We’ve applied a ton per acre of calcium sulfate each fall for the past three seasons — and we’ve seen soils mellow out and absorb rain more readily.
This week, we saw one new random-rep corn yield trial indicating that there’s a 10-bu. potential corn yield increase following an application of gypsum from stack scrubbers. The material tested was “Power SC” from BRT Ag & Turf.
That data was reported by Jerry Hatfield, laboratory director and Supervisory Plant Physiologist at the National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment. (Formerly National Soil Tilth Lab.)
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We suspected that kind of response but hadn’t done a strip trial on it. We spread it each fall on every acre, buying the product from BRT Ag & Turf at Ladora, IA. It’s too fine a material to apply alone with a spinner spreader. It takes a specialized metering type of dry spreader.
We get around that by mixing it 50-50 with ag lime just before spreading with a regular lime application floater truck. This mixing must be done just a few minutes before spreading, as the calcium sulfate reacts aggressively with ag lime. You don’t want a spinner truck full of concrete.
Hatfield was speaking at the summer field day of BRT Ag & Turf.
USDA’s Agricultural Research Service scientists in Indiana published a detailed fact sheet on benefits of gypsum in 2006. That data showed a 10-bu. corn yield increase by adding gypsum. You can download the PDF at this link.