Maximizing Efficiency

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Welcome to the EZ Ag podcast where innovative farming meets practical solutions. I'm your host Matt Long, and today we're going to start something new for the new year. We're joined by our guest Matt Bornhorst. Matt is the Western US Sales Division Manager for BW Fusion and we just wrapped up a couple days of meetings with growers here in our office about BW and some of their products. And so, I want to give Matt the opportunity to talk to us a little bit about, what his takeaways are from those meetings, but also, Matt and I have known each other for six or seven years. We kind of got into this biological space together, with Pivot Bio back in 2019 or 2020, time frame. And so, give him a little bit of an opportunity to share, you know what got you into this space? Where are you now? Where'd you come from, and what are your overall thoughts on the biological space in agriculture?

Yeah, so so glad to be with you guys. It's such an exciting time in agriculture and a changing time in agriculture that we've got to embrace the reality of trying to grow a crop with less synthetic fertilizer. And I think for me, this goes all the way back to when I was a little kid, curious about asking my grandfather and my father when we were in the tractor, kind of how things work and why things work. And it wasn't until an adult that I really saw that we had wild inefficiencies in how we farmed and how we were chemically dependent on fertilizer to grow our crop. And by doing so, we really made our crop lazy and didn't have to have our soils work for us because we've spoonfed it our synthetic fertilizer. And that recognizing that got us to the point of saying, "Hey, I think there's a better way to farm. I think there's a new way to do things that gives us some inside perspective on lessening our dependence on synthetic fertilizer." And I think the whole key, you hit it on the top. I mean, we've done this, you and I for six, seven years, and the reality is, can we do more with less, but not sacrifice anything from a yield standpoint? And that part is pretty exciting.

Yeah. So, we've talked a lot about that the last couple of days, you know, products that we can use to, you know, replace synthetic fertilizer, the processes in the soil that make that a reality, and how growers can use that on their farm. And so give us a couple points, you know, of takeaways from the last two days of meeting with these growers, things you think guys should be thinking about and different things that you guys brought into here to share with them that could help a broader audience than what we had here the last two days.

Yeah, it comes down to maximizing our efficiency. Every dollar that we spend on fertility, we've got to understand how and why. And so the message that we've been trying to visit with folks about over the last couple of days, which I think really resonates, is that time equals tie-up. When we put fertilizer out, and it's in our fields for any amount of time, it's either tied up or there's a degradation. We never have as much on day two as we did on day one. And I think recognizing that and bringing that full circle to become more efficient with the dollars that we're spending has been our overall message, that we have an opportunity to recognize that when we put fertilizer out there, and we don't have a growing crop, how do we get it into a usable form? And recognizing that time and tie up equals lost dollars and being efficient with every dollar in our commodity market today has got to be our number one goal. And when we put fertilizer out and it yes, it's out there, but it's not available to that crop when that crop needs it. That's the efficiency factor that we're trying to get better and better at. And so as we've visited with everybody over the last few days, I think it's been extremely impactful as we talk about that fertilizer budget and then repurposing that fertilizer budget that gives people some perspective of making sure that we're making the right decisions to get fertilizer into that plant or that nutrient availability into that plant. And it does come down to nutrient cycling and how we begin to take nutrients and have that soil work for us in concert with that plant, and that they work together, and building carbon structure in that soil builds an overall happy, healthy plant.

Okay. So then the last thing I'd like to ask you about today, you know, a lot of growers right now, they've wrapped up harvest, they're looking through the data out of their combines and stuff like that. They're meeting with the retailers, pulling soil samples, you know, just starting that planning of their fertilizer plans for next year. And so, what's your number one go-to, in 2026 as these guys are putting their plans together.

It's really analyzing what the pain points are, where we are the least efficient with our fertilizer dollars. So we've been talking all for the last couple days around products that can provide better efficiency. So in timing and application. So if we think about our input costs, one of the biggest messages that we've heard today or over the last couple of days is we have such high input costs and how do we make sure to reallocate those dollars to be used in a better way. And so we've been spending a lot of time talking about products like a biocast max which allows growers to timely get a return on that investment of what they're trying to do from a fertilizer spend while taking maybe a portion of their fertilizer budget out. You know, a product like that that can equivalate to a 15 35 15 fertilizer spend. If you think of that in the molecular structure of what you have to go out and use in order to get that starts to be a big number with a $50 bill almost in some cases and how do we repurpose that to be more efficient and we can use that products like a biocast max that gets folks the nutrient release and the uptake that they need when they need it. Now all of a sudden we've we we've become dollars ahead from an ROI standpoint.

Very good. Yeah, I think you know, Biocast Max being one of the big products that we're going to focus on in 2026, that's a great point. The cost of phosphorus has just been skyrocketing over the last year, and so a lot of growers are really anxious about, you know, what that ton of 10340 or what that ton of 1152 is costing them for next year's crop. So, Biocast Max, excellent opportunity to replace that phosphorous product with a biological that can release that soil phosphorus that's tied up there and uh and reduce the cost, the overall cost, increase the ROI um to the grower. So, I think that's a great point. Anything else you'd like to add?

Well, and I think that the other component that I think is extremely beneficial, and you and I have talked about this many times over the years, is that in your in in our world here in West Central Kansas, the reality that crop when it comes out of the ground is stressed almost every day of its life. And while it's stressed, it produces less sugar, which produces less carbon in the soil, which produces a limited crop. And so we've been trying to come at this from an angle of stress and stress mitigation, which also helps metabolize that fertilizer piece, which helps metabolize that herbicide that we're having to put out there. Even stress doesn't always have to be tied back to um to herbicide, but it could be heat, it could be drought, it could be um significant weather event. And I think that stress component becomes the other aspect that allows us to get over the hump as it relates to making sure that that plant continues to produce all the sugars that it is intended to or was designed to do and back into the soil building that structure allows that plant to reach its full potential. I think those two messages from a fertilizer spin and a stress mitigation really become focal points for what we're trying to do and how we're trying to grow a crop out here.

Yeah. And would you agree you know on that fertilizer spin piece some of how we can mitigate stress in our crop is actually to use less synthetic fertilizer from this nitrate buildup standpoint. Talk a little bit about the stress that that causes to the crop.

Yeah, I think ultimately you're spot on. When we look at fertilizer and stress, we talk about efficiency as that crop progresses and nitrates continue to build into that crop. It hinders our ability to produce sugars and maintain that we put all of our energy and effort into creating grain and starch in that plant. So, taking less fertilizer out of our synthetic fertilizer, building up carbon structure, mitigates nitrates that build up in that plant, allowing for the flow of nutrients up and down within that plant to stress less, but also to maximize its production points. I think ultimately finds us in a wildly different cost of production than what it would be if we just allowed mother nature to take care of it as we've done in most instances u to date.

Yeah. And so, what we're talking about there on the stress less piece, Biocast Max being really a soil, nutrient release product. Mainly that we're looking at there from a stressless standpoint. We're looking at Relax RX which has some amino acids and micronutrients in there to help that crop metabolize those herbicides and overcome those stresses. As well as AmiNo which would be similar to a foliar or nitrogen product. But amino acids also provide some micronutrients in that product to get the amino acid synthesis into the protein faster, and kind of help that plant keep moving that water and nutrients up and down it, whereas the nitrate, you know, might be plugging up that system. Is that, yeah, it restricts the flow of nutrients, and the more we can suppress that, the better off we are. And it holds the plant alive longer to do exactly what it was intended to do all along. And when we can pack more energy into those kernels, then we win every day.

Yeah. And I think I think that's a great, great point there. Our goal is to win every day. And one of the ways that we can win with this system is by kind of taking a different view on the fertility that we're using for our crop, increasing the amount of biological activity in our soil. Increasing the carbon in our soil and in our system to produce a better crop. And so that's kind of the innovative farming that's a practical solution for us here at Axis Seed - Red Barn.

Until next time, remember, ag is Easy when you tune into the EZ Ag Podcast.

That’s all for today, I’m Matt Long, 

Grow Your Yield, Grow Your Legacy, Grow Strong with Axis Seed.