THANKS FOR YOUR BUSINESS: CSI nearly doubled its sales in 07. Thankfully, Ron Ward was on board for 3 weeks per month as a consultant to “Help-Out”. He will continue in 08!

THE FERTILIZER CRISIS: Wouldn’t you know it! As soon as commo­dity prices to growers started to improve someone would be there to get their cut by raising your input costs. There are both cost and supply problems in the commercial fertilizer market. Heavy purchasing by China and other countries are influencing both. Fuel prices have increased manufacturing or processing costs. And of course there is just plain old greed. While I was typing this, one potash source went up $65/ton and another went up $40 and that price is only good till end of Feb.! NAFTA, CAFTA & SHAFTA!!!

PHOSPHOROUS: There is a severe shortage of phosphoric acid on a world wide basis. MAP & DAP prices are in the high $400’s or more. What can you do to deal with this situation? One of our dealers – a long time consultant in IL  – did the math on MAP & DAP and showed his growers they could buy units of P₂O₅ at a little over half price by using TN Brown Phos. He sold over 50 truckloads last fall! But, there’s more to maximizing your phos $ than buying it right.

We know that molasses stimulates the phosphatase bacteria that can make P available in your soil. We know that mycorrhizea colonization of your roots can dramatically increase the uptake of P by extending the overall surface area for absorption as well as the soil area accessed. We know that RESTORE can increase the colonization of mycorrhizea on your crops. The acids from mycorrhizea are stronger than root extrudates. Good mycorrhizea colonization reduces weed pressure and releases Silica which is vital to plant growth and health. We know that pre-emerge herbicides and fungicides damage a lot of these plant-like helpers.

Your choices are limited for buying actual P. Natural phosphates like TN Brown; manure & compost sources containing expensive P that has been purchased as a feed supplement and run through the animal; liquid P sources or fish hydrolysates are available. If you have low phosphate soils, I urge you to get them up to par soon as P will never again be “cheap”. Even those trying to use 10-34-0 or other “hot mixes” such as 9-19-9 for “efficiency” are still going to be paying the price.

POTASSIUM: There is no real shortage of potash since lots Western Canada is underlain with KCl [0-0-60/62]. However, market forces are driving up prices way beyond costs of mining and processing or recovery as in the case of 0-0-50. For those with low K and low Magnesium, K-Mag is still a reasonable alternative, but price is jumping. For those with medium K, high Magnesium and low sulfur, KS Plus works very well. KS Plus is very effective in knocking Magnesium off the colloid. Be sure to use a surfactant on the soil to help move the active Sulfur down through the soil. For those few of you with low to medium K and adequate or high Sulfur, Green Sand will work very well. Non-Organic certified farms could also use Ammonium Sulfate and Green Sand to fill in the K and S. Those just lacking S, our 90% Disintegrating Sulfur would work well. About 99% of the soil tests coming through are lab are very short of sulfur.

So we are now at a point where lowly Green Sand & KS Plus at 7% K are the same price per unit of K as the “Big Boys”. In addition, you are getting loads of trace minerals including silica with Green Sand and a good selection of traces and very high “potential energy” with KS. KS Plus also increases the efficiency of N to produce higher “true protein” crops. If you have access to manure/compost or sawdust, you should be considering them for more K. Lots of aged sawdust is still lying around going to waste. Always look for “free for the hauling” situations. And please make sure you handle your crop residues correctly/efficiently/biologically. You can’t afford to have undigested crop residue that could be next year’s fertility.

Total analysis content of soils shows up to 10 times the K you will see on your CEC. KS Plus can help make this hidden K available. Also the more biologically active your soil, the more you can access this Total K (Sounds like a cereal!) So consider……………..

NEW BACTERIA: CSI is always searching for new, effective and cost efficient products. We will begin offering a new multi-strain soil bacteria called Bio-D. This is a certified organic product with enzymes and humic acid. At one gallon per 8 acres, it is very cost effective and well proven.

Note: The National Soil Tilth Lab research shows that only about 10% of raw corn stalks, leaves and cobs are recaptured as active humus if they’re left on the surface or turned under without a biological breakdown inoculant.

PREMIUM QUALITY LIQUID FERTILIZERS: CSI now has available premium quality, low leaching, high usability liquid fertilizers designed to meet crop “demand” curves. These fertilizers, which we feel are excellent for Sustainable/Biological – not Organic – growers, come from virgin raw materials free from chlorine and heavy metals. For more information see our August 07 newsletter on our website:www.cropservicesintl.com -> Our Services -> Newsletters.

QUANTUM AG: The best way I can think of to counteract the high fertilizer costs is to use the Energy concept. Steiner identified most of the FREE energies in the 1920’s and showed growers how to capture them. A Quantum Ag Broadcaster allows you to use these energies at about a one time cost of $1-5/acre for 7-10 years depending on the size of your farm. Even at $20 per acre it’s a bargain! Thanks to Greg Willis of GW Agriculture, we now have a whole set of what I call “Action Preps”. They allow you, the grower, to take specific action or procedure to influence your soil, plant or atmosphere by placing a special Prep in either or both of the top or bottom wells of your broadcaster. You could increase the rate of growth; start fruiting/graining processes; enlarge or ripen above ground fruit; enlarge or ripen root crops; protect against frost; help dry up a wet field; increase leaf size and much, much more.

Greg has directions for each Prep – what it’s for, when to put in your tower, which well(s), and when to take out. Preps will be sold in kits or singles with color coded labels to avoid making mistakes. The Preps are powerful, so we don’t want you broadcasting the wrong energy/information to your field or putting it in the wrong well of your Broadcaster. (Towers always contain “regular” preps.) These “Action Preps” allow you to react to the vagaries of nature by just walking out to your tower, putting in an Action Prep [sometimes with additional written instructions] and impact nature according to the new energy/information you have added. First 7 towers sold get a set 50% off  reg. $250.Contact Greg at GWAgriculture@yahoo.com for free email copy Wholistic™ Agriculture Field Broadcaster Handbook”, a 100 +page book that will help you understand the Steiner concepts considered part of “Quantum Ag”. You can call 214-592-9800 for a hard copy book. Mention CSI to get a DISCOUNT.

To add credence to the above check out http://www.considera.org/board/viewtopic.php?t=54 titled Homeopathic preparations replace pesticides in Uttar Pradesh[India]. “We used to utilize pesticides worth around 1000 rupees on one acre land. Now we use only homeopathic medicines worth 200 or 250 rupees” said Jeet Lai, a farmer. Swami Parmanand, BS, says he learned to make homeopathics from hermits living in theHimalayas. They cost much less than chemicals, and according to farmers using them, give better results. “They give good results, have no harmful effects and improve the taste of the crops” he says. Research on this approach is being conducted at four state universities. Tests on potato and wheat were “satisfying”. “It has good effect on environment and mud,” said B.B. Rai, Director of the Allahabad Agricultural Institute. Note: Stay tuned to our website regarding this topic.

Remember, everything occurs in nature for a purpose. Fighting what are normally considered “bad” things with poisons is counterproductive. You have to understand why the weed, fungus, bacteria or virus are there and then correct the problem, not kill the messenger. The other important concept is that You Are Not Powerless. You have “freewill” which your crops and soil do-not have. Big Pharma, Big Communication, Big Chemical, Big Food Processors, Big Banking, Big Government all like to make you think you have no control over anything! Take charge of your farm entity and control it. You have that Quantum Ability!

Bruce Tainio has shown that plants can function very well at various levels of fertility as long as nutrients are in a reasonable balance and the soil is biologically active. Farmers with heavy soil may find themselves having to balance “below” recommended Albrecht levels and concentrate on biological activation and energy gathering and dispersing.

COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER: Greg also has a new “kit” to reduce the symptoms of CCD, which turns out to be a “threshold disease” resulting mostly from environmental pollution factors adding the final straw to already under mineralized, fungal and mite weakened bees. Call him for kits.

NEW NOP(???) INSECTICIDE: CSI is working with a manufacturer of a natural, multi-oil based insecticide, Clean Green BP, to try to make it NOP compliant. See your 08 price list. We will continue to carry Crop Guard EC, our NOP Garlic & Yucca product.

NEW SEA WATER PRODUCT: After careful analysis, CSI has chosen to handle MIN-TEC concentrated sea water. It is NOP – certified organic. We chose it because it is concentrated by a factor of 5, but still retains the live bacteria and original sodium. 99.9% of our customers are short of Na in their soils! We also chose it because it is very inexpensive in comparison to other similar products. The manufacturer claims to have eliminated scab on wheat at the 1qt/A rate. MIN-TEC is compatible with Fish Agra and Nitrozyme. We hope you will give it a try.

CALCIUM SILICATE IS BACK: Calcium silicate slag [not NOP] is again available as a bulk or tote bag fertilizer OR drum blended with TN Brown Phos at 50:50 ratios. The silica can increase the efficiency of your nutrient uptake through the silica, boron, calcium connection. See 08 PL.

LIVESTOCK GENETICS & NUTRITIION: Recent studies have shown the environmental and nutritional state of the maternal grandmother ewe expressed itself in the male & female lambs that were her grandchildren. This “proves” two powerful points that sometimes cause arguments about how Nature vs. Nurture works. Genetics does count, but environment and nutrition can affect the “expression” of the genes. Keep this in mind when reading the page on human health.

CALENDER: Phil will be a @ TOFGA conf. in TX on Feb. 1-3. He & Louisa will proceed to Mexico & won’t be back till March 9^th. Ron will be on duty in their absence. However, he will be out West putting in two Broadcasters and attending the Tainio Conf the wk of Feb 3. He & Dorothy will also be covering the MOSES, Org. Farming Conf. inLa Crosse, WI Feb 21-23. The summer schedule will start in early May with Phil & Louisa @ the boat on Fridays.

HUMAN HEALTH SECTION

As I did in 07, I began 08 with a seven day Fast! That’s right, no food for seven days. The fast protocol we used was from a book, Healing for the Age of Enlightenment, by Stanley Burroughs, ISBN

#0-9639262-1-7. The only intake was a minimum of six, 10 ounce glasses of water with fresh lemon & lime juice with maple syrup added for minerals and carbs and a touch of cayenne pepper. I kept up my normal exercise and work schedule, so obviously there was enough energy in the drink to take care of body needs. I added 30 drops per day of the ZNatural zeolite product to help take out more toxins. [ZNatural has replaced the Waiora NCD product.] The day before I started I received an email citing research associating toxins with weight gain. Dr. Paula Baillie-Hamilton published her work in the 2002Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine. When the liver is overloaded with toxins, weight loss efforts may be blocked. An overloaded liver cannot efficiently burn body fat.

Does fasting do any good? It may not be for everyone, especially those that are highly dependent on a daily intake of protein. I am now 69. I have no arthritis, no back pain, no diabetes, no cancer, no heart problems and no physical limitations on what I can do. I haven’t taken an antibiotic in over 20 years and use $10 magnifiers for reading small print. Since I have just started fasting late in life, I can’t credit that. Genetics obviously helps. A recent large scale study showed that you can gain 14 years lifespan by four simple rules. 1: Don’t smoke. 2: Exercise regularly. 3r drink very moderately. 4: Have 12-16 servings everyday of fruits and vegetables. I would add: Don’t drink anything in an aluminum can and don’t drink soda at all. Don’t eat processed meats containing nitrates and use honey, real maple syrup or other natural sweeteners instead of sugar. My belief is that what helps me the most is that I DO NOT BELIEVE IN BEING SICK!

I also received 6 page monograph entitled Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity: Biological Effects of Dirty Electricity with Emphasis on Diabetes & Multiple Sclerosis, published byElectromagnetic Biology and Medicine, 25: 259-268, 2006. This monograph gave me a useful word – “Dirty Electricity” – to help answer all the questions I get about why we should use items like the BioPro cell-phone chips or the Tainio home unit Concerto. The article did confirm my explanation that is was the extra frequencies that come along with what should be a “clean” 60 cycle sine wave from your home current. Some of the sources of Dirty Electricity include: Computers, variable speed motors, TVs, energy efficient appliances and lighting, power tools, cell phone antennas, broadcast antennas and many, many more modern appliances.

The monograph indicated a very large number of common human ailments that can be symptoms of “radio wave sickness”. The big impacts of cleaning up the electricity were on ADD/ADHD, blood sugar levels, Multiple Sclerosis, Asthma, Chronic Fatigue, and Fibromyalgia. After Bruce Tainio’s revelations about effects on plants, I urge you to do something to clean up your homes, workshops and offices. If you’re on a tractor all day, you can wear pendent type devices to help protect yourself or use “chips” on the radios, GPS or computer equipment. I now wear a BioPro pendent 24/7/365.

Last summer I was tested with a Digital Pulse Analyzer (DPA) which measures blood pulse patterns. I then took 1 oz/day of Trilogy’s Cardio Essentials (see price sheet) and was retested 4 months later. The biological age of my cardiovascular system was shown to drop 9 years, to below my chronological age, during these four months. This stuff worked! I also use Trilogies ZNatural, the “original formula” zeolite product that pulls toxins out of cells and Immune Essentials, for building the immune system. For more info please contact Dorothy Ward at 616-897-9553 for more info on this MLM.

Thank you for helping make 2007 another great year for CSI. We appreciate your business!

Good Intentionality & Good Farming in 08! Dr. Phil, Louisa & Ron