Champion Farmer Shares Benefits of Polysulphate

Every year, the Strategic Committee of Soy Brazil (CESB) organizes a competition to encourage the development of new, profitable, and sustainable farming practices to maximize crop yield. The champion yield of soybean grown by a Brazilian farmer in 2019 was achieved using Polysulphate with other yield-building strategies.

Champion farmer brothers, Mauricio and Eduardo De Bortolli, farm over 10,000 hectares in Brazil, and use Polysulphate to help achieve their record yields.

Never Settling for Average Yield

The soybean yield competition is organized each year by the CESB (Comitê Estratégico Soja Brasil). Held in Brazil, the competition encourages development of farming practices which achieve maximum yield for the crop.

The average soybean yield in Brazil in 2018/19 was 3.21 t/ha. In Rio Grande do Sul state, where the winning farmer Mauricio De Bortolli farms over 10,000 ha with his brother Eduardo, the average was slightly better at 3.32 t/ha. But Mr. De Bortolli achieved much higher than that across his whole farm, at 4.35 t/ha. His champion yield, judged by the CESB as the highest from over 860 other soybean farms in the competition, was achieved in one particular area of their farm where they reached an incredible 7.43 t/ha, well over double the national average.

Extra Yield from Extra Effort and Polysulphate

Building soil health for optimum crop nutrition is an ongoing and complex management task that is taken very seriously. Practical measures Mr. De Bortolli uses include applying limestone for several years to increase fertility at depth; using green manures to build organic matter; careful crop rotation; and choosing the crop variety to perfectly match the soil type and anticipated climate.

The next phase of crop nutrition is equally precise. Pre-planting, Mauricio applied a broadcast fertilizer blend of 30% Polysulphate with 70% KCl at a rate of 260 kg/ha.

At planting, more nutrition was applied in the furrows, and during crop growth each plant received micronutrients.

Sharing the Benefits of Using Polysulphate

The results show not only the contribution that multi-nutrient Polysulphate can make, but also the value of strategic, precise, and balanced crop nutrition as part of contemporary integrated farm management. Mauricio and Eduardo De Bortolli have already begun the process of sharing the details of their agronomy and choice of Polysulphate to help other soybean farmers improve their yields.