Liebig's Law of the Minimum

In 1840, Justus vonLiebig, a German chemist, published a book entitled. “Organic Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology.” This book and succeeding revisions had a profound impact on agriculture. Liebig promoted the idea that chemistry could revolutionize the practice of agriculture — and it did.
A comprehensive discussion of Liebig’s many accomplishments as a participant in this cutting edge agricultural revolution are beyond the scope of this article. Here are some high points.

• Liebig’s scientific investigation of the various aspects of the element carbon resulted in major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry. Thus he is widely known as the Founder of Organic Chemistry. .
• Liebig identified the chemical elements of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) plus trace minerals as essential to plant growth. These recommendations fueled considerable criticism in some circles, which controversy persists to this day. Nevertheless, Liebig is known as the Father of the Fertilizer Industry.

In 1840, Carl Sprengel, a contemporary of Liebig, developed a principle of agricultural science known as the "theorem of the minimum”, which stated that plant growth is not determined by the total resources available, but by the scarcest available resource. Liebig popularized this concept and it became known as “Liebig’s Law of the Minimum.”
Later, a fellow named Dobenec illustrated the concept with a barrel composed of staves of varying length. Just as the capacity of a barrel is limited by the length of the shortest staves so plant growth is limited by the essential nutrients in shortest supply. This basic image became known as “Liebig’s Barrel”.
While this principle was originally applied to plant or crop growth it is also applicable to a multitude of other situations including biological populations and ecosystem models. It even applies to product manufacturing where production is limited by availability of raw materials.
I am amazed that a principle developed almost two centuries ago has as wide, or wider, application today as it did when originally proposed. Liebig’s Law of the Minimum is a perfect fit when applied to mineral nutrition in livestock.
The Liebig Barrel is compatible with the Mineral Wheel and adds a new dimension to the team player concept of balanced mineral nutrition.

All of the above begs the question:

“What is the shortest stave in your barrel?”