ALOSCA Technologies’ bentonite clay-based granular inoculant developed for Australian conditions has revolutionised the way pasture and cropping legumes are sown, a spokesman says.
Australian R&D company Alosca Technologies Pty Ltd is now in its 14th commercial season supplying a range of dry granular legume inoculants to agriculture which provide many new application options and freedom not afforded to the traditional peat slurry method of legume inoculation.
Much of the logistical freedom provided by Alosca inoculants is underpinned by the nature of the product to protect the viability of the incorporated nitrogen fixing Root Nodule Bacteria from temperature and moisture stresses commonly encountered during minimum tillage operations.
Independent evaluation at Murdoch University’s Centre for Rhizobium Studies has shown the favourable environment for Rhizobium in Alosca’s inoculant carrier system to provide enhanced bacterial survival when seeding to dry or marginal conditions and/or delays in germinating rainfall occur.
“Alosca inoculants provided an advantage as they activate on the same seasonal triggers as the sown legume maintaining the viability of the Rhizobia bacteria until required by the plant at and after germination,” said Alosca Technologies general manager Chris Poole.
“Rhizobium delivery products reliant on cool and moist conditions to maintain high numbers of cells are often left prone to failure under the constraints placed on them by evolving farming systems and changing seasonal conditions with a high proportion of inoculant cells perishing before nodulation initiates.”
Field evaluations have shown Alosca’s granules can be effectively mixed with seed or fertiliser on-farm, sown into moist or dry seeding conditions and the buffering properties of the carrier clay provide the opportunity to apply pesticide seed dressings typically harmful to legume inoculants.
The new application options coupled with the ability of the granule to activate on the same seasonal moisture triggers as the sown legume has seen growers identify the advantages of the Australian developed range of inoculants.
These key attributes have been central to grower uptake which now has Alosca distributing product throughout Australian cropping and pasture zones as well seeing growth in their overseas development projects.
Simplicity is the key to mixing the Alosca product.
Grower experience has reported adequate mixing can be achieved through the regular transfers of fertiliser or seed from the shed or silo to the grouper bin and then onto the seeder.
Alosca fertiliser mixes should then be delivered single shoot and not banded separately to the seed.
Alosca Technologies has met many of the limitations of peat-based inoculant delivery and has developed many new usage options.
Top-dressing or surface-spreading the granules with fertiliser or lime along with the method of drilling granules with cropping fertiliser or seed in the season prior to the pasture coming back into the rotation to introduce new, more effective strains of inoculant to the soil have been shown to be effective for pastures.
In other news, Alosca has worked closely with Murdoch CRS to promote and distribute the MALDI ID test, a test developed by Dr Sofie DeMeyer that can identify the strain of Rhizobium resident in the soil and differentiate between poor and good nitrogen-fixing strains for Rhizobium.
- Contact Robyn Hills on (08) 6305 0123 or visit www.alosca.com.au.
- For technical information contact Chris Poole on 0429 815 638 or Floyd Sullivan on 0487 776 022.