Willie Pretorius

About Willie Pretorius

I have a passion for my work relating to all aspects of Soil Health and its maintenance. The value of using the natural soil biological processes to grow crops is completely under estimated at present. It is my objective to work relentlessly towards a better understanding of this intricate soil plant relationship so that sustainable biological systems can ultimately replace the harmful chemical option. I believe this will happen sooner than most people think. We now have ample working examples of large scale farming operations that yield on all grown crops better than county averages, at a fraction of the production costs of neighbor farms practicing Conventional chemically driven systems. These practical examples are driving me to explore how nature puts these complex biological systems together to achieve such outcomes. Some simple questions and observations around this issue; why apply nitrogen if in the atmosphere within a cubic hectare above the soil surface there is almost tons of nitrogen? Feed the free living nitrogen binding microbial system through photosynthate. In this regard you can find a natural biologically driven system provided by nature to harness all the different resources and nutrients required for profitable crop production. The natural provided resources are in most cases more than ample to satisfy the crop needs and the driving mechanism to free these nutrient resources is through the vast link of microbial interactive resources communicating each others needs and the plant communities above ground, through biochemical substances.

Experience

1. Soil Health Consultant

   Ward Laboratories, Inc

   Jul 2020 — Present · US

   To assist Ward Laboratory clients with all aspects regarding Soil Health analyses interpretations and to assist with all aspects of Regenerative Farming.

Education

• Stellenbosch University

  MSc.(Agric), Agriculture

  1968 — 1970

• University of Pretoria

  B.Sc (Agric), Agriculture.

  1962 — 1966

• University of Stellenbosch, business school.

  Hons.B.B&A, Business Administration and Management, General

  1983 — 1984

• University of Pretoria

  Agricultural and Horticultural Plant Breeding