VERMONTVILLE, Mich. – Some farmers may not realize there’s a fertilizer straight from Mother Nature that could achieve better results at less of a cost.

Gypsum found at 60 feet or more beneath the ground might be a better option to save on the skyrocketing cost of chemical fertilizer.

Rob Cook, owner of Lime and Gypsum Products, Inc. in Vermontville said gypsum adds essential nutrients, calcium and sulfur to all soils while loosening clay soil prone to sealing over in a rainstorm.

“Other types of fertilizer are super high-priced right now and they don’t really act necessarily like a soil amendment like the gypsum does.  It’s a lot of bang for your buck,” he said.

Cook said he started the company in 2001 after seeing the results of gypsum in his corn, soybeans and other crops on his 3,000-acre farm. He also grows wheat and hay, and raises cattle.

The company sells organic gypsum, strictly by the truck load, from its mines at Turner in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan and Shoals in southwest Indiana. Deliveries are made to farms throughout the Midwest and into Canada.

Dennis Vanderhoef, director of sales for the company, said gypsum containing calcium sulfate is crushed from a rock into a powder and doesn’t change the pH level in the soil.

According to researchers, a balanced pH level along with sufficient amounts of calcium in the soil are needed to allow the roots of a crop to absorb the nutrients in the ground.

In comparison, lime needed when pH levels are too low can drive up pH levels too far if used too heavily. “That’s where gypsum can really come in,” Vanderhoef said.

According to researchers, sulfate, commonly known as sulfur, is essential for a crop because it does things like activate certain enzymes and vitamins and helps in forming amino acids and proteins.

Gypsum also restores the loss of sulfur in the ground over the years from air emissions being cleaner.

Sulfur is created from the burning of fossil fuel and washes down from the atmosphere when it rains.

“If you put gypsum on the plants they’re usually a darker green which means they’re a healthier plant capable of producing more crop,” Vanderhoef said.

Vanderhoef said gypsum also bonds with other fertilizers to reduce leaching of the nutrients into the air and soil. “It’s going to hold it in the soil until the plant uses it,” he said.

Gypsum loosens clay soil to allow more water and nutrients to reach the roots of the crop.

Cook said clay contains magnesium and when levels are too high, magnesium works with water to form a seal on the surface of the ground. That prevents water and nutrients from being absorbed and reaching the roots. “It’ll be like a sheet of plastic on top of the soil,” he said.

Gypsum bonds with magnesium and from a chemical reaction loosens the clay.

Vanderhoef said the clay doesn’t become porous enough right away but will if applied every year. “It makes it better each time you put it on,” he said.

Gypsum is also used in making drywall.

Vanderhoef said most of the gypsum offered by the company is mined but a small amount comes from recycled drywall.

Gypsum is offered by the company at $40 a ton.

Heavy clay, for example, needs roughly 500 to 700 pounds of gypsum per acre but amounts can vary greatly depending on the soil type, he said.

Vanderhoef said he was sold on the benefits of gypsum four years ago after using it for the first time in his 100-acre hay field.

He previously applied pot ash, lime and chemical fertilizers. “You could actually physically see the difference from the tractor,” he said.

He feeds the hay to horses at his boarding stable and sells the rest to a man raising cattle. Vanderhoef said a lot of farmers he educates about gypsum have never heard of it.

“Gypsum is kind of a pretty well-kept secret. I educate and let people make up their own mind,” he said.