Redox Grows

Weather can be friend or foe to farmers, and two hurricanes since 2023 have been disastrous for many growers in the southern US.

Two years after Hurricane Idalia wreaked havoc, Hurricane Helene packed an even more powerful punch.

Pecan grower Buck Paulk of Shiloh Farms lost 19,000 trees during Idalia, and 23,000 more with Helene.  Georgia is the nation’s largest pecan-growing state, and their growers suffered nearly $700 million in crop losses from the latest hurricane.

“I have orchards that I planted when I was a young man, they’re gone,” Paulk said. He said it may take a generation for his region to fully recover. A week after the disaster, President Biden toured Paulk’s farm to see the damage firsthand.

Photo Credit: Georgia Pecan Growers Association

Thanks to a program by The Fertilizer Institute, members of Congress are learning more about the essential elements to growing crops.

Allen Spray of Willard Agri Service and grower Bryant Lowe of Lakeside Farms in Delaware recently walked the halls of Congress, meeting with elected officials, their staff and Non-Governmental Organizations, to outline the importance of having sufficient tools to grow crops.  They emphasized the Four R Program for fertilizer use – the right rate, source, placement and timing.

“It takes us as average everyday citizens to make the country what you want it to be, you have to get involved,” Spray said.

Both Spray and Lowe said the trip was worthwhile, with excellent dialogue. They mentioned following up with all parties in Washington, D.C. and being a future information source for them are critically important.

Nitrogen has long been the engine that has propelled agriculture to productive new heights. It sparked an agricultural revolution, benefitting farmers and helping feed the world.

While nitrogen has many positives, concerns have been raised regarding overreliance and in environmental areas. 

Dr. Hugh Gorman of Michigan Tech is among those closely watching this situation. 

Gorman said the process of producing ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen is one of the great advancements in American history. He said he’s optimistic rewarding sustainable practices will help alleviate current areas of concern.

Gorman authored the book, “The Story of N: A Social History of the Nitrogen Cycle and the Challenge of Sustainability.”

New technologies, including those at Redox, are poised to help growers optimize nitrogen use in the future. 

For many growers, crop nutrition has advanced beyond the traditional NPK strategy of old.

ValleyAg Consulting Services owner Tracy Miller works with farmers in California’s San Joaquin Valley to get the best results through the latest nutrition choices. 

Miller said some of the most promising crop nutrition includes micronutrients like boron, cobalt and molybdenum.

He’s also a big proponent of bio-stimulants, including from Redox Bio-Nutrients.

“They’re almost mainstream already,” he remarked. “There’s a lot of use of them, at least with the growers I work with. I think that there is a real role that they are going to continue to provide versus traditional inputs. We’re probably going to have less chemical controls going forward, and we’re going to have to have tools that can boost the plant’s metabolism and immune system. This will enable us to overcome some of the pest challenges we have right now, specifically disease issues.”

As owner of ValleyAg Consulting Services since 2010, Tracy Miller works with growers in California’s San Joaquin Valley. His agricultural pedigree is long and impressive. 

Although he grew up on a family farm and helped his father’s cling peach operation at a young age, his future career course wasn’t cemented until he helped his mother tend to their family garden.

“Every morning, I would wake up and run out to the garden, to check to see if anything happened,” Miller said. “It was probably about a week later that you would start to see the ground break and the plant would start to push up.  That was so fascinating to me, that here’s this little seed that appeared dead and dry. There was life in it, and it burst forth…It was a real opportunity to see a crop from start to finish… it began to make me fascinated with how plants grow. It’s really a miracle of life.”

Miller is a proponent of growing strategies that improve soil health, provide strong plants and improved returns for growers. He’s bullish on new technology, including micronutrients and bio-stimulants, to help get there.

Trey Bouler fulfilled a longtime dream when he was named superintendent of a golf course. No doubt, work was needed at the Beau Pre Country Club in Natchez, Mississippi, although he has been more than up to the task.

The Beau Pre course is a beautiful one, but it struggled with multiple issues, including algae, encroachment and nematodes. 

Enter Redox TurfRx™, including OxyCal™ to bolster calcium, NatureCur™ for root development, Supreme™ to help turf growth and K+™ for summer stress. 

“I was very excited how fast I started seeing turnaround, which drew me in even more to Redox,” Bouler said. “It has been awesome.” 

He said his TurfRx™ experience confirms his approach to not skimp on fertilizer expenses.

“We make our money in the golf course industry on our greens,” Bouler said. “That is not a place to skimp, at all. I’m a firm believer in the best nutrients possible for my budget. If I have to back off on something else, something else is going to be backed off on. I will not compromise on nutrition for my putting surfaces.”

Resilience is part of the DNA in agriculture, but there’s a massive difference when the adversity being faced is away from the farm and involves a loved one.

Grower James Rickert and his wife Casey faced such adversity when their young daughter Emersyn contracted Hemolytic-uremic syndrome caused by E.coli.

Earlier this year, Emersyn battled through a multi system shutdown, kidney failure, coma, seizures, neurological complications, a collapsed lung and multiple infections.

After 10 weeks in the hospital, Emersyn is home and vastly improved.  She started her first day in kindergarten and even had a visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus. 

The Rickert family hopes Emersyn’s courage will inspire others facing huge life challenges.

“She’s my hero, and I don’t know how she does what she does every day,” Casey said. “She’s still processing the trauma in her own way. Nothing phases this kid. She is defying the odds after what she went through.”

“I look at life differently,” James said. “I realize that every day with my family is special. I have never appreciated it as much as I do today.”

Emersyn continues her recovery and recently made a Gingerbread house with a horse on top. She also put her Christmas request in to Santa Claus for a tiny dog.

The rural-urban divide in our country continues to widen. Mike Twining of Willard Agri-Service, one of our great ag retailers, is working hard to help bridge the gap between farmers and consumers. 

Twining was among the speakers at TedX Talks in Arizona and Philadelphia. His speeches presented a compelling case for smarter food buying decisions and a continuation of sustainable agriculture, meaning doing more with less. 

He said his work in this area has been very encouraging.

“It has been really exciting to see the engagement I’ve had,” Twining remarked. “It’s such a neat opportunity to get outside of my normal obit and talk to people, who are sometimes two or three plus generations removed from the farm. ... It has been really gratifying to see how excited they get to actually learn about it and talk with someone still involved in agriculture. I think the vast majority of people are genuinely curious and generally think positively about farmers and agriculture. That has certainly been my experience.”

 Find out more about Mike’s talks on the TedX YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/user/TEDxTalks


More from Mike:
Saving the Planet With Your Food
Eating Our Way to a Cleaner Planet

The start of summer 2025 will mark the end of Michael Parrella’s near decade as dean of the University of Idaho’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Parrella also spent nearly 30 years as a key agricultural figure in California at UC Davis and UC Riverside.

As retirement nears, Parrella said he’s optimistic that research at the university level and through Redox and others in the private sector will help growers do more with less.

“Ultimately what we really want to do is grow a healthy plant and use less traditional fertilizer,” Parrella said. “Less nitrogen and less potassium. I think the work with micronutrients is going to enable us to do that. That’s a huge part of dealing with sustainability of agriculture and healthy soils moving forward.”

He said he’d like his time at the University of Idaho to be remembered for two primary areas: hiring the best early career faculty possible, supporting the existing faculty and having updated facilities for them to carry out effective work. 

As their farm entered a rough patch, fourth generation orchardist Kaitlyn Thornton in Tonasket, Washington, ventured into social media to reach a larger audience.

Her engaging approach has elevated her into a popular agricultural influencer, who now regularly reaches millions of people with photos and videos of their apple and pear harvests, cultural practices and everyday farm life. 

As the average farm operator continues to get older, Thornton said there are many opportunities for Gen Z to contribute. She said her generation has the knowledge and interest in helping, but many lack self-confidence and need a boost from the older generations.

You can follow Kaitlyn at Apple Girl Kait on Instagram and TikTok and Kaitlyn Thornton on LinkedIn.