WHEN agronomist Craig Wissell moved from Burra to Ardrossan to help out on his wife Cindy's fifth-generation family farm in 2004, he noticed something was not quite right with the land.

He said there was an unsustainable amount of nitrogen being spread on agricultural operations in the Yorke Peninsula to get the results farmers needed, a situation he figured was because of an imbalance in the soil.

The certified soil scientist said that while his new neighbours were undertaking plenty of soil and plant tests, they were not acting on their results or even collating the information.

Craig was concerned about the situation and keen to find a solution not just for the long-term benefit of the farm but to ensure a steady stream of clients for Team Wiss, the independent farm consulting business they had founded in 2004 – the couple were called a 'team' when they first started dating, and the Wissells plugged on to the idea when deciding a name for their firm.

Craig decided to undertake his own testing and analysis and found that the land was depleted in sulfur.

He deduced a number of reasons were behind this, including that the region's high rainfall levels leached sulphur out of the land, and that local farmers were mostly using fertilisers that did not contain sulfur.

Craig said the farmers were using high-analysis fertilisers applying calcium-dominant gypsum when the soil was already calcium-rich.

He wanted to start promoting alternatives to local farmers so they could get better results but first he had to find out what would get the job done.

Among themselves, Craig, Cindy and her father Dean Thomas own more than 1300 hectares of land, mostly around Maitland, cropping canola, vetch, oaten hay, wheat and barley, and running cattle on medic-based pastures.

Apart from being a viable agricultural operation in its own right, the land had everything needed to be a useful test site for Craig to find out exactly what he should recommend to other farmers – and that is exactly what he did.

Craig took a look at the type of sulfur-rich products available on the market, and came across an ammonium sulphate offering from Soil Management Systems.

The company offers three different grades of ammonium sulphate – Southern, Western and Premium – and claims it will deliver a reduction in volatilisation compared to urea and improve nitrogen uptake efficiency.

"In the first year we increased our yields by 15-20 per cent then added benefits like healthier pulse crops and improved medics the following year – all these flow-on effects just from one product," Craig said.

To further improve soil health, he started using chicken manure as fertiliser on some paddocks and also introduced a foliar trace element program based on data from the soil and tissue analysis he had conducted.

Happy with how it worked for his own operation, he started spruiking the benefits of ammonium sulphate, and says the people who have taken it up have not looked back.

"They are getting better nitrogen use efficiency, water efficiency, the grain quality is improving, there is more modulation on root systems the following year after application, which in turn improves nitrogen," he said.

To ensure changes are efficient, Craig suggests zoning the paddocks and testing each section so the right kind of fertiliser is applied.

* Full report in Stock Journal, July 17, 2014 issue.

The story Soil scientists finds sulfur solution first appeared on Farm Online.