While visiting with a dealer last week, I discussed the attributes of different sulfur fertilizer sources.  The final choice between ammonium sulfate and calcium sulfate came down to the cost for a unit (#) of sulfate sulfur.  Here is what my calculations showed (these prices are not suggested to be indicative of every particular situation, but only an example):

Ammonium sulfate (AMS), 21-0-0-24S, was costing $0.75 per unit of sulfur (nitrogen value set to 0).

Calcium sulfate (SO4), 0-0-0-17S-22Ca, was costing $0.59 per unit of sulfur (calcium value set to 0).

If the sulfur requirement for 5 Ton alfalfa removal is 30# (6# sulfur per Ton), the cost for sulfur nutrition from AMS was $22.50 per acre, with the SO4 providing the same 30# of sulfur, but for a cost of $17.70 per acre.  Net difference (savings) to the grower of $4.80 per acre.

Not a huge difference, but still a 20% decrease in cost.  With the economic challenges of livestock production today, every little bit helps.

SuperCal SO4, the right fit, right now. 

Have you heard about the climate divide?  That is a term sometimes used to describe the differences in energy use & the associated greenhouse emissions, between the United States and countries like sub-Saharan Africa.  A reference article on climate divide: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/health/02iht-climate.1.5109623.html

The term fertilizer divide is being used to describe the differences in fertilizer use between countries.  In a report published in the June 19 issue of Science, China is specifically chided for using too much, according to Peter Vitousek, a professor of biology at Stanford University and senior fellow at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment.   Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-06/su-shm061609.php

"Some parts of the world, including much of China, use far too much fertilizer," Vitousek said. "But in sub-Saharan Africa, where 250 million people remain chronically malnourished, nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrient inputs are inadequate to maintain soil fertility." 

In the report, Vitousek and colleagues compared fertilizer use in three corn-growing regions of the world-north China, western Kenya and the upper Midwestern United States.  The area in China used 525 pounds of nitrogen per acre (588 kilograms per hectare) annually in growing corn.  200 pounds per acre (227 kilograms per hectare) of excess nitrogen is released into the environment.  By comparison, Kenya only used 6 pounds per acre (7 kilograms per hectare), in a 2004 study. 

Statistics show that from 2003 to 2005, annual corn yields in parts of the Midwestern United States and north China were almost the same, even though Chinese farmers used six times more nitrogen fertilizer than their American counterparts and generated nearly 23 times the amount of excess nitrogen.

So why is the United States' farmer always the bad boy of fertilizer use?  Sounds to me like China deserves more scrutiny & Kenya deserves more support. 

Long-term memory formation in honeybees is instigated by a calcium ion cascade. Researchers have shown that calcium acts as a switch between short- and long-term storage of learned information.

Jean-Christophe Sandoz led a team of researchers from the CNRS, the Université de Toulouse and the French Calcium Research Network, who carried out the neurological honeybee experiments. Sandoz and his colleagues studied a learned behaviour in the bees, extension of the proboscis in response to olfactory stimuli associated with food. Three days after decreasing calcium levels during learning, the bees stopped responding to the odor, and three days after increasing calcium during learning, bees' response to the odor were stronger. In addition, the researchers found that the increased memory performance in bees induced by increased calcium depended on protein synthesis. According to Sandoz, "We have found here that the modulation of calcium during learning affects long-term memory specifically while leaving learning and short-term memory intact".

Link: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/7/30/abstract

I wonder if this applies to our memory also?