strong impression that crop yields were higher in the plots where he administered BioAktiv-P.
Crops grow best when soil life is functioning optimally
Smets, who has also joined his colleague Ruud Clephas at the kitchen table, explains what BioAktiv-P does in the soil. 'It stimulates soil life. A small donation already has a clear effect. The growth of favorable aerobic, oxygen-loving bacteria increases greatly, which also means that microorganisms in the soil develop better.'
Its effect is to speed up the digestion of crop residues and humus formation. The nutrients from this organic material thus become more available to the roots of the crop. This is an advantage especially with high fertilizer prices.
BioAktiv-P thus provides a boost to soil life. This also makes the soil looser and more porous. As a result, the crop's root system experiences less resistance and it gets more room to develop. The better the root system develops, the more vital the crop is and the higher the yield potential. A more vital crop is also less susceptible to disease. If a crop can grow undisturbed, diseases and pests have less of a hold on it.
'Crops grow best when soil life is functioning optimally,' Smets explains. 'Lots of soil life means looser soil with a high absorption capacity. You see that in both dry and wet seasons. Such a soil also warms up faster in the spring, allowing the growing season to start earlier.'
Trials in various countries and crops have demonstrated the higher yield potential. In trials at the University of Osnabrück, BioAktiv-P was shown to give increased yields of more than 10 percent when applied at 2 kilograms per hectare.
Growers in many European countries are now using BioAktiv-P to achieve better soil and higher yields. The pesticide is relatively new in the Netherlands, but in a country like the Czech Republic, where arable farmers have been applying it for some time, the area where it is done has already grown to some 120,000 hectares.
Smets explains that trials on plots of field vegetables show that BioAktiv-P improves the shelf life of those vegetables. Those trials took place at several farms. 'In addition, we also see a clear yield increase in trials on corn and grassland, in practice of at least 10 percent. 'A crop is more vital when it gets the right nutrients and trace elements,' Smets says. 'That's the same with people.'
BioAktiv-P was developed specifically for crops. Other forms of BioAktiv have beneficial effects on other parts of the farm operation. For example, Luijten also uses BioAktiv to dissolve a thick solid crust on manure in the manure pit. "You then just see it happen that over time that crust dissolves.
With manure, the change in biology is easy to see, but it is much more difficult to see what happens in the soil after BioAktiv-P is applied. It translates into better crop growth, but that is not always observable with the naked eye.
That is why Topturn uses a so-called Farmlab. One minute after taking a soil sample with this device, the grower already receives a comprehensive soil analysis in his mailbox. The soil sample is specific to that moment and place; the time and GPS coordinates are included. 'It's real-time research,' Smets says. 'This allows us to show that something is happening in the soil and that when BioAktiv-P is applied, mineral availability improves.'
Farmlab analyses show that there are often large differences within plots. Smets still remembers the first time he used the Farmlab. "That can't be!" he thought when he saw the pH value of a spot. But measurements at different spots on the plot still showed an average pH value that matched the pH value indicated by other soil analyses. 'That does indicate that there can be large differences within a plot. Those differences are often not visible to the eye.'
For crop growers who apply BioAktiv-P on more than 15 hectares and want more insight into what is happening in their soil, Smets or his colleague Ruud Clephas visit with the Farmlab. Smets: "We find that this helps to make growers more aware of what is happening in the soil.
In practice it has already been proven on a large scale that something happens in the soil after administration of Bioaktiv-P and that the soil and plants become more vital, Smets indicates. 'Plant vitality is becoming increasingly important,' he states. 'Vital plants are less susceptible to diseases and pests. Especially now that more agents are disappearing, this is becoming increasingly important.'
BioAktiv-P can be either sprayed or spread over a crop. Livestock and arable farmer George Luijten sprayed the pesticide together with foliar fertilizers. Growers in other countries usually spray BioAktiv-P in combination with herbicides or fungicides. This can be done in all common arable and outdoor vegetable crops. There is another practical way to apply it, explains Roy Smets of Topturn, namely as part of a fast-acting lime fertilizer. Topturn Special Products has the exclusive rights to distribute BioAktiv in the Netherlands. Growers can simply spread it over the crop with the lime fertilizer using the fertilizer spreader. Growers without a sprayer can thus apply BioAktiv-P themselves at the most convenient time. 'You then kill three birds with one stone,' says Smets. 'You combine a good lime fertilizer for the soil, BioAktiv to stimulate soil life and you keep the pH at the right level.'
