Farmer communities have always been considered the backbone of America as well as all over the world. The Covid-19 pandemic has brought well-deserved attention to the importance of their existence in the food supply chain. If what stands between them and their supply chain is a dangerous muddy frontage or access road, fixing the problem needs to be done quickly and at an affordable price. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that between 2016 and 2025, America will underinvest in our infrastructure by over $2 trillion and projected that $2 trillion will be necessary to repair rural roads.
With the decline in rural road investments, farmers should not have to continue to use poorly maintained roads. Muddy, dusty roads are dangerous to drive on and significantly increases maintenance costs. The heavy travel back and forth on these poorly maintained roads cause long term damage to farming equipment. Most farm roads are susceptible to mud due to the rich organics and clay in the soil. This generally happens naturally because the nature of the environment. Sometimes, farmers will use gravel to help combat mud and help keep dust down, but eventually they will have to regrade the road which costs both time and money. Other times farmers will use a magnesium chloride or calcium chloride solution to stabilize their roadways. However, there are many environmental concerns with using chlorides around farmland due to its toxic nature. Chlorides do not last long and are costly because they have to continuously be reapplied after heavy rainfalls or because they wear off within a year.
Another issue farmers face is finding an affordable soil stabilizer for their roads that will not harm their livestock or farmland. Many dust suppressants are not eco-friendly, need to be reapplied two to three times a year, require special equipment for application, and/or damage farming equipment. Farmers should not have to regrade roads after every rainfall or worry about poorly maintained roads with wash boarding, potholes, or drainage issues. These problems significantly increase the farmers risk of an accident.
One solution for farmers would be to use an enzymatic soil stabilizer, like Perma-Zyme, because it is compatible with organic content commonly in dusty or muddy soils, is eco-friendly and requires no special equipment. Often times, farmers can even use what they have on hand to build a long-lasting farm road.
Perma-Zyme bonds soil particles together to create a concrete like surface that lasts over 10 years. It also reduces dust and is impermeable which decreases the risk of erosion substantially. The enzymatic solution comes in a concentrated form, making it easy to dilute in a water truck and apply to the soil. Perma-Zyme is eco-friendly, made out of food grade materials, is 100% organic, and contains all-natural ingredients so it will not harm livestock or crops.
Equipment Required
To help reduce the expenses that come along with building a farm road, the Perma-Zyme solution was designed to use organic content already present in the on-site soil, bonding those clay particles together to create a concrete-like surface. This permentation™ process helps reduce hauling expenses that are usually a large part of the road construction process since the native soil onsite can be utilized. Expanding clays tend to make building a road challenging since it can be difficult to work with once it gets wet. The equipment required for building a road with Perma-Zyme include:
The process is simple, rip up the soil using a grader, add Perma-Zyme to the water truck once it has been filled with water, spray the solution onto the soil, double check to make sure the soil has reached optimum moisture and then begin the compaction process using the padfoot (sheepsfoot) and smooth wheel rollers with their vibratory functions on.
Alternative Equipment
If you do not have access to all of the road construction equipment listed above, there are several alternatives to building a farm road with Perma-Zyme, such as using tractor implements or attachments, feed trucks, and wheel packing.
To rip up the soil, one alternative is to use implements or attachments for your tractor. This includes a tiller attachment to rip up the soil, and a blade attachment to fold and unfold the soil.
Another alternative is to use a feed truck in place of a water truck to spray the Perma-Zyme and water mixture onto the soil. Perma-Zyme is made out of food grade material and will not harm the livestock feed. If you do not have either a feed truck or water truck, a 55-gallon drum can be used on the back of a pick-up truck to spray the soil. Wheel packing is an alternative method that can be used to replace compaction. Fill a water truck with water or use a front-end loader filled with soil and drive back and forth over the road. The weight of the equipment will compact the dirt.
The Perma-Zyme solution not only works with farm roads, it also works with gravel roads. All that needs to be changed in the process is to add a layer of gravel to the top of the road before compacting. After curing, the Perma-Zyme will have bonded the soil particles to the rocks.
Perma-Zyme can also be used for horse paddocks, cattle grazing areas, pastures to prevent over grazing, and feed yards/feedlots.
Allowing farmers to build a long-lasting, unpaved road is important because they most often do not get subsidized funding to repair damaged farm roads. They most likely have to rely on grants and loans for road repairs which can take the farmers a long time to receive the money and may not cover enough of the expenses. Perma-Zyme allows farmers to build an unpaved road that can last over 10 years without having to worry about the road getting rutted or washed out, and they can save up to 80% in road construction costs.
