Building Soil Resilience

 

  < Loyal to the Soil >     1:02:07

Above is the link to a presentation (3/3/2020) by a young progressive farmer, Derek Axten, about his journey of building soil health and a sustainable agriculture operation in the challenging environment of Minton, SK.  It's amazing to see what can be done in a relatively short time at a location with low rainfall, short season, on shallow soils with low infiltration.  Even though the Axten operation is a long way from St. John, WA, in an entirely different growing environment, I found several ideas that are food for thought. 

    Axten's operation centers around five principles:  Keeping the soil covered at all times, minimize soil disturbance, diversify plant species, keep a living root in the ground as long as possible, and incorporate livestock when possible.  The presentation tells their story of how they try to carry out those principles.  They also show ways they are adding value to the crops they raise.

    Their operation includes intercropping.  Flax and Chickpeas planted in alternate rows works well for them.  Flax and lentils work for them although others say this doesn't work.  Flax with another forb works.  Flax and mustard or canola works.  Flax and peas work and they don't have to be standup peas.  It's important that the crops mature fairly close together.  They don't normally add fertilizer with their interseeded crops except for a starter with micros.  They haven't found a companion crop that works well with their cereal crops.  They are doing some interseeding with a planter that seeds a companion when the grain is at flag to heading.  They are not finding a yield drag by going out to 15" with the planter, and also, with singulation, they have cut seed rates back giving a substantial cost saving.

Succeed with No-Till

 < Dwayne Beck presentation>    55:34

In recent years I have observed a number of no-till operations that do not look as if the operators understand that there are some basic fundamentals that need to be followed to be successful.  I fear these operations will get into trouble, or revert back to their comfortable position with tillage.  I recommend and encourage farmers to open the above link and learn from it.

This image of Dwayne Beck, a researcher at the Dakota Lakes Research Farm near Pierre, SD, is from a presentation he gave at a meeting sponsored by the SD NO-TILL ASSOCIATION, March 11, 2019.  I have had the privilege of meeting with him and listening to several presentations over the years, starting in May of 1995 at the Dakota Lakes Research Farm.  I would say that Dwayne is the GURU of gurus when it comes to no-till.  Back in the early 1990s, he established the basic fundamentals for successfully no-tilling and the reasoning behind them.  His interest and mine are the same,  --manage water better.  He needed to stop soil erosion in SD, and I needed to stop soil erosion on my operation.  No-tilling was key to that goal.  Unlike so much information available through media, his basic fundamentals on Sanitation, Diversity, Intensity and Competition to successfully no-till works anywhere on the globe.   My first trip (1995) to the research station was prompted by complaints I had using Glyphosate for weed control.  My second trip was prompted by complaints I had about applying his fundamentals to my operation.  The take-home message from that trip was his statement to me, "I earned my Ph.D. developing those fundamentals, now, you will earn your Ph.D. learning how to apply those fundamentals on your farm".  He was so right!  I knew back then that everything about farming is site-specific, but didn't think about it in this context.  Soils, microclimates, topography vary across the land.  I was trying to clone his Pierre SD practices for St. John WA, and that didn't work.  When I adapted my practices to fit the FUNDAMENTALS, no-tilling did work.  We learn our trade and tend to get stuck in our ways instead of adapting to changing conditions.  Climate change and an increasing population with its political fall out are major challenges for farming, and will be more so in the future.  As we move forward to a goal of sustainable production and more nutrient-dense foods with reduced commercial inputs we will have to follow "improved" fundamentals.  Unfortunately, I don't know how to interpret "improved fundamentals" at this time, but I do have a blurred direction to follow.

RUSLE2 -- Explanation of Use

RUSLE2 is used by USDA to evaluate a farm operation for various programs offered by the USDA.  It also can be used by individuals to evaluate practices for the purpose of improving soil health.  Following, is the link to this 1:03:34 presentation explaining the variables that make up  RUSLE2.  [ RUSLE2 explained ]   This is a very good and thorough understandable explanation of what goes into the evaluation.  It's a much better tool than I ever thought.  I knew that it was under constant research to improve its accuracy.

Regenerate the EcoSystem

    Regreening the desert [47:30min]  This link is a video that I found interesting and gives hope to those of us attempting to rebuild what has been lost through 100+ years of destructive, misguided farm practices and programs.   John D. Liu, the photographer and narrator, made a couple of compeling statements in this video.  

    One:  The source of wealth is the functional ecosystem.  The products & services we develop from that are derivatives.  It's impossible for the derivatives to be more valuable than the source, and yet, in our economy as it stands, the products & services have monetary value, but the source, the functional ecosystem have zero. [38:38-39:32]  This is not sustainable.  It promotes the destruction of our ecosystem.

    Two:   Money is a belief system.  There is nothing wrong with money.  The problem is, what is money based on.  If money is based on a functional ecosystem, the future will be beautiful.  If we continue to base money on goods and services, we'll turn everything into a desert. [40:40-41:28]   Unfortunately, this has been the path mankind has taken over human history resulting in the destruction of great societies; however, we now have the communication capability and the knowledge base to improve the outlook for the future.

Blogger change

     Google is changing Blogger's appearance.  My understanding is that the new look will make the Blogs more user friendly for devices like cell phones and pads pads.   It's one of those advancements required of the times, but it's making me learn some new process' that I don't really want to do.  I guess it's not an option if I'm going to continue with this blog, so, will persevere.  I need to do some updating and posting new items since harvest is completed for us.

ROD WEEDER VS PLANT HEALTH

This post relates to an earlier post [TILLAGE VS NO TILLAGE 3/2/20].   I had a very rare opportunity to compare crop response between using the rod weeder and not using the rod weeder.  In the pic to the left, everything is the same except seeding date and use of the rod weeder.   The yellowish tint (background) is the result of the crop roots growing in a low oxygen environment created by the the rod weeder.  The crop in the foreground did not have a rod weeder used prior to seeding.  The rod weeder, a regularly used tool with conventional tillage systems, creates a compaction layer where the bar presses and smears the soil it comes in contact with under the bar, while at the same time fluffs and loosens the soil that goes over the bar.  Compaction layers slow the movement of water into (through) the soil profile which can, and in this case, did, cause the moisture content to remain above the field capacity for a significant amount of time.  This excess moisture replaces oxygen in pore spaces and leads to an anaerobic condition.  An Anaerobic soil condition increase growth of organisms normally associated with decreased plant health.  Aerobic soils increase growth of organisms normally associated with promoting plant health.

    [Feb. 10th pic]  This pic (from the yellowish field) shows a very wet root ball.  I could not remove the dirt for a decent pic of the root structure.  The roots were bunched with few roots extending deeper into the profile.   If you enlarge this pic, and compare with the one below,   you can detect more yellowing of the plant leaves associated with oxygen deprivation compared to the pic below.
     How this condition will effect overall yield compared to the crop in the pic below will be hard to assess because of so many variables inherent with two different operations and the weather from now to harvest.   An example, --two recent events of very cold nights, one on April 13th @ 10ºF and the other April 17th @ 19ºF, and since then, many mornings with temps in the mid to upper 20's.  When scouting on April 14th, the crop in the pic above was not jointing, while the crop in the pic below was jointing.   The seed head associated with jointing could be vulnerable to freeze damage.  During these events, the younger crop was showing serious leaf damage with color change and laying flat to the ground,  while the older crop showed no leaf damage.  Symptoms of cold damage in the area were reported as related to cultivar type, and plant size.

     [Feb. 10th pic]  This plant shown on the left is from the crop in the foreground of the pic at the top (dark green).  The roots are quite  damp but I was able to knock the dirt ball loose, exposing the root structure.  The roots extended deep into the profile with no root mass near the crown of the plant.  It was obvious the moisture was draining more quickly into the profile.

     There is one more point related to water infiltration that I want to make, --that is, comparing the conventional fallow based system (the three pic's above), too a bordering field with a long history of direct seeding shown in the pic below.

[Feb. 10th pic]
    The pic on the left shows winter wheat growing in a long term ultra-low disturbance direct seed field with surface armor well above the 100% NRCS residue chart.   Notice how much dryer the roots look in this pic compared to either pic above.  The wet dirt was easily removed, leaving much of the root system intact.  The roots are growing and elongating very well.

    This post brings up another subject, --fall tillering compared to spring tillering.  I'll address that subject in another post.

   

EFFECTS OF FIRE ON SOIL HEALTH

     Fire has always been controversial.  In the past I have used it, and may, in a rare circumstance use it again.   With the equipment we have available to us now, fire is an outdated, archaic practice.
     It has been obvious to me for many years that fire was destructive to soil health.  Denuding a field by any means, negatively impacts soil.  Fire not only removes the litter that, at some point in time will become part of the organic component of the soil, but it also burns some of the SOM already present.  The soil, losing its cover, is exposed to the natural elements and become warmer in the summer and colder in the winter.  Bare soil effects natural processes, some associated with temperature extremes, that impact moisture available to the soil as well as moisture in the soil.  This in turn effects the soil biota, that effects nutrient cycling, which has an effect on raising crops.  This is not linear as the statement may insinuate, but is a complex interrelationship of many elements.  We are slowing gaining the understanding that processes resulting from less tillage, and more cover is basic to improving soil health.