Rich Mort is a fourth generation farmer. He and his dad own about 2,000 acres of property in Pendleton, Indiana.
Growing conditions have been pretty good this season, and Mort's fields look beautiful. However, before the growing season in 2013 Mort noticed his corn plants had a distinctive yellowish color.
The crops were sulfur deficient, a condition which has impacted Mort's corn and soybeans. Mort explains that corn plants that don't get enough sulfur develop yellow streaks on their leaves.
It's something that's impacting a lot of farmers, and it's a growing problem.
The Clean Air Act's unintended consequence
The Clean Air Act was amended in 1990 to strengthen air pollution requirements. The plan was to make the air better. However, Purdue University Agronomy Professor Richard Grant says the tougher requirements created unexpected consequences.
"When soot got out of the smoke stack, suddenly we had acid rain, and so they cut the SO2 out of the smoke stack and now we have lack of sulfur for crops," Grant says.
The Environmental Protection Agency requires ash be removed from flu gas, which ultimately removes metals. The federal government says the amount of sulfur absorbed into the soil from rainfall fell by an average of 62 percent in the eastern United States from 1989 to 2013.
And sulfur is essential.
"Plants can't complete their life cycle without it," says Purdue Agronomy Professor Jim Camberato. "It's incorporated into protein."
Camberato says most plants need between 20 to 50 pounds of sulfur every year. The amount of sulfur plants get has been decreasing consistently over the last 30 or so years. But it's decreased by half in the last five years, which Grant says makes the issue substantial in Indiana.
"The state is getting about 10 pounds per acre in the north and something a little less than 20 pounds per acre in the south, and it's not enough."
"Now, we sit in the situation where the state is getting about 10 pounds per acre in the north and something a little less than 20 pounds per acre in the south, and it's not enough," Grant says.
Farmers can apply sulfur supplements - and many do - but some don't when they need to. For Mort and his dad last year, it was both.
"We planted the same maturity corn," Mort says. "The same day, the same population, the same tillage practice, same everything." "The only difference was that I variable rated my fertilizer and I put on a ton to the acre of gypsum. My dad straight rated his fertilizer and he put on no gypsum."
Gypsum is calcium sulfate dihydrate, a natural mineral. An agronomist suggested Mort use the product after sampling and testing his soil. However, Mort's dad didn't want to pay for it.
For the half of the corn that received the supplement, Mort calls the results remarkable.
"You were driving 50 miles an hour down the road and there was a very distinct line where our corn that I put gypsum on was dark healthy green. Where dad did not, it had a very yellow sulfur deficient look to it," Mort says.
That was just the physical appearance though. They saw even more positive results once they shelled the corn.
"When we got the data out of the 2630 John Deere display that we run and we compared that in Apex, it ended up being a 42 bushel an acre difference," Mort says.
Not only that, but after breaking down the cost-per-acre, Mort's input-cost was $19 an acre cheaper than his dad's.
Gypsoil is a company that produces and sells gypsum by cleaning sulfur from the admissions of coal-fired power utilities. Gypsoil Chief Agronomist and Director of Research Ron Chamberlain says, for Mort, gypsum provided the sulfur in the right form and at the right time.
"It's critical in the timing that the plant get that sulfur," Chamberlain says. "Not only in the beginning, but throughout it's life. But, certainly in the beginning as the yields are being established."
Mort is proud of the results, but he and agronomy experts stress that farming is situational and Mother Nature plays a critical role in how the season turns out. Mort says it's impossible to take all of the risk out of the farming industry, but adapting different practices and trying new technology is the best way to learn what works best.
"IÂ ordered a crystal ball for farming, it just hasn't showed up yet," Mort says.
