BioPulseThe pulse of Biological Agriculture

Issue 4 | December 2013

The driving force behind Sustainable Agriculture

A Christmas Wish... We would like to wish all our partners a very Merry Christmas. We look forward to working with you in the year ahead!

Tel. 086 104 5261 www.madumbi.co.za support@madumbi.co.za

Brought to you by

CELEBRATING 2013 LAW OF THE MINIMUM FESTIVE SEASON CLOSUREAndre takes a look back at the year that has past celebrating the successes of 2013.

Brendon takes a closer look at V12 Multi and V12 Micro and their benefit in protecting against yield losses as a result of limiting nutrition.

Important notice regarding festive season operations.

Page 1 Andre’s Seasons Greetings

Madumbi Sustainable Agriculture would like to wish all our customers a very merry Christmas and a safe and happy new year.

2013 marked another busy and exciting year for Madumbi. Just some of the high points included - • A growth of 48% in turnover, illustrating the continued success and growth of the biological industry in

South Africa. • The registration and launch of our own nutrition range, the V12 products, which have already had a

highlysuccessfulfirstseason.• Cryptex,oneofourflagshipproducts,wasapprovedforuseonTableGrapesmakingitthemost

comprehensively registered FCM virus product in South Africa. Early season predictions indicate it is going to be another excellent year for this product.

• We welcomed a new staff member in Robyn Rowe, refer to the last issue of BioPulse for a full introduction. Robyn who has been with us for 3 month now is settling into the team extremely well.

• We celebrated the excellent achievements of our staff members with the introduction of our cycling themedteamawards.SiaswastheproudrecipientofthefirstyellowjerseyforhisoutstandingcommitmenttoMadumbi.KarenreceivedtheKingoftheMountainsPolkajerseyforallhardworkbehind the scenes.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our partners for your loyal support over the past year, without you it would not be possible to achieve these great successes. 2014 will bring a new year with new challenges and new opportunities, we look forward to meeting these with you our partners.

From all of us at Madumbi, we’ll see you in 2014!

ANDRE FOXMadumbi Sustainable Agriculture

CEO

andre@madumbi.co.za

Madumbi wishes you a safe and happy festive season...

The Cutting Edge in Virus technology

for the suppression of False Codling Moth on Citrus, Table Grapes,

Pomegranates and Sharon Fruit

Brought to you by South Africa’s leading

Sustainable Agricultural supply company

Manufactured by the world leaders in Virus based

crop protection products

Cryptex

Page 3 Law of the Minimum

TheLawoftheMinimumstatesthatitisthescarcestresourcethatmostinfluencesplantgrowth,ratherthan the total amount of resources or nutrients available. This ‘Law’ is often illustrated by a barrel, like the one pictured below. The illustration shows that the capacity of the barrel is limited by the shortest stave, justlikeacropsyieldpotentialislimitedbythenutrient,orotherresource,inshortestsupplyrelativetoitsneed.

BRENDON NEUMANNMadumbi Sustainable Agriculture

Category Manager - BioFertilisers and Plant Vitality

brendon@madumbi.co.za

The Law of the Minimum, V12 Multi and V12 Micro your ultimate insurance duo.

Calcium

Mag

nesium

Nitrog

en

Potassium

Phosph

orus

Sulphu

r

BFe ZnMn

At Madumbi, we recognize 8 key elements (B, Si, Ca, N, Mg, P, C, K) and 4 key drivers (amino acids, vitamins, micronutrients and biostimulants) of plant nutrition. Together these make up the 12 essential components of nutrition which are addressed by the V12 range of products. Any of these 12 components can become a limiting factor in the quest for high yields.

V12 Multi V12 Micro

The Ultimate Insurance Duo! Page 4 The Law of the Minimum

One of the biggest challenges facing growers is determining what the relevant limiting resources are for a given crop in a given area. Regular soil analysis is a good starting point and can give one a general overview of the nutrient status of the soil. The story told by such analysis is, however, often incomplete:

1. Just because nutrients are present in the soil at the right concentrations does not always mean that they are plant available. Soil pH and other physical characteristics can result in lock-up of nutrients or poor uptake by roots.

2. Root systems can be compromised by the presence of pests and diseases e.g. nematodes and root rot fungi such as Fusarium, thus limiting the ability of the plant to take up nutrients from the soil.

3. Localizedvariationsinsoiltypeetc.canresultinmajorvariationsinsoilnutrientcontentandavailabilitywithinasinglefield.

Thesearejustsomeofthefactorsthatcanmakeitdifficulttoaddressthelimitingfactorsinplantnutritionpurely through soil applied fertilizers and thus create an opportunity for foliar feeding in combating the effects of the ‘Law of the Minimum’.

Regularleafanalysis,inconjunctionwithsoilanalysis,cangiveamorecompletepictureofwhattheplantis actually short of. The problem with leaf analysis is that often by the time results have come back from the laboratory, the limiting factor has already been limiting for a few weeks and yield potential has already been compromised.

So what are the alternatives?

1. Know your farm – through regular soil and leaf analysis, over time you will get to know what the predominant limiting factors are on your farm. These problems can then be addressed before they occur through a program approach.

2. Apply a broad-spectrum, insurance policy, type product – This is the shotgun approach where one ultimatelymakesallthestavesinthebarrelabitlongerjusttobesurethebarrelcanholdmorewater. Even though there may still be one particular resource that is limiting, it is less limiting than it would have been without the foliar feed, which means that yield potential is raised.

V12 Multi and Micro provide the perfect insurance policy duo, providing all 12 essential elements of plant nutrition in optimal formulations – making sure the ‘Law of the Minimum’ does not impact on your crops yields!

V12 Multi V12 Micro

MEGAN TYLERMadumbi Sustainable Agriculture

Marketing Assistant

megan@madumbi.co.za

Madumbi Festive Season Operations

Thesillyseasonisuponus,beforeweallrushofftoenjoythetimewithfamiliesandfriendspleasetakenote of the following important dates.

Madumbi Festive Season Closure• Madumbiofficeswillbeclosedfrom12noononTuesday24thDecemberthroughtoFriday27th

December. • RobynwillbeavailableintheofficetoassistyoufromMonday30thDecemberFriday3rdJanuary.• Normal operations will continue from 6th January.

Transport and Courier ServicesOurtransportandcourierserviceshavenotifiedusofclosuresandlimitedoperationsoverthefestive season. To avoid any disappointments please ensure your orders are placed no later than 18 December. We advise you to purchase additional stock as we are not able to guarantee timeous delivery during this period.

From the admin team, thank you for your support and understanding over this period. We wish you a very merry Christmas and safe travels. We look forward to assisting you again in the new year!

Page 5 Festive Season Closures

Page 6 The Law of the Minimum

V12

The high performance, holistic approach to

plant nutrition.

• Arangeofqualitynutritionproductsformulatedforgrowthphase,stressordeficiencymanagement.

• IdealMacroandMicronutrientsprovidedinasingledrum.

• AminoAcidchelatedforfastandefficientabsorption.

• Uniqueblendofbiostimulantstargetandoptimisegrowth.

Achieve sustainable plant health.

Brought to you by

Your partner in Sustainable Solutions

Until next time from the Madumbi team, Happy Farming!

The driving force behind Sustainable AgricultureTel. 086 104 5261 www.madumbi.co.za support@madumbi.co.za