Stubble Retention is the Key to Healthier Soils and Plants

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Stubble Retention is the Key to Healthier Soils and Plants In the past four years YLAD Living Soils have successfully supplied the Life-Force® Stubble Digestion Program to farmers for spraying on stubble residues to facilitate breakdown of stubble into beneficial humus. Farmers are beginning to understand the importance of retaining stubble residues to increase soil carbon levels and to aid the overall farm management program.

We cannot hope to sustain and maintain a living soil and increase water holding capacity if there is not a continuous food supply available. Nature’s first concern is always to build more topsoil, so as to protect itself. Nutrients in our soil need to be insoluble but available. This is only possible if we have active soil biota retaining and recycling nutrients making nutrients plant available. High levels of microbe available carbon can be made available by returning cereal stubbles to the soil.

A program to facilitate the decomposition of stubbles is available from YLAD Living Soils. The Life-Force? Stubble Digestion program has been formulated using nine species of hardy drought resistant cellulose and lignin digesting FUNGI. The fungi inoculum is brewed and blended with humic acid, molasses and urea and sprayed on stubbles after harvest. Stubbles can then be successfully grazed by cattle or sheep. This process of decomposing stubbles into a beneficial humus layer protects and equalises soil temperature and retains soil moisture. Trial results are extremely positive showing the increase in soil life (particularly earthworms) when stubbles are retained. ONE PERCENT HUMUS HOLDS 13000 LITRES OF WATER PER HECTARE and acts as a home base for soil microbes, a food source for microbes, and it has a positive effect on soil physical properties.

Wheat is not bread – stubble residues are not humus. Only particles digested by microbes are transformed into valuable plant growth substances and then further reconfigured by enzymatic activity. The Life-Force® Stubble Digestion Program provides necessary fungi to perform this essential step. Stubble that is not digested by microbes is oxidised and of little benefit to the soil or the environment. Many no-till, no-burn farmers are finding that stubbles are not being digested and laying intact on the surface of the soil, not adding any beneficial carbon or bio-mass to the soil. ‘Disease suppression seems to be a function of balance in the microbial population. It is the imbalance introduced by modern farming practices that create the problem’ Phil Fredericks.

This phenomenon is occurring due to the lack of fungal bio-mass present in the soil. The fungi species selected break down more complex compounds such as lignin, which is the shiny outer layer of the straw. By increasing the numbers of beneficial fungi into our soils to out-compete disease causing pathogens future crops show a marked decrease in the level of disease pressure due to the introduction of the Trichoderma species.

With many farmers harvesting and starting to plan for the 2006 sowing season it is now the time to assess what options are available for the disposing of unwanted stubbles in a beneficial and sustainable manner. Choices to date have been limited with many farmers not having sowing equipment to ‘go through’ the retained stubble. Fortunately the Life-Force? Stubble Digestion program breaks down these hard residues into a manageable composted state making it easier to sow through. Burning is now not necessary, save the carbon for the microbes, and don’t pollute the environment.

For further information contact: YLAD Living Soils

Moppity Road
YOUNG NSW 2594
Ph: (02) 6382 2165
Fax: (02) 6382 5439
Email: ylad@dragnet.com.au