Neal Kinsey's Hands-On Agronomy [Paperback]

Neal Kinsey (Author), Charles Walters (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1999

The soil is more than just a substrate that anchors crops in place. An ecologically balanced soil system is essential for maintaining healthy crops. This is a comprehensive manual on soil management. The "whats and whys" of micronutrients, earthworms, soil drainage, tilth, soil structure and organic matter are explained in detail. Kinsey shows how working with the soil produces healthier crops with a higher yield drawing on his wide range of experience as a master consultant. Learn how to balance soil nutrients for maximum yield. Discover why simple N-P-K fertilization isn't enough. Understand the proper use of manures, compost, tillage, micronutrients and more. Kinsey gives first-rate science that brings organiculture and conventional farming together on speaking terms and indicts toxic rescue chemistry at the same time.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Neal Kinsey grew up in southeast Missouri and worked on the farm for his father until he graduated from high school. To make his way through college, he worked part-time and summers as a crop reporter for the USDA's ASCS in Missouri and Illinois. He obtained his B.S. degree in marketing from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. In the fall of 1966, Kinsey enrolled in a master's degree program in Food Industry Logistics in Agricultural Economics at the University of Missouri, Columbia. Here is where he first met Dr. William A. Albrecht, who later provided the technical training in soil fertility required by his present profession. In 1968 Kinsey moved to Texas and took a job with a large environmental research project conducted by Ambassador College at Big Sandy. He eventually became assistant to the Director. Later, he became business manager followed by agricultural operations manager for the Ambassador College Agriculture Department. While serving in this! capacity, he became a certified consultant for Brookside Farms Laboratory of New Knoxville, Ohio. In 1977 he established Kinsey Agricultural Services. His workshops and seminars take him all around the world to train hundreds of growers in soil balancing utilizing cation exchange specializing in building and maintaining soil for quality crop production.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Acres USA (August 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0911311599
• ISBN-13: 978-0911311594
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,367,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It makes sense!, June 3, 2004

By 

Ian Langridge (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Neal Kinsey's Hands-On Agronomy (Paperback)

At a guess the reviewer "A reader from New York" has never had anything to do with soils and farming. He/she just eats the end products.
I am a farmer in Australia dealing with some of the hardest yet some of the most potentially productive soils as any in the USA. This book was recommended to me by a fellow farmer. After reading it I was stunned as to how much sense it made. I can now relate soil test data to what I see in the field and understand why some areas always produce more than others. It's not "quackery" when you can understand how mother nature and basic chemistry allow some areas of a field to outperform others by sometimes 3-1.
Readers of this book should be farmers who are willing to take a close look at their soils, work the numbers, think about it and then be prepared to accept what they WILL see in it all.
I am by no means an organic farmer, I still use some commercial fertilizers and spray about as much as anyone. After reading this book I have started working on balancing the soil because I see from experience the most balanced soils producing the best crops.
I don't really care if Neal Kinsey has a consulting practice on soils. And as far as the book being a bit "light on" for detail is concerned, well it's not. It is a great first step to understanding the soil we grow things in. Fertilizer brouchures are light on for detail.
Happy reading and I hope the little light bulb gets turned on in your head like it did in mine.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars misleading discriptin and daunting, January 7, 2011

By 

6470 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Neal Kinsey's Hands-On Agronomy (Paperback)

This book seems ideally suited for the land grant university student or farmer with a biology or chemistry degree perusing a livelihood in large scale or industrial agriculture. I am a small farmer without a degree but a very solid understanding of bio and chem and I found this book to be a bit daunting. The book starts out with a series of case studies in which the author always emerges as the hero. After the advertisements for his service and all the high-horsemanship you begin to smell the meat and potatoes. What follows is a complicated mess of NPK, pounds per acre and yield. Small attempts are made at including holistic management techniques but they are weakly explained and sparse. This book is advertised to farmers but the chem and bio concepts are difficult and without prior knowledge you will need to do significant outside the book research to follow along. If you are a medium to large scale farmer growing conventional commodity crops, and have prior knowledge to or a significant interest in learning these tough concepts this book may be useful. I would not recommend this book to Multi-croppers, pasture based, organic or small farmers in general. This book made me question the role of leading agronomists in a future SUSTAINABLE food production system.