Soil health - Articles

Kansas Growers Form Soil Health Alliance

April 7, 2021 | Posted in Soil Health

The Kansas Soil Health Alliance is a recently-formed nonprofit organization that has been established to be a trusted partner and valuable soil health resource for Kansas growers. The Kansas Soil Health Alliance is led by a board of Kansas farmers and ranchers supported by five partner organizations.

Hedging Your Long-Term Weed Control Bets to Reduce Herbicide Reliance

No-tiller and crop consultant Jon Spreng, Perrysville, Ohio, says the biggest challenge to combining no-till and cover crops is finding a permanent weed control solution.

By Sarah Hill posted on March 10, 2021 | Posted in Soil Health

Herbicides alone aren’t going to be enough to control weeds in the long run, says Jon Spreng, a no-tiller and crop consultant from Perrysville, Ohio. The current herbicide choices available on the market may last 10-30 years, but unless new active ingredients come along, the fourth-generation grower says he believes that weed resistance will only get worse.

[Video] Improving Soil Health Will Prevent Erosion

March 8, 2021 | Posted in Soil Health

Wind storms are carrying topsoil away from valuable farmland, and that wind erosion is extremely detrimental to the agriculture industry. Soil degradation is contributing to erosion, and using fertilizer to bridge the gaps of nutrients in the soil may be more harmful than helpful.

Covers, No-Till Build Resilient Soil

March 5, 2021 | Posted in Soil Health

Source: Aberdeen News

South Dakota soil health farmers aren’t worried. They’ve built resilience into their soils so they can make the best use of the moisture they get. Read more in this article from the Aberdeen News.

How Healthy is Your Soil?

March 3, 2021 | Posted in Soil Health

Source: News Journal

In the last decade or so, there has been an overwhelming interest in soil health amongst many progressive farmers, agricultural businesses and agricultural enthusiasts. Farmers have intuitively understood the importance of soil health for generations and recent efforts have focused on how to better measure and quantify soil health. Read more in this article from the News Journal.

Popular Dairy Company Has Two-Thirds of Dairy Producers Growing Covers

March 2, 2021

Consumers are driving the marketplace and requiring more companies to get on board with encouraging environmentally-conscious practices from the growers who provide the raw commodities to make their products. Using cover crops, building soil health and adhering to animal welfare standards are just some examples.

[Video] Long-Term Cover Crop Impacts on Soil Health & Tomatoes

February 18, 2021 | Posted in Soil Health

Jessica Awrey, a student at the University of Guelph, shares insights learned from research into cover crops in grain and vegetable crop rotations. During the research, covers such as cereal rye, radish, and oats were included and terminated with glyphosate. Awrey's research looked specifically at tomatoes grown as a vegetable crop as part of this rotation - with some interesting findings.

[Video] Soil Health & Profitability from Covers

February 15, 2021 | Posted in Soil Health

Laura Van Erd from the University of Guelph discusses insights from her research on an 8 year cover crop rotation, including ways to incentivize cover crop adoption, how using cover crops resulted in higher soil carbon levels, which cover crop species resulted in lower soil carbon levels, and more.

[Video] Soil Sustains Everything - Including Us

February 15, 2021 | Posted in Soil Health

Maintaining soil health is so much more important than reducing erosion. In this video, discover everything the soil does, without any guidance from people, and the role soil microbes play in all of those processes.

2021 National Cover Crop Summit

Announcing Third Annual National Cover Crop Summit Speakers

Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about cover crop establishment, using covers as forage for livestock, how high residue cover crops can reverse soil issues like compaction, and more during the virtual summit, to be held March 17-18, 2021.

February 2, 2021

This free, two-day virtual event is the third annual National Cover Crop Summit, and promises to be the best one yet, with an outstanding speaker line up and intriguing topics.