For Soil Sustainability - every agricultural operation needs
continual upgrading of it's conservation ethic, and it's increasingly easier to do with the internet providing access to the research being done.
As I look back, my life has spanned nearly the entire period of "modern" agriculture, --since tractors replaced horses. In the early 1930's, my grandfather traded twelve Percheron horses for a 20hp, gas fueled, steel track, Allis Chalmers Model M tractor (I have one stored in the barn). 1942, the farming community started learning to farm out of a "jug" (2-4D was first marketed). Holistic farming practices, what there was, were abandoned. I have a newspaper article where my grandfather was interviewed, stating that when he first started farming he could raise forty bushels to the acre of winter wheat every year, but now (early 1940's), he had to incorporate a fallow year to get 40 bushels on his winter wheat. In retrospect, what can be read into his statement was this: In 30-40 years, farming practices had destroyed the native soils natural ability to annually grow 40bu/ac of winter wheat. Tillage along with associated erosion was destroying the organic matter, reducing the ability of the soil to hold water, and provide nutrients for the crop. This destructive process is continuing today on most farming operations. Today, it's reported, depending on the location, that 40% - 60% of the natural productivity of our soils have been lost.
As I look back, my life has spanned nearly the entire period of "modern" agriculture, --since tractors replaced horses. In the early 1930's, my grandfather traded twelve Percheron horses for a 20hp, gas fueled, steel track, Allis Chalmers Model M tractor (I have one stored in the barn). 1942, the farming community started learning to farm out of a "jug" (2-4D was first marketed). Holistic farming practices, what there was, were abandoned. I have a newspaper article where my grandfather was interviewed, stating that when he first started farming he could raise forty bushels to the acre of winter wheat every year, but now (early 1940's), he had to incorporate a fallow year to get 40 bushels on his winter wheat. In retrospect, what can be read into his statement was this: In 30-40 years, farming practices had destroyed the native soils natural ability to annually grow 40bu/ac of winter wheat. Tillage along with associated erosion was destroying the organic matter, reducing the ability of the soil to hold water, and provide nutrients for the crop. This destructive process is continuing today on most farming operations. Today, it's reported, depending on the location, that 40% - 60% of the natural productivity of our soils have been lost.
From the time the sod was plowed under at the turn of the 20th century, through the mid 1960's there was tremendous erosion. Regularly there was deep snow on frozen ground that resulted in spring runoffs that cut many and deep ditches in fields of winter wheat, along with intense summer storms compounding the problem. From the 60's to the mid 80's snow decreased, the ground didn't freeze as deep, summer storms became less, and in 1984 we were declared a drought region. Around 2006 it looked like we may be seeing a swing back to more snow, and summer storm activity but now I question that observation. Climate is dynamic, and change was obviously taking place, then, as now.
Today, many farm operations are still following the farming practices of our grandfathers and fathers. The difference I see is today tractors have more horsepower, and tillage equipment is bigger and heavier. A 500-600 horsepower tractor can pull equipment faster and deeper. In the Palouse it has long been common practice to comb the field to smooth the roughness left by primary tillage operations. These operations have loosened and floated most , or all, the organic matter off narrow ridges and redeposited it on the lower slopes.
I credit the publics demand for clean water and the interest in organic food for the research being done that can only be termed more "holistic". The federal and state governments are throwing a lot of money at the problem of water pollution. In the last two decades research has been steadily ramping up on all disciplines associated with soil health which included the reintroduction of cover crops.
In my college days if someone would have said "plants communicate with one another" they would have been dismissed as looney. Today we know this to be a credible statement, along with knowledge that organisms in the soil biota mine nutrients from solid rock, plants can redistribute nutrients through the soil profile, influence soil pH, mycorrhiza fungi transport water and nutrients between supportive plant species, and every plant type manufactures a different root exudate.
There is tremendous amount of new information on issues relating to soil health, and it is coming at an every increasing pace. We as Stewards of the land need to learn and apply this knowledge.
I credit the publics demand for clean water and the interest in organic food for the research being done that can only be termed more "holistic". The federal and state governments are throwing a lot of money at the problem of water pollution. In the last two decades research has been steadily ramping up on all disciplines associated with soil health which included the reintroduction of cover crops.
In my college days if someone would have said "plants communicate with one another" they would have been dismissed as looney. Today we know this to be a credible statement, along with knowledge that organisms in the soil biota mine nutrients from solid rock, plants can redistribute nutrients through the soil profile, influence soil pH, mycorrhiza fungi transport water and nutrients between supportive plant species, and every plant type manufactures a different root exudate.
There is tremendous amount of new information on issues relating to soil health, and it is coming at an every increasing pace. We as Stewards of the land need to learn and apply this knowledge.
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