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Russell Taylor, vice president of Live Earth Products, an organic fertilizer producer based in Utah, attended the World Ag Expo to showcase his products, which include soil conditioners and livestock supplements. Photo by Frank Lopez

published on April 10, 2024 - 2:30 PM
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When it comes to agriculture, conservation might not be the sexiest topic, but for the industry, it’s crucial.

Along with leaving a smaller environmental impact, conservating resources such as water, labor, soil nutrients and fuel saves money as well as time.

Artificial intelligence (AI), automated farm vehicles and equipment, aerial drones and advancements in water science are helping growers, farmers, food processors, livestock ranchers and many others in the industry spend less to produce more.

Conservation, and sustainability in business, was an overarching theme for this year’s World Ag Expo in February, with companies from all over showcasing new — and some old but refined — methods to meet industry needs.

Russell Taylor, vice president of Live Earth Products, an organic fertilizer producer based in Utah, attended the World Ag Expo to showcase his products, which include soil conditioners and livestock supplements.

Live Earth utilizes humic acids, which are organic molecules Taylor says improve soil properties and plant growth.

Taylor is also 2023’s Conservationist of the Year, recognized by professional group Certified Crop Adviser for his dedication to advancing conservation through agricultural practices.

Factors including lower precipitation levels, high heat and unpredictable weather make conservation and nutrient use efficiency crucial to the health and success of a grower’s crops.

“There’s more awareness about the cost of fertilizer and the impact on the environment” Taylor said. “We are overusing these inputs to achieve yields. Instead of using more, why don’t we impact from a nutrient efficiency output. We use less because we lose less.”

By looking at soil health — the capacity of soil to function as an ecosystem that sustains plants — farmers could impact fertility by letting nutrients and other inputs remain longer in the soil.

The costs add up and have fluctuated upward. Taylor noted that 2020-21 prices for fertilizers, urea-based for example, went from $200-$300 a ton to about $1,200 a ton.

Before the sharp price increase, farmers were not as interested in using Live Earths products, but after, farmers we’re more attuned to use and efficiency and turned their attentions towards conservation, he said.

Even though fertilizer prices have come down, Taylor said, farmers are still wanting focus on conservation going forward.

Taylor said that outdated laws lump products that impact plant growth with pesticides. There’s an effort from the so-called biostiumulant industry to get some laws changed.

Another player recognized for innovative technology is Michael Santiago, CEO of Davis-based water use efficiency company FloraPulse, which also attended the World Ag Expo.

Founded by Santiago, a Puerto Rican native, in 2017, FloraPulse was chosen as the Sustainability Innovation of the Year in 2022 by CleanStart, a nonprofit accelerating development of clean technology ventures in Northern California.

FloraPulse was recognized for its compact technology to measure water stress in orchard crops and vineyards continuously to determine the optimal amount of irrigation required, which reduces waste.

The system works with a microchip tensiometer embedded into the tree wood tissue that directly measures the water status, known as water potential.

“Humans have a blood pressure and a heartbeat, and the pressure goes up and down once a second. You want to keep your blood pressure at a certain level or you might have a stroke. Trees have the same thing where the pressure goes up and down once a day,” Santiago said.

If a tree is too wet, or has high pressure, it is more susceptible to diseases or its roots might drown, and if it’s too low, leaves can droop and dry out.

The idea is to “keep the tree as happy as possible” for better yields, Santiago said.

The FloraPulse system includes probes, cellular or radio-powered dataloggers, visualization, and more to ensure real time stem water potential data.


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