This is part two of a conversation our Specialty Field Representative, Ashley Babl had with industry experts at Natural Resources Conservation, State Soil Health Specialist, Aaron Hird and Carlos Villarrea, a State Soil Scientist. Below they explore the intersection of science backed soil management practices and third-party analysis.
Management Practices that are Helpful
Implementing practices that support the Natural Resource Conservation’s main principals to manage soil health are very important. The principals to manage soil health are to maximize presence of living roots, minimize disturbance, maximize soil cover, and maximize biodiversity. “Maximizing the presence of living roots is going to help the soil receive energy from the sun. Having roots in the ground is the only way the soil and microbes receive that energy. Mother nature is going to naturally want to always have roots in the soil”, commented Hird.
“If a cash crop isn’t actively growing, a cover crop is a great idea to achieve that goal of always having a living root in the soil.” Said Arron. “Minimizing the disturbance of soil is key in helping maintain the current soil structure and allow for nature to continue the building of soil structure from biological activity. Residue management can be seen as an argumentative piece for those who may not want to shy away from some sort of tillage.
Hird made it clear that once the biology has had time to grow in numbers, the faster you will see characteristics of good soil structure occur. “Maximizing soil cover goes hand in hand with maximizing the presence of living roots. This could be achieved in several ways such as intercropping or cover crops, for example.”
What’s Below and Above the Soil
As our understanding of soil has expanded, we realize that there is just as much going on below the soil surface as there is above. Mr. Hird gave us insight into how this changes our practices as producers concerned about the health of our soil.
“Investing in the roots. Most of our soil carbon comes from the root biomass, not the above biomass. We can keep the ground covered with plant biomass, but we need to retain those roots and let them enter the ecosystem and become a food source for microbial activity so we can accumulate that carbon resource and that energy source for the soil inhabitants.”
The Importance of Third-Party Analysis
Naturally, Midwest Laboratories wants to ensure we are being as helpful as we can be to our clients and the producers as they are on the journey of maintaining soil health.
Hird commented on the importance of analysis. “I’m a big champion of measuring and monitoring soil health. We need to inventory it. Get a benchmark of where we are at and where things are headed.”
“I’m also a huge fan of monitoring residue cover and making sure that we never see bare ground. It’s an easy principal. Keep it covered. We should try to disturb it [soil] or not at all. And eventually, over time we will see that lack of disturbance result in good soil productivity. Another thing I like to monitor is bulk density. We talked about the bulk density of the soil quite a bit and if you take a three-inch bulk density sample, we are really capturing the density problems in the profile, and we will see that number change over time with the use of cover crops because that is the zone in which a lot of those cover crop roots will work to break up the compaction and density issues. The bulk density reading can be tracked and used as a measurement of success. I also like to see a standard chemical analysis as well. That’s going to give some carbon information, so I know where I’m at with my soil organic matter.” Hird continued. “And there’s a lot of different biological tests that can be ran as well, which I’m a big fan of all of them, but I say pick one that you think is repeatable and one that you can accomplish at the same time every year so you can establish agronomic trends.” Aaron also added, “We’re also looking at the aggregate stability test.”
Tackling Concerns Through Information
Carlos Villarreal, State Soil Scientist for the NRCS office, added, “We can relate a lot of resource concerns back to management. As a Natural Resource Conservation Service, our goal is to help producers meet their goals and objectives in conservation. But they are easy to recognize like degraded plant condition, soil erosion, wind erosion, etc. and we can recognize that your soil is not functioning properly. Then we can prescribe a conservation program or practice to help resolve those issues. But it all boils down to a commitment to adopt those beneficial practices, understanding what your resource needs are, and then using lab data to justify some if the decisions you’re making and reinforce or recognize some of the improvements you’re making on the land.”
Villarreal added that implementing all these things from management practices such as no-till, to utilizing laboratory data can only help make the large-scale row crop farmer, cattle producer, backyard farmer or lawn enthusiast that much better at conserving resources, making decisions, and building healthy soils.
At this point in our time together Aaron gave a rainfall demonstration and an aggregate stability test to show the difference in soils that were managed through a no-till practice and managed in a conventional tillage program. Results speak for themselves in those tests.
How Midwest Laboratories Can Help
Midwest Laboratories offers a variety of Soil Health packages as well as individual analytes. From our Soil Health Basic package that includes our standard chemical analysis (S1AN), 1 day C02C test and the Haney Test with a Soil Health Calculation to our more elaborate Soil Health Complete that includes a more complete chemical analysis (S3C) as well as the 1 day C02C test and the Haney Test with a Soil Health Calculation, we have the capability to help benchmark and track your progress your making on your farm, pasture, garden or backyard. We ensure that however diverse your agricultural operation is that we work alongside our clients to help them throughout the process. Get started today by sending us an email at contactus@midwestlabs.com or getting started on our MyLab Portal.