Straw Will Not Sort Itself

It is very easy to say, “we’ll sort that after harvest”.

It is also very easy to forget that after harvest is exactly when everyone is tired, the sprayer is wanted somewhere else, the weather has started making decisions, and the list of jobs has quietly doubled while nobody was looking.

That is why Bio-Mulch needs to be talked about now.

Not because it needs spraying now. It does not. Bio-Mulch is for once combining is finished, when the crop is off, and the field is left with straw, chaff, roots and stubble. The point is to have it on farm, ready for when that window opens, rather than trying to organise it once the useful bit of timing has already disappeared.

And that timing matters.

Fresh residue, warm soil and a bit of moisture give biology something to work with. That is the moment to start breaking straw and stubble down, while the soil has time to deal with the old crop before it is asked to look after the new one.

That point is often missed.

If residue breakdown is left too late, the soil ends up being asked to do two jobs at once. It has to break down the old crop while also supporting the establishment of the next crop. That splits biological activity, nutrient demand and microbial focus at exactly the time the new seedling needs everything to be working in its favour.

So instead of residue becoming a useful source of nutrients, it can sit there half-finished, tying up nitrogen, holding moisture in the wrong place and making early establishment harder than it needed to be. Which is a fairly standard farming outcome, really. Take one job, leave it slightly too long, then somehow end up with three jobs and a crop looking offended.

Straw is not waste. It is carbon, nutrients and future soil structure. The problem is that none of that helps much while it is sat on top doing a fairly convincing impression of an old doormat.

Bio-Mulch is there to move that residue on.

It contains beneficial microbes, amino nitrogen and a soil-conditioning base. The microbes help break down straw, stubble and tougher crop residues.

The amino nitrogen helps feed that microbial activity, so the breakdown process is supported without the following crop being left short of nitrogen just when it is trying to get going.

As the residue breaks down, nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur and trace elements can move back into the soil system. That is the important bit. This is not just about making the field look tidier. It is about taking what the last crop left behind and getting some value out of it before the next crop has to compete with it.

There is also the disease side, which is often ignored until it becomes expensive enough to be called “interesting”.

Old straw, roots and stubble can carry problems forward. Fusarium, take-all, clubroot and other soil or residue-linked issues do not need much encouragement. If infected material sits there for too long, it can help keep pressure alive into the following crop.

Bio-Mulch helps by speeding up the breakdown of that material and adding beneficial organisms that compete with and disrupt some of the less useful biology in the soil.

It is not a magic disinfectant. A poor rotation does not become a good one because a sprayer went through with a biological product in the tank. If farming worked like that, everyone would be suspicious, and rightly so.

But used properly, Bio-Mulch is a sensible part of residue management. It helps reduce pressure before the next crop is expected to perform, which is generally better than asking a small plant to grow while the soil is still busy digesting last season’s leftovers.

Application is straightforward. Once combining is finished, spray Bio-Mulch onto chopped straw, stubble and post-harvest residues. It fits min-till, strip-till and no-till systems, with light incorporation where appropriate. The usual rate is 50 ltr/ha in 200 ltr/ha plus water, depending on residue load and what you are trying to achieve.

Where straw has been baled, there is still value in treating the remaining stubble, roots and chaff. Where straw is chopped and left, there is more material to recycle, so there is more reason to get the biology moving early.

The benefits are not complicated. Better residue breakdown, cleaner seedbeds, easier drilling, improved nutrient cycling, stronger soil structure, more worm activity and better rooting conditions for the following crop.

None of that is glamorous, but neither is pulling half-rotten straw out of a drill and calling establishment “a bit uneven”.

So the message is simple.

Bio-Mulch does not need spraying today. It needs to be on farm ready for when combining is finished.

If it is in the shed, it can be used in the right window. If it is still just a conversation after harvest, the window can disappear quickly.

And harvest has enough ways of making life difficult without giving straw a head start.

Steve Holloway

Technical Manager

info@soilfertilityservices.co.uk

To learn more:

Bio-Mulch

info@soilfertilityservices.co.uk