Large-scale composting turns waste into healthy soil

Over the years, composting guru Redge Jelliman has produced thousands of tons of compost as organic fertiliser for his crop farming enterprise in the Free State. Now semi-retired from farming, and a soil health consultant, he shared his experiences with Lloyd Phillips.

- Lloyd Phillips

Twenty-five years ago, farmer Redge Jelliman was fed up. He had been paying a fortune for chemical fertiliser, yet it had failed to generate the yields he expected from his crops. Realising the time had come for an alternative, he had his soil analysed in the US, and went on to apply raw livestock manure to his soil instead. In time, he began composting the manure, which significantly improved his soil and yields.

FRUSTRATION

“I’d become frustrated with fertiliser advisers constantly telling me that applying more chemical fertiliser to my soil would solve my suboptimal crop yield problem,” Jelliman recalls. “At that time, I happened to listen to a presentation by a visiting international soil health expert, who urged me to send my soil samples to Perry Agricultural Laboratory in the US.”

Having up until then used only South African soil-testing laboratories, which did not have the analytical capabilities of laboratories in the US, Jelliman was amazed at the detailed results generated by the Perry laboratory. These revealed an imbalance between the macro and micronutrients in his soil. “I remember that one of Perry laboratory’s written comments on the results of their analysis of my soil samples was ‘Why analyse building sand?’ The analysis had found that my soil’s humus levels were only 0,3%. At that time, I didn’t understand the importance of soil humus levels, or the value of soil biology in crop production.”

Based on the soil analysis results, the international soil health consultant advised Jelliman to apply macronutrients, primarily calcium, phosphate and potassium, in conjunction with micronutrients such as boron, zinc, manganese and copper, to his cropping soil to correct the imbalance between the two nutrient types.