It’s possible that ancient Egyptian farmers noticed something different about their soil or crops if any flyaway gypsum dust landed on their fields along the Nile River.
After all, their people used gypsum to finish the Pyramids. Perhaps these farmers noticed that after enough of the fine white mineral powder drifted over their soil for a while, it seemed more loamy. Or that crops seemed healthier and more prolific. Or that their fields didn’t stand with water for as long following heavy rains.
Perhaps they did notice all of these. But first using gypsum dust to improve soil is actually credited to the early Greeks or Romans, according to Dr. Warren Dick of Ohio State University’s School of Environment and Natural Resources. He also noted gypsum’s value as fertilizer was established in Germany and France in the late 18th century, and was subsequently used throughout Europe.
It wasn’t long after that Benjamin Franklin brought gypsum to Pennsylvania. The story goes that he chose a hill the townfolk could easily spot and used his “land plaster” to aerate the soil, planting seeds strategically so that when spring came, spelled out on the hillside was: THIS LAND HAS BEEN PLASTERED.
“It’s kind of a simple thing, when you think about it,” said Ron Chamberlain, of the principle of gypsum working with soil.
He began Cheron, Inc. with wife Cheryl out of their Indianapolis home in 2002. In June 2006, they obtained a marketing and distribution permit from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) to sell Gypsoil, a product containing gypsum to be spread on cropland.
For 31 years prior, the Purdue University graduate – who grew up on a farm in northwestern Indiana – worked for agricultural companies, beginning with Allied Chemical and Fertilizer in 1971. The Chamberlains have lived in several places where he worked, including three years in Europe.
Chamberlain, 59, has been a salesman, product manager and inventor. Though he enjoyed his work, the one thing he really wanted to be was his own boss. So, five years ago, he retired to go into business for himself, putting to work his knowledge of how plants and soil interact to find ways for soil to consistently produce over the long-term.
“My objective is to make a positive difference in what I do,” he explained – such as helping farmers grow more crops to fulfill the nation’s energy requirements. “The foundation of all that has to be the soil, and the structure of the soil.
However, “This is not a silver bullet,” he cautioned, adding there are sandy and other types of soils which will not respond to gypsum application. “This is a tool.”
Gypsoil, he said, can be applied anytime, though he recommends it’s best between plantings. He usually recommends between 1,100 and 2,000 pounds per acre every year or two, until the soil structure is to the farmer’s satisfaction. The cost of Gypsoil is determined by volume and the customer’s distance from Chamberlain’s source, but he estimates between $20 and $30 per acre.
HOW IT WORKS
Any farmer knows soil isn’t just dirt. It’s an anchor for plants and crops and, beyond that, a nutritious ecosystem made up of billions of smaller biological systems, fed by worms, bugs and microorganisms that consume plant waste, excrete fertilizer and keep the soil loose.
That is, when the soil can support these systems. To survive, these creatures require a steady supply of air and moisture. But how many fields around the Midwest have been left standing with water after heavy rains in the past couple of months, sometimes for days or weeks at a time?
Farmers lifting a shovelful of soil may notice a hard-packed “crust” on top of their field, a dry, cracking layer of otherwise impermeable dirt. This is what keeps standing water out of the ground and also deprives the soil of oxygen.
When water does manage to seep into this crust, it still doesn’t get very far. Placing his thumb over the top of the straw in his drink, Chamberlain lifted and held it over the glass, demonstrating how the liquid stays up in the straw because its air supply at the top is cut off.
“It’s like holding a hand over your mouth while breathing,” the Gypsoil inventor said.
His definition of good soil includes a structure that allows water to seep through and sluice away rather quickly, rather than “ponding” or eroding. The secret, he explained, is in the calcium content. Soil is comprised of clay and organic matter, including minerals and trace metals, and the more calcium is in the soil, the better its structure to support plant life and the more nutritious it is.
Ideally, soil needs to be about 75 percent calcium and no more than 10 to 13 percent magnesium. He referred to tests conducted at Purdue that showed soil with a 33-percent calcium concentration drains away only 1/10-inch of water per hour after light rain – with gypsum to bring concentration up to 75 percent, that same soil can drain almost six times as quickly.
Chamberlain pointed out farmers spread limestone to decrease the acidity of their soil by removing hydrogen ions. Limestone contains calcium and magnesium, and he said magnesium lowers acidity faster than just calcium.
The problem is it hangs around, especially for farmers relying on no-till, compacting the soil beyond what is good for the deep subsoil.
Gypsum is calcium sulfate, perhaps more commonly thought of as part of the “sea salt” left in deposits on lands once underwater. Spreading it on soil does not affect the acidity, Chamberlain said, explaining the molecules rearrange so that part of the sulfate attaches to and carries off part of the magnesium and other harmful trace metals such as aluminum.
SOURCE MATERIALS
Chamberlain is marketing Gypsoil in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. At present, he has 40 customers, which is about 37 more than Roy’s Recycling, just north of Anderson, Ind., serves.
Cheron buys a portion of its supply from power plants, which produce synthetic gypsum as a byproduct of flue gas desulfurization – basically, using lime to scrub sulfur dioxide from coal. But both Cheron and Roy’s really depend heavily on the construction industry.
Randy Scott and his wife, Karen, started Roy’s (named for his grandfather, also an entrepreneur, who ran Scott Seeds for 40 years in Madison County) in 1996 as a construction clean-up business. Scott, 52, a fourth-generation farmer, grows 62 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat, but Roy’s is his day job. In March 2006 – three months before Cheron did – he obtained a similar IDEM permit to sell ground gypsum to growers.
“I know he’s been looking at the process for a few years,” said Jeffrey Harmon, senior environmental manager with IDEM’s Solid Waste Permit Section. “He and I have been talking about it off and on.”
(Right now, only three such permits are issued in Indiana – the third was issued in February 2007 to Vim Recycling of Goshen. Harmon said the state has only ever issued five of these permits, and the other two are no longer in business.)
Contractors discard a great deal of new drywall left over from construction. For years, Scott said he carted this waste, which he said is 93 percent gypsum and seven percent paper, to the landfill. In 1999, he began researching alternatives and realized drywall can be ground for cropland application.
Both Scott and Chamberlain would prefer to see drywall recycled rather than buried in a landfill. “The stuff has to go someplace,” Scott said, explaining the average new home generates up to 3.5 tons of drywall waste during construction. “I’m trying to be part of the solution.”
Scott is permitted to process up to 1,500 tons of gypsum annually, which he does in a large tub grinder (typically used for round bales of hay) inside the shed where he stores both drywall and the finished gypsum/paper mixture. He cannot use old drywall, which is usually painted and may contain other harmful materials.
According to Harmon, since receiving their permits last year, Cheron has processed 552 dry tons of material and Roy’s, 162 dry tons. These are self-reported figures.
SUCCESS STORIES
Chamberlain may be on his way to becoming what Scott half-jokingly calls “the drywall king” of Indiana. Both businessmen see plenty of market.
“He can’t possibly cover everybody,” Scott said, adding that gaining more customers just means keeping that much more drywall out of a landfill.
For his part, Chamberlain’s goal is to raise awareness among farmers and agricultural companies of gypsum’s – and, in his particular case, Gypsoil’s – benefits. His intention is not to own the gypsum market, but to corner enough of it to make Cheron prosperous, and to keep ahead of the curve with product development.
“It’s going to be a long journey,” he observed.
In Scott’s case, this side business is literally saving his farm. He charges about $11 a ton for his gypsum, produced by picking up drywall within a 50-mile radius. “It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme,” he said. “It’s not tilling the soil, but … if we’re not allowed to diversity our small farms, we’re not going to stay in business anymore.”
He has run into problems with some neighbors and county zoning officials who want to classify his operation as “industrial,” which would either shut it down or put more restrictions on it. This frustrates Scott, who must go back before the zoning board in May to see if the county will extend or replace his probationary permit with a permanent one.
“I’m not trying to rub anybody the wrong way,” he said, explaining he is following the state’s guidelines and doesn’t understand why that isn’t good with the county. “I’m just trying not to put this in the landfill. I can live with IDEM’s rules.”
Two of Cheron’s Brownsburg, Ind., clients are also having success because of gypsum. Jack Maloney, 51, who farms 2,650 acres of corn and soybeans, has been using gypsum and Gypsoil for four years. He said it turns hard, “concrete-like” ground crust more “mellow.
“By not having the ponding or crusting, your soil warms up quicker,” he said, adding it also makes the soil softer to allow roots to penetrate deeper. He doesn’t have to apply as much nitrogen, either, since worms and other creatures can more easily break down what is already in the ground.
Admittedly, it’s a slow process to get far enough down to make a big difference with row crops – Maloney estimates up to five years, but said, “We’re beginning to reap some of the benefits of our four-year program,” such as a difference in root mass and depth.
“I didn’t even know we had a problem,” he said of soil magnesium being close to 30 percent before using Gypsoil, which has lowered it to as little as 16 percent in some spots. “But I knew we had the crusting, and we didn’t know why.
“We actually know more about space than we do about a handful of dirt.”
Mike Starkey, whose family farms 3,300 acres near Maloney’s land, is in his fifth year of using gypsum. The biggest change he reports is in soil structure, meaning less standing water in his field.
But it also makes small differences that add up – when applying fertilizer with a sidedress, for example, it’s not as difficult to pull through the soil, requiring less fuel. He said he can get back to work faster after a storm, citing a heavy rain he had one Thursday evening, after which he was able to spray for ragweed as early as Saturday.
“This is kind of exciting,” Starkey said. “This is what we call the living soil.”
To Chamberlain, it’s also the way things are supposed to be. “This is nature,” he said of gypsum’s correctional qualities. “This is the way God laid this soil out.”
-Published in Marketplace, May 2007