Cover Crops Build Soil

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Author: Raylene Nickel 

Cow-calf producer and no-till farmer Lance Gartner, Glen Ullin, North Dakota, grows full-season cover crops to build soil health and to provide early-winter grazing for cows.

Soil organic matter has increased as a result of the multispecies cover crops and the fertility contributed by cattle manure and urine. “Before I started growing cover crops seven years ago, soil tests showed my no-till soils had 2.3% to 2.9% organic matter,” says Gartner. “In recent years, my soils have tested 3.7% to 4.25% organic matter.”

The building of soil organic matter results in a reduced need for applying nitrogen (N) to wheat and corn. Gartner has reduced commercial N use for these crops by 60%, and sometimes he eliminates fertilizer applications altogether.

The yardstick guiding Gartner’s N-application rate is his estimate of N mineralizing from the organic matter. “The unavailable nitrogen doesn’t show up on soil tests, and what mineralizes is not immediately available to plants,” he says. “It becomes available to the crop slowly throughout the growing season.

“I allocate about 1,000 pounds per acre of unavailable N for each percent of organic matter,” he says. “I then figure 1% of this 1,000 pounds of unavailable N will mineralize. This yields 10 pounds of available N. When multiplied times 4% of organic matter, the result is a nitrogen credit of 40 pounds of available N per acre.”

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The 9 Most Important Techniques In Regenerative Agriculture

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Author: Sheldon Frith

These are some of the most effective and important Regenerative Agriculture techniques. They can dramatically improve most farming and ranching operations. Most of them can increase profits, if applied correctly. And they are almost all guaranteed to regenerate land.

Mark Shepard's Regenerative Farm.
Mark Shepard’s Regenerative Farm.

1. Holistic Decision Making (a.k.a. Holistic Management)

  • Holistic Decision Making is a method managing complex systems (like farms, families, nations, companies, etc). This decision making framework has been tested on thousands of farms and ranches around the world for decades. It works. Holistic Decision Making takes into account the financial, environmental, and social aspects of every decision. It also offers methods for changing decisions that aren’t going as planned. And it is simple enough for farmers in rural Africa with absolutely no education to use. This is #1 on my list because most farms and land managemers fail because their decisions do not adequately address the social and financial and environmental aspects of their situation. Holistic Decision Making is a basic prerequisite to long-term sustainability. Read this article for a more detailed explanation of Holistic Management.
  • Holistic Decision Making cannot easily be explained in a short blog post, so I encourage you to read the foundational book: “Holistic Management: A New Framework For Decision Making” by Allan Savory and Jody Butterfield.

Bunched Bison

2. Permaculture Design

  • Permaculture is a philosophy, a design science, and a global movement (read this article to understand those three aspects of Permaculture). The design science of Permaculture is an invaluable tool for farmers and land managers. It is basically landscape design, but unlike most landscape design it is tailored to the needs of agriculture, and it also takes into account the principles of ecology. A Permaculture farm will tend to be more efficient for the farmer, it will tend to have better functioning ecosystems and water cycles, and it will tend to be beautiful as an added bonus.
  • Permaculture Design, like Holistic Management, cannot be easily explained in a single blog post. I encourage you to read the founding text “Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual”, as well as more contemporary guides to Permaculture like “Gaia’s Garden”, “Restoration Agriculture”, and “The Resilient Farm and Homestead”.
Ben Falk's excellent Permaculture Farm.
Ben Falk’s excellent Permaculture Farm.

3. The Soil Food Web

  • The Soil Food Web is not a farming technique, it was not invented by anybody. It is simply the natural process which allows plants to grow when chemical fertilizers are not around (ie. for the past hundreds of millions of years). Elaine Ingham has been the soil scientist who has done the most to reveal the critical importance of the Soil Food Web. The Soil Food Web refers to the microorganisms in the soil (bacteria, fungi, nematodes, etc) which extract nutrients from the soil and provide these nutrients directly to the roots of living plants. Elaine Igham has shown that by managing the the Soil Food Web on your farm carefully you can dramatically improve your plant growth in very short periods of time. This usually entails a one-time application of well-made compost or compost tea, followed by a change in management to protect the health of the soil organisms in the long term (no-till, organic, perennials, etc).
  • For a brief intro to the Soil Food Web watch this inspiring video. The book “Teaming With Microbes” is probably the first book you should read on the subject, followed by Elaine’s more technical guide to making compost “The Field Guide For Actively Aerated Compost Tea”.

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General Mills Partners with Organic Valley

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Minneapolis, MN—General Mills announced last week that it entered into a strategic sourcing partnership with Organic Valley, the largest U.S. organic cooperative. This partnership will help 20 dairy farms add 3,000 acres to organic dairy production over the next three years, building upon General Mills’ commitment to double its organic acreage by 2019.

In recent years, the company has become the number three maker of natural and organic foods, with nine brands, including EPIC Provisions and Annie’s. General Mills’ yogurt operating unit also includes Yoplait, Mountain High and Liberté, which will be transitioning to USDA certified organic to roll out nationwide in the summer.

“To ensure we are able to deliver great tasting organic yogurt offerings to our consumers we are committed to supporting a framework in partnership with Organic Valley that will not only ensure a consistent supply chain, but also make it easier for dairy farmers to successfully manage through the transition to organic,” said David Clark, president of the General Mills Yogurt Operating Unit in a press release. The partnership will help ease the burden on organic agriculture—which only accounts for 1% of total cropland—as farms transition conventional acreage to organic over the ensuing three years.

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The Climate-Friendly Gardener

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Seventy percent of American households engage in some level of gardening or lawn care every year. Some do it for beautiful flowers, lush grass, or fresh fruits and vegetables; some for the peace and quiet or the connection to nature.

But there is another reason to grow plants in your yard: certain gardening practices can help combat global warming. This guide will show you how.

First, we explain the science linking soil, plants, and climate change; then we provide practical tips for a more climate-friendly garden, and links to resources that will help you adapt these tips to your own needs.

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How Africans Are Saving Their Own Soil

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Author: April Fulton

For hundreds of years, parts of sub-Saharan Africa have suffered from poor soil. Weather, shifting populations, and slash-and-burn practices have left wide swaths of land relatively useless for growing food without major commercial intervention. But that’s not the whole story of African farming.

In Guinea and the forests of West Africa, there is a hidden history of enriching the soil with natural techniques handed down through generations to sustain food crops without artificial fertilizers. And there just might be something the rest of the world can learn from it.

“The capacity of people to make soils where soils weren’t good … [has been] completely overlooked,” says James Fairhead, professor of social anthropology of Sussex University. That is, until now.

Fairhead, who has been exploring settlements in the forests of West Africa since the 1990s, had for years observed locals planting crops on the grounds of former villages. As an archaeologist digging for historic artifacts in the same locations, it could be something of a nuisance, he acknowledges, but he started to wonder why it was happening.

He looked for scientific literature on African soils and turned up nothing until he stumbled upon a similar discovery of soil improvement in the Amazon as far back as 5,000 years ago.

Taken together, these could be a “model for sustainable farming and a model for climate smart agriculture,” he says. (See “How Chickpeas Can Fix Soil and Feed Farmers“.)

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Microbes Will Feed the World, or Why Real Farmers Grow Soil, Not Crops

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Author: Brian Barth

They are not farmers, but they are working in the name of farmers everywhere. Under their white lab coats their hearts beat with a mission to unlock the secrets of the soil — making the work of farmers a little lighter, increasing the productivity of every field and reducing the costly inputs that stretch farmers’ profits as thin as a wire.

The American Society of Microbiologists (ASM) recently released a treasure trove of their latest research and is eager to get it into the hands of farmers. Acknowledging that farmers will need to produce 70 to 100 percent more food to feed the projected 9 billion humans that will inhabit the earth by 2050, they remain refreshingly optimistic in their work. The introduction to their latest report states:

“Producing more food with fewer resources may seem too good to be true, but the world’s farmers have trillions of potential partners that can help achieve that ambitious goal. Those partners are microbes.”

Mingling with Microbes

Linda Kinkel of the University of Minnesota’s Department of Plant Pathology was one of the delegates at ASM’s colloquium in December 2012, where innovators from science, agribusiness and the USDA spent two days sharing their research and discussing solutions to the most pressing problems in agriculture.

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G20 Agriculture: France defends a proactive approach to reducing the effects of climate change

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Stéphane Le Foll attended the G20 Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting held in Xi’an on 3rd June, which covered the topics of food security, sustainable agriculture, innovation and new information technologies.

During the event, and in the wake of COP 21 and the December 2015 Paris Agreement, the minister called on his colleagues to mobilise all innovations – technical (especially agronomic), scientific and social – in favour of a more environmental-friendly and healthy agriculture.

The minister also urged attendees to think about agriculture’s role in finding the solution to the challenges of climate change. In particular, he insisted on the need of working actively and immediately on building avenues to reduce global warming, rather than limiting ourselves to the research of adaptation solutions.

As such, the minister underlined the ambition of the “4‰ Initiative: soils for food security and climate” programme supported by France, which aims to conserve agricultural and forest soil and store carbon. He also invited the ministers to get involved with COP 22, to be held in Marrakech next November. The initiative, joined by over 160 States and organisations, rises to the challenge of climate change by promoting carbon storage, and to that of food security by contributing to soil fertility.

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China launches action plan to combat soil pollution

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China’s central government will create a dedicated fund to tackle soil pollution, as well as a separate fund to help upgrade technology and equipment in the heavy metal sector, according to a statement from the cabinet.

The cabinet also said that the government will also continue to get rid of outdated heavy metal capacity.

The Chinese environment minister last year said 16 per cent of the country’s soil exceeded state pollution limits.

Much of the responsibility for the costs now lies with impoverished local governments.

There are currently 100 key soil remediation projects under way in China with an estimated total cost of 500 billion yuan, said researchers with Guohai Securities.

China published its latest five-year plan in March and said the country would give priority to cleaning up contaminated soil used in agriculture.

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10 Edible Perennial Vines for Vertical Gardening

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Author: Jonathon Engels

Vertical gardening is a concept that is well promoted these days, especially when considering urban and suburban gardens in confined spaces. A quick search on any server will reveal a great collection of reused plastic bottles or PVC pipes suspended alongside walls and fences, little bunches of salad greens poking up periodically. Everything from old pants pockets to upcycled dressers to old pallets are used to grow food beyond just ground level. Often times these create beautiful, if not peculiar, garden touches for people, gardeners and the rest alike, to enjoy.

However, small containers like these, while a productive use of space, can often be higher maintenance and are typically used to propagate annuals, but of course, standard permaculture practice is to pursue, though not exclusively, perennial and low-maintenance gardens. It’s from this point of view that the practicality of edible perennial vines become a more obvious choice for utilizing vertical spaces. Climbing vines not only have the potential (and need) to move vertically, but also they can spread along ceilings (to utilize that space as well), become shading roofs themselves, help with insulating, and even function as living walls and fences.

In other words, while the upcycled vertical gardens are a neat trick and fun projects, looking to vines may offer more stacked functions and provide a more reliable, more easily maintained source of food. What’s more is that there are great, varied productive options for temperate and tropical zones, including vines for fruit and vegetables, as well as edible leaves and flowers. Most propagate easily and establish themselves quickly.

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‘Climate-smart soils’ may help balance the carbon budget

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Author: Blaine Friedlander

Here’s the scientific dirt: Soil can help reduce global warming.

While farm soil grows the world’s food and fiber, scientists are examining ways to use it to sequester carbon and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

“We can substantially reduce atmospheric carbon by using soil. We have the technology now to begin employing good soil practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Johannes Lehmann, Cornell professor of soil and crop sciences, co-author of the Perspectives piece, “Climate-smart Soils,” published in Nature, April 6.

Decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, sequestering carbon and using prudent agricultural management practices that tighten the soil-nitrogen cycle can yield enhanced soil fertility, bolster crop productivity, improve soil biodiversity, and reduce erosion, runoff and water pollution. These practices also buffer crop and pasture systems against the impacts of climate change.

Currently, Earth’s atmosphere holds about 830 petagrams (1 trillion kilograms) of carbon and humans add about 10 petagrams of carbon to the atmosphere every year, because of industrial and agricultural waste, and fossil-fuel burning vehicles, according to Lehmann. Soils, however, hold about 4,800 petagrams of carbon to a depth of 2 meters, which is six times the amount of carbon dioxide currently in the atmosphere. The good news is that soils have the potential to hold even more, said the scientists.

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