Soil
Healthy soil is the foundation of all productive, sustainable agriculture. Managing soil health allows us, our farmers, and our producers to work with the land, not against the land. Directly to this end, reducing erosion, maximizing water infiltration, improving nutrient cycling, saving economically on inputs, and improving the resiliency of the working land. We focus on building the health of our farming partners’ soils and strengthening the soil programs to operate healthy soil and water tables for the communities we work in. Learn here about the principles of soil health and usable best practices.
Minimize Disturbance
From hooves to plows, soil is disturbed in many ways. While some disturbance is unavoidable, minimizing disturbance events across your operation builds healthier soils.
To minimize disturbance of your soil, you can:
- Limit tillage
- Optimize chemical input
- Rotate livestock
Maximize Soil Cover
As a rule, soil should be covered whenever possible. You can plant cover crops as part of both grazing and cropland operations.
To maximize soil, cover year-round.
- Plant cover crops
- Use organic mulch
- Leave plant residue
Maximize Biodiversity
Increasing diversity across your operation can break disease cycles, stimulate plant growth, and provide habitat for pollinators and organisms living in your soil.
- Plant diverse cover crops
- Use diverse crop rotations
- Integrate livestock
Maximize Presence of Living Roots
Living roots reduce soil erosion and provide food for organisms like earthworms and microbes that cycle the nutrients your plants need
- Reduce fallow
- Plant cover crops
- Use diverse crop rotations
No Till or Reduced Till
We have learned that most operations do not need heavy tillage – or often any tillage at all to produce healthy crops. Minimizing tillage can reduce soil erosion across your operation while saving time and money by reducing annual fuel and labor investments.
Cover Crops
Though not typically harvested for a profit, cover crops still provide valuable services to your operation. The roots of cover crops make channels in the soil that improves its ability to take in water. Cover crops also build soil organic matter, hold soil in place, and feed soil organisms that provide valuable nutrients to cash crops during the traditional growing season. Cover Crop as Climate Change Solution Cover crops offer agricultural producers a natural and inexpensive climate solution through their ability to capture atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) into soils. But cover crops do not just remove CO 2 from the atmosphere, they also help make your soil healthier and your crops more resilient to a changing climate. Healthy soil has better water infiltration and water holding capacity and is less susceptible to erosion from wind and water.
Cover crops also trap excess nitrogen – keeping it from leaching into groundwater or running off into surface water – releasing it later to feed growing crops. This saves you money on inputs like water and fertilizer and makes your crops more able to survive in harsh conditions.
Rotational Grazing
Grazing animals recycle nutrients across the landscape. By managing your livestock to graze where and when you want, you can return valuable nutrients and organic matter back to your land and your soil.
Crop Rotation
Diversity can be improved with cash crops as well as cover crops. Diverse crop rotations can reduce pests and diseases that are specific to certain plant species, build the health of soil microbes that provide nutrients to your plants and lead to improved yields.