As a farmer, boosting productivity and profitability helps you – and your operation – succeed. Good soil is one of the easiest and most effective ways to do so.
What can good soil do?
Good soil provides an environment that sustains and nourishes the world around it, including plants, soil microbes and beneficial organisms. It’s both balanced and porous to help farm operations:
Increase profits
Healthy soil is no-till/reduced till, resulting in a reduction in expenses for labor, fuel and optimizing inputs needed to grow crops.
Boost productivity and efficiency
Good soil has better soil structure, aeration, water retention, drainage and nutrient availability to benefit operations of all sizes.
Protect the land
Healthy soil can better withstand extreme weather events that lead to drought and flooding. This leads to decreased runoff, good infiltration and reduced crop input needs.
In addition, the surrounding area - including wildlife habitats and local waterways - benefit, too.
Is your soil healthy?
The key to healthy soil is an increase in soil organic matter, or SOM. SOM affects several functions that are critical to helping plants, animals, and even humans thrive. To find out if you have enough SOM in your soil:
- Take a sample and send it to a state or private testing lab.
- Ask a trusted adviser to help you analyze the results and update your nutrient management and fertility plans
Start a Soil Health Management Program
A Soil Health Management Program is a farming best practice used to improve and maintain good soil. Start with the following 4 principles:
Protect the Soil
Minimize disturbance – SOM is highest at the surface, so protect it from degrading forces with no-till and reduced tillage practices and limit equipment passes over the land. If able, rotate livestock on fields in the off seasons.
Maximize soil cover – Use cover crops to help prevent nutrient runoff, slow erosion and evaporation, promote water retention and help with temperature changes.
Feed the Soil
Manage nutrients – The 4R strategy uses the right fertilizer source at the right rate and right time in the right place in order to optimize nutrient management.
Use living roots – Cover crops, diverse crop rotation, and dedicated grass/forest strips work to strengthen the soil and break disease/pest cycles.
Make your soil count and protect your operation both now and in the years to come.
To learn more, sign up here.
Read More Related Articles Here:
-Better Water, Better Farms
-3 Steps to Healthy Soil
-Good Soil Goes a Long Way
