What alternatives are there to farming artificial fertilizers?

Question

Biology again! :P

Answer 1

Old fashion Cow c**p,....%100 garenteed, it has worked for thousands of year successfully. Different animals produce different types of mannures, which all offer something different to the soil.

Companion Planting also. Different plants effect the soil, some plants take things from the soil, while others return back. A good example of this is something called "The Three Sisters." That is why farmers rotate and often have a variety of crops & animals. Variety insures survival and fertility. Each one supports the other.  

It's all one large insane balancing act. It brings a whole new meaning to multi-tasking lol!

Answer 2

manure!!!! but i don't really think its over-used as it doesn't cause extreme, widespread problems so stick with it also at big mug the problem with human sh*t is that it spreads disease more than cows sh*t

Answer 3

Depends on local availability.  In some areas near metropolitan areas, sludge (human waste) left over from water treatment plants is spread onto fields.  In some areas near large cattle operations, cow manure is used.  In my area, the poultry industry is huge.  Poultry litter is often used to fertilize pastures.

Answer 4

wot about good old fashioned manure

Answer 5

Yes just follwthe ways mother nature keeps on producing its produce.there had been farming before these artificial fertilizers were invented.

are you interested in detail email me!

Answer 6

Commerical fertilizers usually focus on Nitrogen.  While there are many essential nutrients required for plants to grow Nitrogen is a key ingredient.

The overuse of nitrogen in any form can lead to excess runoff into rivers, lakes, and streams.  This runoff causes a large amount of alge growth with can kill fish and create large seaweed type growth in small neighborhood lakes etc.

The best way to combat this is to use crop rotation with crops that provide "Nitrogen fixation".  these plants put nitrogen back into the soil in a chemical form that does not simply wash away with the next spring rain.

Soybeans (any beans for that matter) are very good at providing nitrogen fixation.  Tubers (potatoes are a type of tuber) also provide this to the soil.

The number one problem with growing these all at the same time (which would provide great benefit) is that there are currently no mechanized farming machines that allow the cultivation of these crops so we are left to using the "older" standardized methods.

Answer 7

Prunes for the animals that produce the manure might help with the quantity needed?

I often wonder whether there's much give and take, there are fields and fields here of cows and sheep and the times I've seen horse manure offered free to collector, but i never see the arable farmer with his spade collecting it.

Maybe a scheme whereby the cattle farmer uses his manure to barter with the arable farmer for a fair amount of his produce in return?

Or better still there's tonnes of human sh*t going to waste every day if they could find a way to use this? mind you i wouldn't want to live near the farm that did, how's it go NIMBY (not in my back yard ). I suppose there must be a way to neutralise the smell, but would it be cost effective and that's the problem will all alternatives it's cheaper and more convenient to buy the artificial stuff.

Answer 8

Manure, manure, manure. poultry manure is good... but you need to let it be rained on first to leech the excess acids out so as not to burn sensitive crops.

Answer 9

Depending on where you are, there are huge amounts of natural materials to build/ rebuild soil and local materials are favored to reduce the need for transportation and dependence on oil/ fuel. Nurturing the soil is key to a working agricultural system as nature intended, and health soil environment means healthy plants and less need for other amendments and remedies. Your alternatives are all local ones and balance threw knowledge is the prerequisite.

Answer 10

Texas R hit the nail on the head.  With the exception of commercial forms of ammonia and urea fertilizer, most commercial fertilizers are mined from the soil.

Answer 11

Well, if you don't want to work you can always try war....eg. the on their way out Republicans.

Answer 12

slurry slurry slurry thats what were using this year as fertilizer is way to expensive now!

Answer 13

Most farmers use slurry which is the manure from the cows and they spread that, so the stink is unreal when they are doing it. In the North of Scotland, they use seaweed as that was all they had available as they were sheep farms in the main. Hope that helps? I am not a farmer, I just live in the country.

Answer 14

First, artificial fertilizer is an oxymoron.   Nutrients are nutrients.  They are neither natural nor artificial.

Plants require 16 nutrients for growth, and these nutrients must be in certain chemical forms to be available for plant growth (example Nitrogen (N) is available for plant use in the forms of ammonium, nitrate or nitrite).  Any other form makes the nutrient plant unavailable, consequently ineffective as a nutrient source.   Consequently, the nutrient must either be applied in a plant available form, or must be converted into a plant available form.   The good news, soils are complex dynamic systems and nutrients convert to a variety of forms.

The alternatives to chemical salts (this is the form of  most "artificial" fertilizers) are rather limited.  Mostly it is the management of manures, cover crops, crop rotation and microbial population/activities.  This requirement for an increase in management as not been associated with an increase in farm profitability.  Consequently, this is not a popular alternative to the use of "artificial" fertilizers.