Improving cover crop residue management
DPH Biologicals and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) announced a research collaboration validating the impact biologicals make to accelerate decomposition of crop residue, thereby unlocking the adoption of more sustainable and profitable farming practices for United States high-yield, broadacre growers.
Starting in spring of 2023, the UIUC Crop Physiology Lab run by Fred Below, Ph.D. and Connor Sible, Ph.D., began researching the impact of microbial solutions in crop residue management including the use of TerraTrove® Residuce®, technology developed by DPH Bio. Residuce is a biodigester, a biological specifically formulated to accelerate the process of plant tissue degradation.
“Supporting Dr. Below’s lab is an opportunity to ground-truth the benefits of biodigesters, understand how technologies like Residuce can enable more sustainable and profitable cropping practices and to develop best practice use recommendations supporting our retail and channel partners with high-value, science-verified cropping solutions,” said Alex Cochran, Ph.D., DPH Bio’s Chief Technology Officer.
A subset of biofertilizers, biodigester sales are exploding as part of the expanding global biofertility market, projected to reach $3.75 billion USD in sales by 2030, a CAGR of 12.80%, underpinned by market demand for more sustainably-grown food with farmers’ need to offset increasing costs and shrinking profit margins. Residuce, available in a liquid and dry formulation, is currently used on 1.5 million North American acres, a 50% growth rate in the past year.
Already, early UIUC trial results indicate improved yields when biodigesters were used with cover crop plantings. Cover crops are typically associated with lower yields, a correlation that has discouraged grower adoption despite the well-known soil health benefits of cover cropping.
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