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Farm News/Fort Dodge, Iowa
Friday, Aug. 23, 2024
2024
-Farm News photos by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby
TO EXPLAIN KEY SOIL HEALTH CONCEPTS, Brian Dougherty included a field trip to this soybean field near Wall Lake to show various soil health principles in action.
IF SOIL COULD TALK
Harvest highlights the six principles of soil health By DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY Farm News writer
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ields at harvest are one of the big scorecards at the end of the growing season, but there’s a lot that goes into those numbers. While yields are connected to corn hybrids, soybean varieties and weather data from the last few months, don’t overlook the importance of soil health. Harvest is a key time to revisit the principles of soil health and to begin thinking about what can be improved for future growing seasons. “If the soils in many Iowa fields could cry for help, they’d have a lot to say,” said Brian Dougherty, who works with UnderstandingAG, a consulting group focused on regenerative ag for more productive, profitable, resilient farms. Some fields suffer from soil compaction, while other fields have soils that are either drying up or drowning in too much water. Then there’s the over-reliance on cropprotection products, poor nutrient management (too many nutrients tied up in the soil or leaching away and not nourishing plants), and other challenges that are all too common across the Iowa landscape. Turns out there’s one common denominator that affects all these issues — the biology of the soil. “When I was farming, I knew very little about how soil actually works,” said Dougherty, a former northeast Iowa dairy farmer and Iowa State University Extension specialist.
“Biology drives everything in the soil.” Dougherty shared how the six principles of soil health drive the function of any ag ecosystem when he spoke to a group of approximately 50 farmers and conservation professionals during the half-day Sac County Soil Health Workshop in Wall Lake on July 24. He started by showing pictures of what good, healthy soil looks like, compared to soil that’s not in good condition, due to compaction or erosion. “You want your soil to have the texture of cottage cheese or chocolate cake,” Dougherty said. “That nice, crumbly soil allows for air and water infiltration, which is vital to healthy plants.” He shared more details on the six principles of soil health, including: 1. Understand context. Healthy plants, livestock and people start with healthy soil. This includes a diverse ecosystem filled with beneficial biology, from microbes to good insects and earthworms that help plants grow. “The plants, in turn, pump carbon into the soil, which attracts more beneficial biology in the soil,” Dougherty said. 2. Do not disturb. Reducing tillage is a key to building healthier, more biologically-active soils, while tillage breaks up valuable soil aggregates (which play a key role in water and air infiltration, root growth and erosion control). 3. Armor the soil. Cover the surface of the soil to protect the soil’s “skin.” Seeding cover crops is a great way to get the job done. “Continuous See SOIL, Page 8C
BRIAN DOUGHERTY ENCOURAGES FARMERS to invest in a simple tool that can help measure their crop’s “vitality score” to help assess the crop’s health during the growing season. It involves Brix levels, which reflect the quality of the crop, from nutrient density to flavor. It’s easy to measure Brix levels right in the field with a simple, affordable tool called a refractometer, which Dougherty demonstrated in a soybean field on the edge of Wall Lake.
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