The Use of a Protein Enhanced Surfactant to Increase Yield of Alfalfa
B. T. Sather *
ather Science Services Bozeman, MT, USA.
B. S. Goldstein
Celerity Analytics, Denver, CO, USA.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Increasing human populations are creating challenges in food production and water management. Improving resource management with advances in technology is needed to meet these challenges. Swift Wet® is a protein enhanced surfactant created by the Advanced BioCatalytics Corporation of Irvine, California. The liquid concentrate had been tested in various bench tests with successful results that merited a field level experiment that is presented in this article. It was shown to enhance the yield of an alfalfa crop in a sandy loam soil by 27.9% and 81.6% in test fields versus their respective control fields. Although there are several ways to improve the experiment further, the results of this study are encouraging. They support a conclusion that, in a sandy loam soil type, Swift Wet® can significantly improve yields of alfalfa.
Keywords: Surfactants, agricultural additives, agro-chemicals, alfalfa, water use efficiency