|
Build Soil Health
Soil health and how soil resources can be regenerated focusing on what the soil needs, was discussed with producers of the Sikeston, Mo. area by Gabe Brown, producer from North Dakota.
Photo by John LaRose, Jr.
BETTY VALLE GEGG-NAEGER
MidAmerica Farmer Grower
SIKESTON, MO.
Gabe Brown, producer from North Dakota visited with producers and interested people of the Sikeston, Mo., area about soil health and how they can regenerate soil resources by focusing on what the soil needs. One thing he discussed was how to integrate cover crops into the operation.
“There’s five tenants to advancing and regenerating your soil,” Brown began. “Briefly, they are no-till, armour on the soil surface, increase diversity by way of cover crops, integrate livestock into the cropping system, and keeping roots in the ground as long as possible.”
He cautioned against any mechanical disturbance of the soil, if possible, or the least amount of disturbance possible for producing root crops.
Armour on the soil surface can be accomplished by cover crops. “We want to keep that soil covered, we want to improve infiltration rates, lower evaporation rates,” he said. “Water is critical in this area so let’s save every drop of it.
The cover crops also help to increase diversity. “We can use cover crops to diversify our production,” he said. “Hundreds of years ago, before this land was cultivated, the soil was always covered with a very diverse mix of plant species. We need to get back to that in order to regenerate our soil.
“The fourth thing we need to do is integrate livestock into the cropping system, if possible and where appropriate,” Brown suggested. “We realize not all producers will want livestock, and that’s okay. If we do, we’re able to regenerate our soils faster and make them even healthier.
“The fifth tenent is leaving roots in the ground as long as possible. We never want to see bare soil, we always want something living, increasing organic matter, improving infiltration, improving the nutrient cycle, keeping the ground covered and, most important, feeding soil biology,” he said. “As producers, we spend the majority of our time thinking about what’s above ground, in other words the cash crop we’re getting. We need to start thinking about what’s happening below ground, and that’s what we’re talking about today.
“My take home message to producers is that our soils were regenerative and sustainable over eons of time, and we’ve degraded those resources,” he said. “All producers today, including myself, have come to accept degraded resources. We need to regenerate those resources, we need to build it back, not only to where it was, but even a better state so that it insures survivability for future generations.”
He focused on the ranch he operates in North Dakota which was founded by his inlaws in 1956. They farmed it conventionally from 1956 to 1991, raising all small grains, mostly oats, barley, half summer/fall, half crop, heavy tillage, synthetic inputs, and the pastures were grazed season long.
“My wife and I purchased it from them in 1991 and we’ve grown our operation to today where we have 5,000 acres, of which there’s 2,000 in perennial native pasture that’s never been mechanically tilled; there’s another 1,000 acres that’s in what we call tame grass pasture, a perennial pasture that was seeded back to grass after once being cropland. We also have 2,000 acres of cropland, which, at first could only infiltrate a half of an inch of rainfall per hour, with organic levels at 1.7 percent to 1.9 percent.”
The Brown land has been 100 percent no till since 1993. However, it was the four-year series of drought and hail from 1995 to 1998 that sent him down the path of regeneration.
“We lost virtually all our crop income for four years and, because of that and being a young producer starting out, the bank wasn’t going to lend me money to buy these inputs; so I had to learn how to get the soil to produce without the added inputs. It’s been a 20-year-plus journey of focusing on soil health, learning as much as I can and it’s to the point today where we grow a multitude of different cash crops and different cover crops, sunflowers, corn, hairy vetch, winter triticale, winter wheat and clovers. Our goal on our 2,000 acres is to have a crop planted and a cover crop on every acre, every year. It may be before a cash crop, along with a cash crop, or after a cash crop; but we’re going to keep a living root in the ground.”
He’s also begun to integrate livestock. Earlier he just ran beef cattle on season-long grazing. Now he has over 100 permanent pastures and an infinite number of smaller pastures.
“We run 350 cow/calf pairs, 400 to 800 stocker and grass finished cattle. We have a flock of sheep, pastured hogs, pastured laying hens and pastured broilers; we have a diverse mix of livestock that we’re moving around this farm. We’re at the point now where we haven’t used any synthetic fertilizer since 2008. We haven’t used any fungicide or pesticide since before the turn of the century because we have a healthy ecosystem that’s taking care of any problems,” Brown said.
So many times producers today are focused on treating symptoms, but it’s more important to focus on solving the problem and that problem is poor soil health and a poorly functioning ecosystem. If farmers focus on this, these problems tend to go away.
Water use efficiency is a high priority for him, and he visited with producers about that.
“Here in the Delta, farmers get 40 to 50 inches of precipitation plus maybe another 50 inches of irrigated water, so that is 100 inches,” he explained. “I was visiting with producers this morning who can grow 215 bushel corn with that 100 inches of moisture. So that’s barely two bushels for every inch of water.
“We’re in a 15-inch total precipitation environment where I am. That includes both rainfall and snow. I can grow 145 to 150 bushel corn. In other words I can grow 9 1/2 bushel of corn for every inch of water. If you could do that here in the Delta you could be growing 950 bushel corn. It’s not how much moisture you get, it’s how much that soil can absorb, hold in that profile and then be there for those times when the plants need it. That’s what we need to focus on, increasing organic matter and water holding capacity in soil.”
Increasing the organic matter helps the soil hold moisture. Looking back to before this Delta land was drained and farmed, organic matter levels were probably in the 8 percent to 12 percent range.
“Today they’re well under 1 percent,” Brown said. “Look what that does for water holding capacity. My soils, when I started, I had organic matter levels on the cropland at 1.7 to 1.9 percent. Today we’re from 5.3 to 6.1. I’m still degraded, we were in the 7 to 8 percent range before that land came under cultivation. So I’m building, I’m not there yet. We have a plotland that we’re doing some work with and we’re at 11.1 percent organic matter now. So we can increase and change these soils and, in doing so, we’re going to heal that water cycle.”
He went on to explain how supporting the ecosystem helps humanity.
“So what are the ramifications of this production model?” he asked. “The United States spends more on health care than any other country in the world. Yet we’re the 42nd healthiest country in the world. We’re the first in cancer, parkinsons, ADD, ADHD, alzheimers, obesity, auto immune diseases and the list goes on and on.”
The reason is clear. Obviously, a big part of it is the lifestyle of U.S. citizens. Producers have to take part of the blame too. Most of the products that farmers produce have dropped in nutrient density anywhere from 15 to 65 percent over the last 50 years.
“We’re producing more of these grains, products and livestock, but they’re less nutrient dense,” he explained. “Consumers need to eat more and more and that’s causing at least partially a decline in human health. So for the sake of our generation, and future generations, we have to start regenerating this resource so that we can get more nutrient dense products. And we’ll get a healthier society because of it.” ∆
BETTY VALLE GEGG-NAEGER: Senior Staff Writer, MidAmerica Farmer Grower
|
|