Most farmers need proof before they’ll try something new. We get that. Farming is already a risky business. Adding variables can feel counterintuitive. But if we never take a risk, we’ll never know how our farm or ranch could be more profitable.
At ST Biologicals, we’ve helped farmers use biologicals for several years and have field trial results, farmers’ impressions, and RFQ data to back up our talk. Let’s look at some of the data we’ve amassed in just the past three years from both organic and conventional fields. Those have not been the best years in ag because of weather conditions in most of the US, but the numbers speak for themselves.
Organic Alfalfa Field Trial
If you’re a dairy farmer, you know the value of high-quality forage for milk production. You need your RFQ (relative forage quality) to be high with protein, fiber, minerals, vitamins (especially vitamins A, D, E, and K), and a lot of good, old-fashioned carbohydrates.
Alfalfa can have all those attributes, but only if the nutrient cycle in the soil is active. Fertilizers don’t activate that cycle, but biologicals do. These analyses were done in an organic alfalfa field, but biologicals would also work in a conventional field.
When biologicals were applied to alfalfa, the RFQ improved by 33.75 points. This means the cattle fed the alfalfa needed less feed and ROI went up. Feeding a higher nutritional profile feed resulted in more milk production.
In years of drought or flood, regenerative ag practices that include biologicals give you greater resilience. Your conventional farming neighbors who didn‘t use a biological to speed up the nutrient cycle go through that same extreme weather event and end up with a dried-up or drowned pasture. Without biologicals and strong plant root systems, excess water and heat waves are increased liabilities.
The ROI on our study was $2.65 per $1.00 invested in biologicals. Farmers who sold hay from their fields treated with biologicals received an increase of $50.63 value/ton of hay sold. Alfalfa forage that’s grown with regenerative ag practices may sell for a premium. Produce a higher quality product and livestock owners will pay you more. That’s good business sense.
Organic Soybean Meal Field Trials
On your diversified ag operation, you want to grow and feed the highest quality soybean meal to your livestock. And if you’re selling soybean meal to a neighboring livestock operation, you’d like to get a premium for all your work. Right?
In a recent field study, when biologicals were incorporated in soybean fields, the crude protein went up 3.95 percent. That increase in crude protein led to an increase in ROI of $4.17 per $1.00 invested in biologicals. Apply that across your soybean acres in 2025, and what’s your improved ROI? You do the math.
As with alfalfa, the higher nutritional profile of biologically treated crops means less feed is required for optimum livestock health. Soybean meal, balanced with other feed ingredients, supports muscle development, provides energy, and offers a balanced profile of amino acids. By incorporating alfalfa with the soybean meal, you enhance weight gain and reproduction.
What’s the Impact of Biologicals on Conventional Fields?
There’s a myth going around that you can’t use biologicals effectively on conventional acres. So we worked with one of our clients who’s using conventional methods to see if there was any profit to be made from adding biologicals. Here are the results.
The RFQ on alfalfa? Even in an environment that’s not optimal for biologicals, the RFQ went up 11.24 points. That’s enough to have an ROI of $1.57 per $1.00 invested. If you’re selling hay to a local livestock operation, you can still get a premium (though not as high as the premium your organic or regenerative neighbors receive). Increased forage quality equates to greater farm profits.
Soybean meal crude protein? It also went up by 4.37 percent on conventional fields. That meant the increased ROI with biologicals was $3.45 per $1.00 invested.
So, you get greater improvements in nutrient profiles with organic or regenerative ag practices, even in conventional fields. But if you’re on the path to regenerative from conventional, this shows you don’t have to lose money. These field studies prove the value of biologicals, especially when you’re converting from conventional to regenerative ag practices.
Biologicals Products We Recommend
It’s important to our team at ST Biologicals for you to succeed as a farmer or rancher. We have been helping farmers transition to regenerative ag for over seven years. We’ve seen fields and pastures become more resilient to extreme weather events. Biology and cover crops make a world of difference during floods and droughts. The last few years have been difficult for ag because of weather events, rise in input costs, and decrease in market prices. We can’t do much about the weather, but we do have control over input costs.
At ST Biologicals we recommend BIOACTIVE™ products for organic, regenerative, and conventional ag operations. They use a diverse microbial population with four modes of biological activity:
- Bio-sanitation. Specialized bacteria consume pathogens on plant leaf surfaces and in crop residue.
- Competitive Exclusion. Beneficial microbes outcompete pathogens for space on plant root hairs, leaf surfaces, and fruit surfaces. You don’t need to kill every pathogen to have a productive field. They just need to be controlled below the threshold for a marketable crop.
- Natural Antibiotic Production. Beneficial microbes kickstart the secondary metabolite production in plants. This contributes to plant health and higher nutrient density.
- Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR). Microbes that don’t hurt a plant make it stronger. Plants sense microbes (foreigners) on their roots, leaves, and other plant parts. But because beneficials don’t actually cause disease, they strengthen the plant’s immune system response.
Pathogens don’t stand a chance when biologicals are incorporated in your input program. To learn more about our field studies and how biologicals could be incorporated into your ag operation, check out our resources. There is a lot of data, and this winter is the perfect time to get informed about optimizing your farm profits in 2025. We’re here to help you succeed. When soil speaks, we listen.
