No Till Notes: 'Path to soil health, Part 2'

The path to soil health has many stops along the way to obtaining a live, vibrant and functioning soil. Each of us will find a resting point along this pathway and may settle into a comfortable spot along the way. I think it is very encouraging that those of us in production agriculture are even thinking and talking about our journey down the path to soil health.

Our farm’s journey began many years ago and we didn’t even know it at the time. We switched our operation from a conventionally tilled crop production system to a no-till crop production system to add profitability to our operation. Soil health wasn’t even a part of the equation.

As our operation has continued to evolve and we have become aware of soil health it is obvious that some of the profitability of our operation can be attributed to the improved health of the soils we work with on our farm. Our long-term, continuous no-till soil has improved soil aggregate stability and improved soil structure which leads to better water infiltration and water holding capacity of the soil. In our semi-arid environment the most limiting factor in crop production is the amount of water available to the plants we grow.

We also have improved nutrient cycling and carbon cycling due to the increase in soil microbial populations and diversity. These microbes feed on the crop residues we leave on the soil surface and also colonize the roots on the plants we grow. These microbes can actually enhance the uptake of nutrients and water by forming a working network around the plants roots.

Our continuous no-till crop production model does have limits to the amount of soil health we can obtain. The problem with our system is we don’t have a living plant root growing in the soil during the entire growing season. The other problem with our production system is we grow a monoculture crop each year within our diverse crop rotation.

In order to achieve maximum soil health we need to look at ways we can incorporate diverse forages into our cropping system. These diverse forages that will be grazed by livestock will add a living root growing in our soil for longer periods of time than we can achieve with a monoculture crop.

Another way producers are adding diversity is with companion cropping. Planting a companion crop with the cash crop adds diversity to the system and also increases the amount of living roots in the soil. Examples I’ve seen or heard about are adding diverse companion crop mixtures to a sunflower, potato, wheat, and corn crop. The idea of companion cropping may be something we should experiment with to see what benefits can be gained over time.

Adding living roots for extended periods of time through diverse forage crop mixtures for grazing and companion cropping will take our farm further down the path to improving the health of the soil we work with. These next steps to improving soil health will take additional management and time. They will also require us to learn how to handle livestock. The introduction of livestock into our operation is a major hurdle to jump over at this time.

The benefits from adding more diversity into our no-till crop production system won’t be seen immediately. It takes time to add more carbon to soil. Increases in soil microbe populations and diversity will also require time to develop and maintain. It will require patience as the soil responds to these changes in our management practices.

I think it would be incredibly interesting to see how our soil would respond to these changes. My guess is we will be surprised at how well our soil begins to function with improved carbon, nutrient, and water cycling as the soil becomes more of a healthy, vibrant, and functioning soil.

We may have a lot better soil on our farm than we think if we can achieve true soil health. I would sure like to find out what the true potential of the soil is on our farm. I’m certain a healthy soil will continue to boost increased profitability over the long term.