Radishes, Turnips and Rye Oh My!

I recently found an article about an Ohio farmer Dave Brandt, who opens up his farm to other producers to share his cover crop success stories.  While this article was about one specific farmer, to me it was about how we can use success stories like Dave’s to reach out to other farmers to boost soil health and reduce inputs.http://farmprogress.com/blogs-cover-crops-grow-ohio-farmers-ag-man-year-2889)  But in order to promote cover cropping for soil health we might need a little background on the practice first.

So what is cover cropping? According to the USDA, cover crops are grasses, legumes, and other forbs that are planted for erosion control, improving soil structure, moisture and nutrient content.http://plants.usda.gov/about_cover_crops.html)

Cover Crops: Radishes

 Cover crops come from the old idea of “green manure”, meaning putting green materials (plants, grasses etc.) into the soil as fertilizers.  One source I found stated that cover cropping was used as early as 19 BC!

So what is the background of cover cropping? Well Pubilius Vergilius Maro an ancient Roman poet wrote in Georgics (a poem in four books) about how roman farmers used alfalfa, clovers and lupine to increase their wheat yields. So we can see that the idea of cover crops is not a new idea, yet why does is seem so unfamiliar? Well Bring in the industrial revolution and monocultures. It’s not a secret that our agricultural history relies on vast producing monocultures, which can lead to severe erosion and soil fertility  depletion. Which we witnessed in the late 1930's known as the Dust Bowl. The dust bowl showed us what happens when we rely on continuous tillage and one crop rotations.  These improper farming techniques led to the desertification of many areas, and massive soil erosion




Dust Bowl: Soil Erosion

The Dirty Thirties was a period of agriculture that the Great Plains would never like to see again, so the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) was established to help conserve and prevent soil erosion as part of the USDA. Okay so now where to cover crops come into the mix, well one of the techniques the SCS promoted was cover crops to help keep the soil in place to prevent wind erosion. Many farmers started to plant cover crops to help prevent wind erosion, but they started to see many other benefits of cover crops as well. The two big benefits that really caught their attention was increased soil moisture content and increased nitrogen contents in the soil. So what this means in dollar signs, is that with cover crops farmers will have to irrigate and fertilize less, meaning more money in their pockets.  In a recent article posted at agriculture.com, the author looks at all the benefits of cover crops and states that the benefits greatly outweigh the initial investment. (http://www.agriculture.com/crops/cover-crops/cover-crop-benefits-outweigh-investment_568-ar45189) This shows us that the system works, we just need to find the right mixes for what you want as a producer to fit your needs. There are specific mixes for haying, fertility management, soil moisture content and soil stability just develop a mix to fit the benefits you want.  Contact your local seed provider to find a mix that’s right for you!  For more information about cover crops and management here a few links to help you out!

·         http://covercrops.cals.cornell.edu/

·         http://farmprogress.com/whitepaper-cover-crops-best-management-practices-8

 

If your as interested in the Dust Bowl as I am here is lengthy (50 minutes) yet educational documentary on the Dirty Thirties a real eye opener!

 

 

 

A Little About Me And Soil...

Soil Samping

Before I jump into the basics of soil science and soil health, I better introduce myself and give myself a little credibility. So My name is Jordaan Thompson I grew up and still currently live in a small farming town in rural North Dakota. Even at a small age my mother always knew I'd grow one day and make playing the "dirt" my job, well I guess that's why they say mothers know what's best. So after high school I packed up my bags and headed to NDSU (North Dakota State University) to start my educational journey in the amazing world of soil science. While NDSU was quite large and populated to my standards, the soil science department always felt like home to me as it was fairly small and personal. Being that the department is so small it wasn't hard to make connections with other soil scientists and students, so I used those connections and obtained my very first internship with the NRCS. The photos you see are a few of the many things that I learned those hot and very cold days working in the heavy clay of the Red River Valley. I not only learned from my coworkers and other professionals,  I learned the most  from the local farmers (producers).The interactions with the local farmers only enhanced my strive to become a professional soil scientist. The local farmers showed me just how important my profession really is, my job is to ensure that these farmers have a healthy medium (soil) to sustain their livelihood. Talk about pressure! So long story short I'm  5 months away from becoming a professional soil scientist and this blog is designed to share my stories and information about soils and all they have to offer. 


I want to start by saying that this blog is intended to give a broad understanding of soils and soil health. It will be directed towards people that have minimal to no understanding of soils, and to people that just want to learn about soils and agriculture in general. I will focus my blogs mainly on the agricultural sector, but I'm and avid gardener so if you want to learn gardening tricks and information stick around!

So what is soil? Well there are many fancy definitions out there, but this one from the Soil Science Glossary I feel is the best.

"The unconsolidated mineral or organic material on the immediate surface of the Earth that serves as a natural medium for the growth of land" 

What this basically means is that soil is literally just dirt, which people in profession would not be happy with me as we say soil is so much more than dirt. Which it really is, below is a picture of dirt, its cold lifeless and really just dirt!



http://trythirtydays.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/dirt-pile.jpg

 

                                                             While this is soil....

Full of life and systems and it's happy!

http://decoradvisor.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/cba25__soil-life.jpg

So hopefully these pictures show everyone that soil is so much more than a pile of dirt, many organisms and systems depend and live in soil. So what is soil science? Well its really just the study of soils, or to be specific oxford dictionary states its

"The branch of science concerned with the formation, nature, ecology, and classification of soils"

So as a soil scientist I study soils everyday and observe both physical and chemical properties of the soil and make agricultural determinations based on those properties. Such determinations could be fertilizer recommendations, salinity management decisions, or even cover crop selections. I get to get my hands dirty every day and be outside actively helping people in agriculture and I  love it!
So hopefully this gives you a little insight to how amazing soil really is and a little about me!