Soil Health

How One Houston Influencer is Turning Public Land into Productive Soil

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 11:24:25 GMT

Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing Sowing Change series about urban farming.

In the sprawl of Houston, a city defined by its concrete and vulnerability to the Gulf’s rising waters, Scott Sheridan sees a missed opportunity. Sheridan, the founder of Scotty’s Fermented Foods, is moving beyond the crock and the jar to tackle a much larger fermentation project: the soil itself.

Through his upcoming 1-acre community farm project, Sheridan is attempting to prove that Houston’s underutilized floodplains can be transformed from “dead land” into a vital defense against an impending food crisis.

Before he was a land regeneration advocate, Sheridan established himself as a prominent voice in the fermentation community. He has since translated that expertise into a massive digital presence, producing over 400 videos across social media. His content is designed to be a bridge for the curious — offering short, accessible tutorials that provide both the how and the why of soil health, microbial life and food preservation.

By sharing his own journey from a COVID gardener to a market-scale producer, Sheridan uses his platform to demystify the complexities of regenerative agriculture for a modern, urban audience.

Repairing the Broken Water Cycle

The inspiration for the project stems from Sheridan’s deep dive into regenerative agriculture, sparked by the challenges he faced in his own backyard during the pandemic. He points to the “broken water cycles” popularized by regenerative pioneers like Gabe Brown as the root of modern agricultural instability.

“The soil doesn’t absorb the water,” Sheridan says. “We’ve exhausted the river systems and the aquifers. In Houston, we had three so-called 100-year floods in a period of about five years. A lot of new floodplains were established. ... Irrigation has broken down because the soil simply can’t hold what falls.”

Vision From the Back Porch

The shift from theoretical concern to local action happened right in Sheridan’s own backyard. Living in a floodplain himself, he watched as a neighboring 5-acre block was transformed by the Harris County Flood Control program. Following those devastating floods, the county moved in, cleared out the existing homes and stripped away the driveways and curbs.

What remained was a vast, silent stretch of dead land — cleared for safety but left without a purpose. Rather than seeing a vacant lot, he saw a canvas for the regenerative principles he had been studying.

This observation led him to petition the county with a radical proposal: allow him to manage a 1-acre portion of that land as a community garden and land regeneration pilot. To his surprise, he found a champion within the county government: a representative in the vegetation management department who shared his dream of turning underutilized public infrastructure into a sponge of edible urban greenery.

This partnership has moved the project through the complex bureaucratic hurdles that often stall urban farming initiatives.

The Sponge Strategy: Soil Over Plants

For Sheridan, urban farming isn’t just about feeding plants; it’s about feeding microbes. His strategy for the 1-acre plot focuses on sheet composting at scale to repair soil structure, which in turn fixes the water cycle on a microlevel.

“I’m a no-till, no-fertilizer, no-pesticide guy,” Sheridan says. “I just add humus to the soil. I’m going to spend the first six months sheet composting ... creating a pile every 10 feet and spreading it across. When you compost on-site, you start that biological cycle with thermophilic bacteria inoculating the land. It’s the first step to making the soil absorb and retain water.”

By utilizing chip drop services for carbon and collecting vegetable waste from supermarkets and his own fermentation business, Sheridan is turning urban waste into the very engine of his farm’s productivity.

Model for Economic Resilience

While many community gardens rely on volunteerism, Sheridan is a staunch advocate for monetizing the mission. He thinks that for urban farming to truly take root in the culture, it must be a viable career path for young people.

“If we are just going to be volunteers ... it really won’t get legs,” Sheridan says. “We need to turn to young people and say, ‘Hey, there is an income we can create from this.’”

His vision includes a value-added model:

Market produce — Selling high-demand crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and eggplant.
Waste mitigation — Taking unsold produce and turning it into fermented products like sauerkraut, salsa and baba ghanoush.
Scaling up — Using public land to grow space-heavy crops, like cabbage and melons, that aren’t feasible in small backyard plots.

Beyond Policy: Creating a Culture

Sheridan’s project is currently moving through the final stages of approval. Unlike the bureaucratic speed bumps often associated with city-level projects, he found the county surprisingly receptive to the idea of edible parks.

“Houston is not the type of place you want to be in during a food crisis,” Sheridan says. “I have a dream that maybe we can create a culture where people are taking public land and starting to farm it ... doing this outside of policy.”

As Sheridan prepares to take his pitchfork to the floodplain, his goal remains clear: to turn Houston’s flood-prone dead zones into a blueprint for urban food security, an acre at a time.

Follow Sheridan on social media platforms: @scottysfermentedfoods.

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The Secret History of the Edible City: How Tiny Gardens Once Fed the World

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 21:27:30 GMT

Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing Sowing Change series about urban farming.

We have been taught to view the city as a mouth, a concrete consumer that breathes in resources from the countryside and exhales waste. In this modern narrative, the urban garden is a charming hobby, a lifestyle choice of expensive heirloom tomatoes and aesthetic raised beds. But according to environmental historian Kate Brown , this version of history is a convenient fiction.

In research for her fifth book, “Tiny Gardens Everywhere: The Past, Present and Future of the Self-Provisioning City,” Brown unearths a forgotten reality that cities were once the most productive agricultural hubs on the planet. To move forward, she argues, we must shift our mindset by distinguishing between self-provisioning and leisure gardening to create a resilient food source.

There are many ways to do so, both historically and now.

“I spoke with a woman recently in a town outside of Atlanta. She’s growing on a 12-acre urban organic farm that’s owned by the town’s parks and recreation department,” Brown says. “They have 1,200 volunteers and five farmers, two full-time. She told me they give away 95% of their food to people who need it, and the farm runs like a dream.”

By looking back at how we used to feed ourselves in urban landscapes, Brown proves that urban farming was a sophisticated, radical infrastructure of autonomy.

Paris: Making ‘Black Gold’ From Sand and Scraps

Brown points to 1900s Paris as the gold standard of urban efficiency. On plots that began as little more than sterile sand, 5,000 gardeners used the city’s abundance of horse manure to manufacture soil so rich it was treated like a movable asset. These farmers fed their neighbors as well as produced enough surplus to export vegetables across the English Channel.

Brown highlights this as the ultimate rebuttal to the idea that cities are naturally barren.

The Parisian model proves that with the right waste inputs, a city can be a net producer of life.

According to Brown, around 1900, Paris was home to approximately 5,000 urban farmers featuring:

Self-sufficiency — These farmers produced enough fruits and vegetables to feed 2 million residents, with enough surplus to export produce to London.
Innovative heating — They utilized the city’s waste, specifically a superabundance of horse manure, to create hotbeds. By covering these manure-heated beds with glass frames, they essentially created early greenhouses that allowed them to grow summer crops in the spring and spring crops in the winter.
High yields — Using these methods, they could harvest three to six crops a year from a single plot, achieving what Brown calls some of the highest agricultural yields in recorded history.
The legacy of soil — This process was so successful that when these farmers moved to different plots, they would often shovel up their topsoil and take it with them, as it was considered their most valuable physical asset.

By the turn of the century, this manufactured soil was so productive that a single acre could produce several times the yield of a traditional rural farm.

Berlin: Gardens as a Radical Safety Net

The Arbor Colonies of Berlin functioned as essential hubs for social resilience. These radically egalitarian garden subsistence settlements provided housing and cultivation space for over 150,000 Berliners between 1870 and 1970. Factory workers used these plots as primary residences to find relief from the city’s dense urban housing. Throughout the 20th century, the colonies also served as active sites of political resistance, offering both literal and figurative sanctuary for those seeking cover from the Gestapo.

Brown says that as people were pushed off land in the countryside and moved to the cities, they brought with them knowledge about how to garden.

“The people who come to cities know how to farm, and they know how to garden. They’ve all had big fields and small garden plots, and they have a notion of what to do with wastes and how to reclaim wasted land and regenerate it,” Brown says. “And so they go to Berlin, and during the 1860s, 1870s, all around Berlin is sand dunes. There are sand dunes there because there used to be wetlands. The wetlands were dried up ... so farmers built anthrosols, human-engineered soils. I have these photos I got out of the archives, and you can almost time-lapse the progress.”

Brown says the archival photos show this transformation: It begins with tiny houses struggling in the sand with withered plants. Over time, the gardens flourish. By 1890, these green shanty towns were buried under lush, towering vegetation. This was possible because cities act like a nutrient delta; by capturing the constant stream of organic waste instead of discarding it, residents built rich soil that allowed them to grow massive amounts of food right in the heart of the city.

In Berlin, the movement was as much about social safety nets as it was about food:

The Arbor Colonies — Starting in the 1870s, factory workers moved into wild gardens on the city’s periphery to escape disease-ridden tenements. By 1900, roughly 50,000 households were part of these Arbor Colonies.
Political sanctuary — During the Nazi era, these working-class garden plots served a radical purpose as they were used to harbor dissidents and Jewish residents.

Washington, D.C.: Community and Homeownership

Closer to home, Brown highlights how Black migrants from the American South transformed the landscape of Washington, D.C. By raising livestock and orchards on small urban plots, these families didn’t just achieve food security; the income generated from selling surplus produce often provided the funds necessary for homeownership. This was a system of financial autonomy that built generational wealth before mid-century urban renewal projects disrupted these thriving community-based systems, Brown says.

In the early 20th century, Black residents in D.C. turned systemic neglect into a source of wealth. Because their neighborhoods lacked city services like garbage collection, residents treated waste as a resource.

“They used all their organic garbage to compost ... they used what was in the privies to compost,” Brown says, adding that garbage was so valuable the city eventually had to pass laws restricting where people could collect it.

By the 1940s, this neighborhood had the highest rates of homeowner occupancy in the city. As Brown puts it: “They do it not with subsidies or federal help ... they do it with vegetable-powered wealth.”

In early 20th-century D.C., gardening was a tool for overcoming systemic inequality:

Black Southern migrants — African American migrants moving to D.C. brought Southern traditions of self-provisioning with them.
Financial autonomy — In neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River, residents built small farms with orchards, berry bushes and livestock like pigs and chickens. The income generated from selling this surplus produce often provided the funds necessary for homeownership.
Disruption — Brown notes that these thriving community-based systems were later largely disrupted by mid-century urban renewal projects.

The ‘Dirty’ Truth About Urban Soil

Addressing the modern fear of lead and pollutants, Brown draws on her extensive work in post-disaster environments, including Chernobyl, to offer a pragmatic path forward. She recognizes that “one of the biggest hurdles for urban farmers is the fear of soil contamination and urban pollutants.”

However, her global research, from the USSR to the U.S., suggests that we can safely navigate the reality of growing food in disturbed environments. By understanding the history of how we have handled contamination, we can move past anxiety and back into the dirt, transforming waste spaces into the permanent infrastructure of the 21st century.

Ultimately, Brown’s work asks us to consider a final philosophical shift. When asked what a tiny, 10-square-foot urban plot can teach us that a 1,000-acre industrial farm cannot, the answer lies in the connection to the system itself.

“One thing it can teach us is about the metabolism of our cities. Our cities are rich in organic materials. All we need to do is just make a compost pile and build soil. So, that’s one thing,” Brown says. “Once you have good soils, you have turned the hard work of farming, which is often about killing things, right? Kill the microbes, you kill the weeds, you kill the insects, kill, kill, kill. And that’s waging war on the environment. The farmers are the soldiers out in the field, and they do it with the tools of war. You repurpose bulldozers and turn tanks into tractors, and you repurpose nitrites into chemical fertilizers, and you repurpose chemical agents of chemical warfare into insecticides and pesticides. War is a lot of work, and it’s not pleasant. People don’t like it.

“Gardening, though, we consider recreation, and the reason we consider [it] recreation is because a good gardener works with the environment, not against it,” Brown adds.

Brown’s insights are validation of the small-scale grower as a vital part of a global solution: a tiny garden that holds the key to the future of the self-provisioning city.

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Why One California Farmer is Betting Big on Algae for Fertility

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 14:44:35 GMT

Rows of citrus trees stretch across the landscape under the California sun, their canopies forming neat green corridors between irrigation lines and tractor paths. Some trees are newly trimmed, others older and thicker from years of growth. It’s the kind of orchard scene that has long defined agriculture in this part of the state, where permanent crops dominate the landscape and generations of farmers have worked to coax productivity from difficult soils and an increasingly unpredictable water supply.

For fifth-generation farmer Justin Wylie , these groves are more than just another orchard to manage. They represent an opportunity to rethink how soil works on his farm and whether biology — specifically algae — can play a larger role in the future of California agriculture.

Wylie and his family farm roughly 4,000 acres across California’s Central Valley. Some of that land has been in the family for generations, while other acres are leased. Like many farms in the region, the operation produces permanent crops such as pistachios and citrus, commodities that require long-term planning and careful soil management.

“This is a long-term lease with an investment company partner,” Wylie says. “And we just entered into that lease last year. It’s a 15-year lease with a five-year extension.”

One of the ranches he’s currently working to improve came through a recent leasing agreement that gives the family time to invest in the land and experiment with new approaches. That time horizon matters. With permanent crops like oranges, orchard decisions can affect productivity for decades. The trees must be pruned, fertilized and irrigated carefully year after year, and the soil beneath them has to remain functional through increasingly hot and dry growing seasons.

When Wylie’s team first took over the ranch, some improvements were necessary before any new ideas could be tested.

“We were really lucky on this ranch,” Wylie says. “The previous guys, they did let some of the trees get overgrown, so we did have to come in and push a hedge and top and resize those trees.”

While the orchard needed structural work above ground, Wylie says the bigger opportunity lies beneath the surface. The ranch is now part of a broader effort on the farm to transition a portion of the acres toward organic and regenerative systems.

“For the majority of the ranch, as far as fertility, the soils, the condition of the ranch,” he says, “I think the big thing with this ranch is transitioning from a conventional model to an organic regenerative, which is part of our commitment in the lease. It’s part of the model of the lease here — that we transition the ranch from conventional to certified organic and regenerative.”

The transition is happening gradually. Wylie says roughly 25% of the farm’s acres are currently part of that shift, allowing the family to experiment with new soil-building practices without risking the entire operation.

But the push to explore regenerative systems didn’t begin with markets or policy. It started with a deeply personal experience.

A Personal Connection to Soil Health

Wylie says his interest in soil biology and regenerative farming took shape nearly a decade ago, around 2015 or 2016. At the time, his family was dealing with a serious health challenge involving his young son.

The experience pushed him to start researching nutrition, gut health and the human microbiome — topics that would eventually reshape how he thought about farming.

“[My son] was sick as a kid, and so we were doing everything we could to heal him,” Wylie says. “His gut ended up in the hospital a few times with an autism diagnosis.”

Doctors and therapists offered guidance, but the recommendations didn’t sit well with Wylie.

“And then at the time, the doctors and the therapist told us basically, ‘Practice acceptance,’” he says.

Instead, Wylie started searching for more information about gut health and what researchers were learning about the microbiome. Over time, he began seeing parallels between the human digestive system and the biological activity that happens in healthy soils.

“They started figuring out that autistic kids had very weak gut microbiomes,” Wylie says. “And so when you make that connection as a farmer and you start saying, ‘What are all the things I can do at home to not stress that?’”

That question eventually carried over into his work in the field. The farm’s first experiment with regenerative practices was modest.

“We started on 40 acres of pistachios, playing around with it,” he says. “What can we do here growing in a different system?”

At the same time, the regenerative agriculture movement was gaining momentum online, making it easier for farmers to explore new ideas.

“At the time, there were quite a few regenerative agronomists out there releasing podcasts and YouTube videos,” Wylie says. “So the information was there. It was never on my radar before. But once you join that community and industry, it’s pretty interesting.”

Building on What Came Before

Even as Wylie explores new biological tools, he says the farm’s current practices still build heavily on the work done by previous generations.

His father’s generation invested heavily in agronomy research and orchard management strategies, developing systems that helped the farm stay productive in California’s demanding growing environment. From pruning methods to fertilizer programs, many of those lessons still guide how the farm operates today.

Rather than abandoning those systems, Wylie says his goal is to refine them.

“It’s really a tweak,” he says. “In my mind it’s a slight change in the method, not a complete start over.”

The farm continues to rely on the knowledge accumulated through decades of conventional farming, while gradually introducing new practices aimed at improving soil biology.

“We’re just trying to make tweaks to the system that we’re already operating in on the other ranches to see if we can do this a different way,” Wylie says.

One of the biggest challenges in that transition is managing fertility.

California orchards have historically relied on precise fertilizer programs to keep trees productive. But moving toward organic or regenerative inputs can create a different nutrient dynamic, especially during the early years of transition.

Wylie says growers sometimes underestimate how sensitive orchards can be during that shift.

Managing the Transition Carefully

According to Wylie, one of the most common mistakes farmers make when transitioning to regenerative systems is reducing fertilizer too quickly.

He says orchards that have spent decades under conventional management are accustomed to intensive nutrient programs, and abruptly changing that system can cause yields to fall sharply.

On some ranches where regenerative practices have been in place for several years, Wylie says the difference in soil structure is already noticeable.

“There’s other ranches we’ve been farming regenerative for five years,” he says. “You can stick your hand in the soil and get your fingers down right there on the berms next to the trees — it’s chocolate cake.”

But he warns farmers shouldn’t assume that kind of soil health will appear immediately after switching systems.

“Until that day, do not pull back,” Wylie says.

He says the biggest mistake happens when growers assume they can immediately match their old fertility programs using organic inputs.

“That’s the mistake that growers make,” he says. “They think I’m going organic regenerative, I can match dollar for dollar, I can do the same thing I was doing conventionally.”

Instead, Wylie says the transition often produces what he calls a “J-curve.”

“You’re going to see that J-curve,” he says. “I mean, it’s going to tank.”

To avoid that, his farm relies heavily on testing.

“We pull a lot of sap samples, multiple tissues and soils per year,” Wylie says. “Kind of watching our fertility and making sure these trees are fed.”

He says growers must remember trees grown in conventional systems are used to consistent nutrient availability.

“The soil has been farmed a certain way,” he says. “These trees are used to being fed intensively in that conventional system.”

And organic fertilizers don’t always behave the same way.

“The organic fertilizers just don’t work as well,” Wylie says. “So you have to be careful.”

Introducing Algae Into the System

As Wylie searched for ways to accelerate soil improvement, one newer tool caught his attention: microalgae.

The technology comes from soil health company MyLand, which produces living algae on farms and distributes it through irrigation systems.

“We’re probably in our fourth or fifth season,” Wylie says.

The idea behind the system is relatively simple. Rather than applying microbes directly to the soil, the system produces algae that help stimulate microbial activity already present in the soil ecosystem.

Jeff Tuel says the technology centers around specialized tanks designed to grow algae on the farm itself.

“We call these APVs, algae producing vessels,” Tuel says. “And essentially, the sole purpose is to grow algae here.”

Water from the farm is stored inside the vessels, where conditions are controlled to encourage rapid algae growth.

“So for all intents and purposes, this is kind of like the algae producing container,” Tuel says.

From there, the algae are delivered through irrigation systems already used on the farm.

“And we try to keep that holding tank to a level where if the irrigator is irrigating a 12-hour set, 24, 36,” Tuel says. “Our main objective is for them to never run dry of algae.”

Production is adjusted to match the grower’s irrigation schedule.

“We harvest according to the grower’s irrigation schedule,” he says.

Another important step happens before the system is even installed. MyLand scientists collect algae samples from the farm itself, identifying native strains that are already adapted to the environment.

“The reason native is important is because it’s used to the pH, it’s used to the droughts, the floods, everything Mother Nature’s thrown at it,” Tuel says.

Because those organisms already exist in the local ecosystem, they are more likely to survive once applied to the soil.

“Its odds of surviving and actually making an impact in that ecosystem are far greater,” he says.

Microalgae also sits at the base of the soil’s microbial food web.

“Microalgae is actually the base of the microbial food chain,” Tuel says. “All the bugs and beneficials in the soil are feeding off of it.”

Rather than introducing microbes, the strategy is to stimulate the microbes already present.

“I like to say instead of a bug-and-a-jug approach, we are ringing the dinner bell for the microbes,” Tuel says. “It’s kind of an all-you-can-eat buffet for microbes to get them moving and active.”

Tackling Difficult Soils

For Wylie, improving soil biology could help solve one of the Central Valley’s most persistent challenges: poor soil structure.

Many orchard soils in the region contain very low levels of organic matter, which limits their ability to hold water and maintain structure through the growing season.

“We have about 0.5% soil organic matter,” Wylie says. “Our water holding capacity is very low.”

That lack of organic matter can cause irrigation problems later in the summer.

“A lot of times these soils as we’re irrigating during the season will lock up,” he says.

Early in the season, irrigation water infiltrates the soil fairly easily.

“You start with very good water infiltration in April, May, June,” Wylie says.

But conditions change as the summer progresses.

“By the time you get to July, August, when you really need it, it’s very difficult to push water down in the soil,” he says.

For farmers trying to manage water carefully in California’s dry climate, that creates a major challenge.

“These soils are not very functional for us as farmers,” Wylie says.

Tuel says stimulating microbial activity can gradually improve those conditions.

“When you get those microbes to start moving and firing, you’re going to start to build soil aggregate,” he says.

Better aggregation can help water move through the soil while also improving nutrient availability.

“If it’s a high-salt ground, we can start to leach out some of those salts,” Tuel says.

Algae may also influence soil chemistry.

“Algae is also going to help regulate the pH in the soil so we can start to free up some locked-up nutrients,” he says.

Thinking Long-Term

While installing an on-farm algae system requires investment, Wylie says he sees it as part of a long-term strategy for improving soil performance.

“In a biological system like MyLand, it’s about the same cost as a soil amendment program out here, depending on how much acreage you’re using,” Wylie says.

The difference is the system focuses on building biological activity rather than simply adding nutrients.

“But it’s a long-term solution,” he says. “It’s not going to work overnight.”

Instead, the goal is to strengthen the soil’s microbiome so it can better buffer environmental stresses.

“It’s actually creating a buffer by just supercharging the microbiome that’s in the soil,” Wylie says.

That biological activity may help address several common soil issues in California orchards.

“Everything feeds on it,” he says. “It’s overcoming high salt, high chlorides.”

Even trace mineral challenges may improve over time.

“In some cases in California, we have very high boron in some areas,” Wylie says.

He believes increased biological activity may help mitigate those problems faster than traditional soil-building methods alone.

“Microalgae being put into the system can actually overcome those salts that might take 10 or 15 years of compost and cover crops,” he says. “You can accomplish in a few years by using MyLand.”

The Pressure on California Farmers

The search for new tools is happening at a time when farming in California is becoming increasingly expensive.

Data from USDA shows the state continues to rank as the most expensive place in the country to grow crops, driven by high labor, energy and input costs.

Those economic pressures are compounded by growing regulatory expectations.

Wylie believes California farmers are already facing some of the strictest scrutiny in global agriculture.

“I think the state’s already looking at it very closely,” he says. “I think they’re going to put more pressure on farmers in California.”

Compared with other agricultural regions, he says California producers are operating under unique constraints.

“Other than the European Union, there is no one in the world that’s under as much pressure as a California farmer to change the way we do things,” Wylie says.

Because of that, he believes farmers must take the lead in finding workable solutions.

“We need to figure this out,” he says. “And I want to figure it out before the government gets involved and tries to tell me how to do it.”

Government incentive programs exist, but Wylie believes the real challenge is making soil health practices economically viable.

“They can offer me some incentives,” he says. “We have healthy soils out here. They give you a little compost and cover crop seed.”

Ultimately, though, growers need systems that work on their own.

“We need to figure this out and we need to make it economical and profitable before the state comes in,” Wylie says.

Because once regulations remove certain tools, farmers may have little room to adapt.

“Now you’re forced to figure it out with your back against the wall,” he says. “We don’t want that.”

For Wylie, the answer may lie beneath the soil surface where billions of microbes, fueled by algae, could quietly reshape how California farms grow their crops. And by doing so now, Wylie hopes he’s able to find ways to continue to grow productive crops in California, despite increased regulations.

Why Soil Health is the Secret Ingredient for Sustainable Food

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 21:51:45 GMT

The secret to a truly sustainable food system might not be found in high-tech machinery or new chemical additives, but in a fundamental shift in how we view the dirt beneath our feet. According to Janel Ohletz, director of agriculture for Plantd , who holds a doctorate in soil science, the former chef-turned-soil-expert says the industry is beginning to realize that soil health is the “secret ingredient” that determines the ultimate quality of specialty crops.

The “Microbe Farmer” Mentality

For Ohletz, the transition to sustainable farming starts with a radical change in perspective. She says successful regenerative farmers must stop seeing themselves as merely growers of carrots or onions and instead adopt the mindset of “microbe farmers.” This philosophy treats the soil as a living ecosystem, much like the human gut microbiome, where the primary job of the farmer is to feed the soil, so that the soil, in turn, can feed the plant, Ohletz says.

“If we change our mentality that we’re not farmers of carrots or onions or whatever, but we’re instead ‘microbe farmers,’ the soil will feed the plant, and when it’s all there and available, then the plant will just naturally take it up.”

This microbe-first approach has a direct impact on the nutrient density that ends up on the plate. Ohletz says a plant simply cannot put nutrients into food if the building blocks, such as phenols, antioxidants and minerals, are missing from the soil. While conventional methods might help a plant survive, regenerative systems allow them to thrive, resulting in higher Brix levels and a more complex nutritional profile.

Janel Ohletz, director of agriculture for Plantd says the industry is beginning to realize that soil health is the “secret ingredient” that determines the ultimate quality of specialty crops.

(Photo courtesy of Plantd)

The Carbon-Negative Blueprint: Biochar as a Power Strip

In the quest for carbon-negative materials, Ohletz says carbon should be viewed not as a buzzword but as a tangible asset. A key component of this blueprint is biochar, which provides a physical and chemical foundation that standard compost cannot match. Ohletz describes biochar’s function using the analogy of a power strip.

“It’s kind of like if you think of it as a power plug or a power strip, the more plug places you have to put things plugged into, the better,” she says.

This structure increases the soil’s “anion and cation exchange capacity,” allowing it to hold onto nutrients that would otherwise leach away. Furthermore, biochar acts like a sponge; its high porosity allows water to drain effectively while simultaneously retaining moisture for the plant’s use. Unlike organic matter that breaks down quickly, Ohletz says biochar remains in the soil for hundreds of years, relieving the pressure on organic matter to do all the heavy lifting.

Regenerative Farming in Specialty Crops

Ohletz says the specialty crop sector, specifically smaller 30-to-60-acre vegetable farms, is actually adopting these practices faster than row crop operations. Though the implementation differs, such as managing “coal crops” in colder months or limiting disturbance in leafy greens, the core premises remain the same: add organic matter and limit soil disturbance.

The Retail Secret: Selling the Story of Taste

However, producing high-quality crops is only half the battle, she says. The other half is convincing the consumer. Currently, most shoppers buy based on the physical appearance of a fruit rather than the health of the farm. Ohletz believes the secret to shifting this behavior lies in the culinary experience.

“As a chef, when you buy something that’s a locally grown thing, the flavor is just better,” she says.

Retailers can bridge this gap by connecting soil health to ecosystem services that consumers care about, such as:

Pollinator protection: Highlighting that regenerative farms use meadow strips to help the bees
Environmental impact: Linking produce choices to improved air and water quality
Nutrient retention: Explaining that nutrient density is also affected by the length of time an ingredient takes to get from the field to the plate, with local soil-healthy options often outperforming store-shelf staples

By focusing on taste and the environmental benefits that healthy soil provides, such as supporting pollinators through meadow strips and improving air and water quality, retailers can tell a more compelling story. Ultimately, Ohletz says the goal is to help consumers realize the simple choices they make in the produce aisle can have a profound impact on the environment as well as their own health.

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USDA Launches New $700 Million Regenerative Ag Pilot Program

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 22:49:51 GMT

USDA wants farmers to focus on soil health and producing more nutritious food. To that end, Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins, along with Robert “F” Kennedy Jr., Health Secretary, and Doctor Mehmet Oz, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator, announced a $700 million pilot program aimed at supporting regenerative farming. USDA says the Regenerative Pilot Program’s goal is to help American farmers adopt practices focused on improving soil health, water quality and boost long-term productivity.

“We are committed to restoring America’s natural strength by empowering producers with simple outcome-based tools,” Rollins says. “Producers at every stage, from beginners just starting with cover crops to advanced operators with years of conservation experience, many of those are represented by our farmers today, will find a pathway through this pilot.”

Rollins says the program will be funded through existing programs at USDA and allow farmers to pursue “whole-farm planning” instead of a piecemeal approach. The pilot will be administered through the agency’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

“Each producer’s results will be measured and credited back to the farmer through an outcomes report, recognizing and rewarding improvements they achieve on their own land,” Rollins says. “This initiative puts American farmers first as part of the solution to make America healthy again.”

Building Off MAHA

The announcement follows the Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy released in September.

Kennedy said the initiative promises farmers an “off-ramp” to transition away from chemical fertilizer inputs, “to a model that emphasizes soil health, and with soil health comes nutrient density through voluntary action.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is also investing in research on the connection between regenerative agriculture and public health, as well as developing public health messaging explaining this connection.

“We cannot truly be a wealthy nation if we are not also a healthy nation. Access to wholesome, nutritious and affordable foods is a key tenet of the Make America Healthy Again agenda, which President Trump has directed this administration to execute across all government agencies,” Oz says. “I commend Secretary Rollins and Secretary Kennedy for today’s efforts to strengthen our nation’s food supply.”

“This is another initiative driven by President Trump’s mission to Make America Healthy Again,” Rollins adds. “Alongside Secretary Kennedy, we have made great strides to ensure the safe, nutritious, and affordable food our great farmers produce make it to dinner tables across this great country.”

How Does it Work?

USDA released details about the program in a release. It says the program will be administered by NRCS, allowing producers to bundle multiple regenerative practices into a single application, saying it will both streamline the process and allow for operator flexibility.

In FY2026, USDA is dedicating $400 million through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and $300 million through the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) to fund the first year of regenerative agriculture projects.

USDA says farmers and ranchers interested in regenerative agriculture are encouraged to apply through their local NRCS Service Center by their state’s ranking dates for consideration in FY2026 funding. Applications for both EQIP and CSP can now be submitted under the new single regenerative application process.

Regenerative Reaction

Farm groups and outside influencers are weighing in on the new pilot program announcement. Farm Bureau and President Zippy Duvall welcomed the approach while pointing out its still light on details.

“We value USDA’s acknowledgement that farmers have long practiced regenerative agriculture on their farms, both through federal conservation programs and on their own,” Duvall says. “Building on these efforts by leveraging existing voluntary and incentive-based programs to advance additional regenerative goals sounds like smart government to me, especially when farmers remain in the driver’s seat.”

Take It Outside: Onetime Indoor Ag Pioneers See Opportunity Out In The Field

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 12:16:34 GMT

For the past year, the team at Soil Action has been working toward building an artificial intelligence driven product to sense soil nutrition in real-time. Whereas other companies have attempted to revolutionize soil testing before, co-founders Jack Oslan and Nate Storey say the AI tools available today are making what was once difficult or nearly impossible, possible.

“Soils are unknown and misunderstood,” Storey says. “We can use AI to understand soil better, and our goal is to come up with the instruments to solve the problem.”

Soil Action’s solution in progress includes building models and training models pairing near infrared spectroscopy with AI. Its goal is to reengineer the traditional process of sampling, shipping, agronomic recommendations, prescription files and applications while making it all in real-time. They are doing on-farm demonstrations this fall.

Before founding Soil Action, these two businessmen first met 12 years ago co-founded indoor agriculture startup Plenty. Storey’s time at Plenty was applying his laser focus on yield with innovation in algorithmic nutrition.

“I went into indoor ag because it was an area with the largest opportunity to drive yield. I have a lot of interest in yield,” he says. “In indoor, you can control everything and measure it–everything can be known in those systems and control every part of the process: root zone temperature, gas composition, and more.”

Now, Storey and Oslan want to bring those learnings outside and into the field.

“We got really good at understanding how to take an algorithmic approach to yield. It’s about understanding the yield equation, breaking it apart, optimizing individual aspects, and restacking them,” Storey says. “In row crops, the soil is the most important part, and to solve the yield equation we have know the variables that correlate and then begin to manage.”

What Does The System Look Like?

Currently, the beta version product is housed in a 3”x6” steel tube which can be mounted on any style of implement or equipment to automatically take measurements 4” to 6” deep every 50’.

(Soil Action)

“The real end goal is to have every equipment cab be mounted with an AI enabled agent to give you real-time measurements of what’s going on in your field,” Storey says. “It’s an AI agent focused on optimizing yield.”

The first testing was conducted in northern Iowa.

“We’re building our models on data collected from the field, and we’re using deep learning to ingest all of the information and help understand correlations,” Oslan says. “We can see everything that’s there, but we don’t understand everything that is there. That’s a focus for our work right now.”

“Holy Grail of Soil Sampling”

When it’s ready to be commercially available, Soil Action aims to provide results measuring two forms of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Other crop nutrients will be added in the future.

“Every expert we talked to said we couldn’t use NIRS in soil sampling, but the physics said we could,” Oslan says. “We took two intensive weeks using sand and manipulating it for measurements with NIRS, and our deep learning models can untangle data in a way classical statistical methods cannot. Now, it’s about how fast we can solve for soil nutrients with these newer tools.”

Soil Action says it aims to provide the equipment to farmers for a hardware fee of $10,000 paired with a subscription for the analysis on an annual fee basis.

New Partnership Brings Soil Health Focus to Washington Orchards

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 11:55:49 GMT

Recently, FarmTogether and MyLand integrated MyLand’s Soil as a Service technology in four high-value apple orchards in Washington state. The companies say this supports efforts to enhance efficiency, reduce input costs and advance regenerative agriculture practices.

FarmTogether is a part of MyLand’s Washington State Program — a $4.8-million initiative supported by Washington State’s Climate Commitment Act. The program is designed to accelerate the adoption of regenerative soil health practices across 9,000 acres of farmland, promoting carbon sequestration, improving water efficiency and supporting climate resilience throughout the region.

MyLand extracts live, native microalgae from soil directly from the field, cultivates optimal microalgae in a closed-loop environment and reintroduces the living biomass back into the soil. This process is designed to enhance biological activity, support nutrient cycling, and promote more resilient soils over time

Boyd Corkins, head of farm management at FarmTogether, says the motivation for this partnership is due to the increases in inputs on orchards as well as pressure on pricing. He says he knew of MyLand for his time working for Hancock Citrus, where an organic citrus block had shown improvement by deploying MyLands’s technology. FarmTogether uses MyLand’s technology on about 400 acres.

“One of the reasons is that it’s part of our sustainability program and how we go about our sustainability, and it’s a good time to try out that product,” he says. “There are a lot of headwinds we’re looking at anywhere we can cut cost, and when we used it in our citrus, we were seeing some just overall improvement in the tree itself. It helps the tree and its ability to efficiently pick up nutrients.”

Corkins says the FarmTogether team will monitor KPIs to track overall orchard improvement, something he acknowledges might not be immediate.

“If you’re looking to improve your soils, that’s a long-term process, and that takes a while. I’ve been on trials where it’s a year, five-year and 10-year trials, and you don’t start to see anything, really, until year five,” he says.

Corkins also says understanding that long-term view is critical when it comes to soil health and communicating benefits to growers.

“When you have your year-end meeting with your grower, remind them again, ‘Hey, we’re still using this product. We’re not seeing any improvements yet. We’re going to continue to monitor it. However, we do anticipate, over the next couple years, we will be seeing improvements in the soil,’” he says. “And just keep them updated on what’s going on.”

Corkins says on top of using MyLand, FarmTogether has deployed compost, cover crops and irrigation sensors and emitters to better mitigate any issues with erosion but also in its ongoing sustainability efforts. He says FarmTogether mulches any cutting from pruning or orchard renewals and adds those back into the soil.

“As a farmer, you’re looking at what can help improve your soil health,” he says. “You’re looking at your sustainability farming practices and how you go about monitoring what you’re doing for sustainability.”

Corkins says this can be part of a regenerative ag program or an internal program.

“It could potentially help increase your crop yield and your quality, water management, efficiency management, and overall,” he says. “How I think about it is it comes down to helping to reduce your reliance on artificial or synthetic fertilizers.”

And Corkins says with sustainability efforts, he doesn’t always look to increasing the bottom line of his business.

“Sometimes you have to approach this in terms of, I’m looking at this as a long-term investment,” he says. “And part of it is I want to help improve the soil, and I want to help ensure that, my children — they’re not in a world where they go out there and farm and they’re cleaning up our mess.”

New Farmers Gain a Partner in Regenerative Ag

Tue, 22 Jul 2025 22:15:07 GMT

Mark Mills of Chocolates and Tomatoes Farm is many things: a chef, an instructor a chocolatier and one of Soil & Climate Initiative’s founding farmers.

“In 2012, I got the opportunity to become a farmer,” he says. The opportunity came through a new-farmer pilot program in partnership with the University of Maryland that included extension classes. There, Mills learned about the practices and implementation of regenerative agriculture.

Then, in 2018, he and his wife, Teresa, got the opportunity to buy an 11-acre farm in Middletown. Today, three acres of the farm are taken up with highly diversified fresh produce and herbs. Other sections of the farm include flowers and a mixed orchard of over 400 trees including apples, pears, plums, peaches, cherries and apricots.

“We’ve always been regenerative — we use a lot of cover cropping, conservation tillage, we’re way into diversity — so SCI was a perfect fit for us,” Mills says.

From founding farmer to model farm

Soil & Climate Initiative is a non-profit program that helps farmers transition their operations to regenerative practices and offers third-party verification options according to its Soil & Climate Health Commitment & Verification standards . It launched its program three years ago, and Mills was one of the initiative’s founding farmers, according to Taylor Herren, farm program manager at SCI.

The founding cohort comprised many different operations, including commodity crop farmers, livestock operations and produce growers.

“In part, [the founding cohort] were participants in the program, but equally it was an opportunity for us to build a program and build a standard that can address all of those different systems,” Herren says. “That is complicated stuff.”

Today, the initiative has 165 affiliated farms across 30 plus crops in 27 states plus Canada, according to Kristen Efurd, SCI’s verification director.

Mark Mills of Chocolates and Tomatoes Farm calls soil health “the currency of the regenerative farmer.” A big part of that is keeping living roots in the soil and keeping soil covered all year round.

(Photo courtesy of Soil & Climate Initiative.)

Though Mills was among the founding farmers cohort, his operation looks a lot different compared to most other SCI-affiliated operations. Not only is his operation small and extremely diversified, but his regenerative practice is quite advanced, making him an important teacher within the program, Herren says.

“Someone like Mark is as much a model farm as a resource for us to understand as we bring new farms into the program,” Herren says. “We are a huge believer in peer learning networks and identifying farms, just like Mark’s, that are advanced.”

Keeping soil health in focus

Mills says SCI “sounded like it was something that was right up our alley” from the beginning.

“I think, to my detriment, I always want to be on the cutting edge. I always want to try something new,” he says, adding that he has been taking as much advantage of SCI’s offerings as he can. Key among these have been SCI’s persistence and keeping him on track with soil testing, nutrient management plans and getting him actionable information.

“I’m kind of all over the place and trying to do a million things at once,” Mills says, pointing to his two off-farm jobs. He says SCI helps to codify some of the regenerative practices that they were already doing on the farm, but with a focus on actionable soil health information.

“I’ve had a nutrient management plan since we started farming in 2012,” he says. “You would always do soil testing. They would give you some big numbers and you might use that information, but then you’d file it away and never look at it again. So, the depth that SCI goes into, the metrics they look at, is to the nth degree.”

Herren says that anyone working with farmers has to appreciate how busy and “head down” the work is. She adds that a big part of what SCI does is connect soil testing and the information from that to what farmers are doing and need to do.

Taylor Herren, Farm Program Manager at Soil & Climate Initiative visits farms and conducts soil testing.

(Photo courtesy of Soil & Climate Initiative)

“For example, it was time for Mark to do his three-year sampling. That’s really important so we could see if he’s making progress,” she told The Packer shortly after she’d made a farm visit to Chocolate and Tomatoes. “It’s our job to keep track of that and remind him and help make sure that it gets done. It can be hard for it to float to the top in the midst of Mark doing his farm and his life.”

Mills says the information and support he receives from SCI has been excellent, and he urges growers to get involved.

“Just to have somebody else who’s focused on your soil health — and that’s the currency of the regenerative farmer, soil health — who takes interest in that and gives you valuable feedback and metrics that you can leverage to increase your efficiency; that’s really important to me,” he says. “They really have skilled people who care about what you do. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I’m glad I did it.”

Biodiversity Index in the Field: A Look at Diagnostic Microbiome Tests for Soil Health

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 21:13:30 GMT

In the past few years, about a handful of companies have emerged with tests to measure a soil microbiome of fields, give a biodiversity index and help farmers understand the effects of inputs on soil health.

All of these companies recognize the complexity of a soil’s biology, and they aim to bring new tools to advance regenerative agriculture. Different from chemical and physical soil tests, which are often used to gauge what the soil needs (for example, rates of nitrogen), microbiome tests can provide insights on what the soil can supply (for example, nitrogen fixation or decomposition processes).

And these companies see the microbiome soil tests as complements — not replacements — to traditional soil testing.

Biome Makers

With a goal of delivering agronomic insights, Biome Makers built its BeCrop technology pairing soil microbiome knowledge and machine learning. The company, which is based in northern California, currently services farmers across 2.2 million acres and six continents. The BeCrop Test provides a report on nutrient cycling, health and biodiversity to be used to improve yields, monitor nutrient cycling, and predict disease risks. ( biomemakers.com )

EarthOptics

Launched as Pattern Ag and now part of EarthOptics, this platform claims to provide farmers a predication of key field agronomic outcomes with more than 90% confidence. The company uses DNA sequencing to provide soil biological test results. It also offers a premium program combing the soil microbiome results, with sensor data, yield data and satellite imagery for soil fertility and crop planning. ( earthoptics.com )

RhizeBio

Based in North Carolina, RhizeBio says its test uses a proprietary bioinformatics pipeline to translate raw soil DNA sequencing data into soil health reports both informative and easy to use. The results can be bucketed into three groups: biodiversity, bioindicators and risk analysis. The RhizeBio report provides biodiversity data including the number of species within the soil’s microbiome, community evenness, primary members and functionality. This gives insights on a soil’s capacity in stress environments such as droughts, disease, disturbance rating and nutrient cycling potential. ( rhizebio.com )

Trace Genomics

Recently acquired by Canada-based Miraterra, Trace Genomics was founded in northern California and has a soil analytical lab in Ames, Iowa. The Trace Genomics testing uses DNA sequencing to provide insights on the soil microbiome. The technology combines soil science, genomics and machine learning to output a measurement of a soil’s bacteria and fungi. Combining those measurements with chemical properties, growers receive information on a soil’s health and productivity. The company also offers a year-round sampling program to help guide seed selection, input selections, fertility products and biologicals for 70 crops and more than 225 pathogens. ( miraterrasoil.com/trace )

Where Can Farmers Expect the Next Level-Up Technology in Biologicals?

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 18:04:49 GMT

With a 70-year track record of use, are crop biologicals poised for a parabolic growth spurt? Or have sales plateaued?

According to Dunham Trimmer analysis, the global biologicals market could reach $19.6 billion by 2027. Shane Thomas of Upstream Ag Insights shares his own analysis that biological sales could equal synthetic crop protection by 2043.

So what is required for those projections to come true?

Pam Marrone, co-founder of Invasive Species Corp. and previous founder of two additional biological businesses, dove deeper into the topic with certified crop advisers during a recent webinar hosted by the Science Societies.

She points to more than a handful of drivers for biological sales growth:

Improved grower ROI
Soil health benefits
Reduction of carbon dioxide
Ramped up scientific developments for efficacy and scale
Biodiversity
Labor safety and flexibility
Lower development costs and time frames (less than $5 million and three years to develop)
No pesticide residues
No resistance

“It’s important to keep in mind, with biologicals, their best use is in integrated programs with conventional crop chemistries,” she says. “More and more growers are seeing that when you incorporate biologicals into programs, you can get a higher return on investment. More than 70% of biologicals are used by conventional growers.”

Biologicals can be divided into three categories:

Biopesticides, biocontrols, bioprotections ($9 billion in global sales)
Biostimulants ($5 billion in global sales)
Biofertilizers/bionutrients ($2.5 billion in global sales)

There are up to 80 new biological active ingredients at the EPA, so what kind of new products — or biological breakthroughs — can farmers expect?

Marrone points to peptides, proteins, pheromones, and RNA interference.

One category she’s optimistic about but with a farther out horizon is bioherbicides, with product introductions expected a few years away.

“Herbicides are a tough one for biologicals. Why are there fewer companies? Why is this harder?” she says. “Well, broad-spectrum herbicides are cheap, even though there’s a lot of weed resistance.”

She points to the need for new modes of action encouraging more work and investment.

Another front she is watching is the predictability and measurability of biological use on soil health.

“It’s going to be important to look at the intersection of crop microbiomes and soil health. Microbes and plants signal each other,” she says. “We know plants recruit microorganisms to their rhizosphere (rootzone) from the pool of microbes available in the soil. So, let’s measure how adding microorganisms to the soil can help reduce time to become regenerative.”

Soil health tech startup gains financial backing to scale up

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 21:11:20 GMT

MyLand, a soil health tech company based in Phoenix, has secured $12 million in financing to scale up and expand soil health-related services in California, Texas, Arizona, Florida and the Pacific Northwest.

MyLand closed its first Series B financing round with The Borden Family Trust and Waterpoint Lane, according to a news release.

“We see MyLand’s service as an entirely different method to providing growers an affordable and simple regenerative agriculture process; one that has an amazing impact on the health of their soil and in turn, their crops,” Michael Borden, from The Borden Family Trust, said in the release. “We look forward to this collaborative leadership to implement the company’s service and technology onto more farms and to demonstrate its potential for improving the nation’s soil.”

Growers report witnessing the economic benefits of the rapid improvement in soil health through implementation of the MyLand service. Rob Knorr of Dakota Farms, an Arizona-based pepper grower, noted significant improvements in plant growth and plant health, according to the release.

“On fall pepper varieties we were able to reduce fertilizer applications on soils treated with algae as well as noting increased water holding capacity which allowed us to extend our time between irrigation cycles, resulting in reduced costs. I appreciate the MyLand professionals that were committed to helping me to learn more about my own soils and how to be a better producer on better soils,” Knorr said.

Related news: Soil-As-A-Service Startup Aims to Reboot Land’s Natural Potential

This closing is an important milestone for MyLand and puts the company in a strong financial position to fuel the growth and commercialization of its Soil-as-a-Service offering, while increasing the installed base of systems with large growers in efforts to improve soil health through their unique regenerative process, according to the release.

Ben Gibbons of Waterpoint Lane expressed excitement to work with MyLand to promote “scalable regenerative agriculture through their farmer-focused service paired with their innovative systems, that have resulted in increased soil organic matter, water holding capacity, soil aggregation, and carbon storage,” the release said.

Take Our Poll: How Frequently Do You Soil Test?

Mon, 05 Dec 2022 14:11:49 GMT

With sky-high fertilizer prices, you want to take a Goldilocks approach for applications — not too much, not too little but just right. How can you perfectly sync your rates to each field’s needs?

Soil sampling can be a great play to start. The results can help you understand your nutrient needs and track changes over time.

How often do you soil test each of your fields?

Take our poll below.

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Set the Stage for Soil Health with These Best Practices

Mon, 24 Oct 2022 18:38:48 GMT

Apply best management practices for long-term success

If you are adding a new farm for next season, take a hard look at soil health amid the backdrop of higher fertility and input costs. Missy Bauer, Farm Journal Field Agronomist, says start with the canvas rather than the paint, as focusing on the soil setup can pay big dividends toward long-term success. She suggests these strategies.

(Farm Journal)

1. SOIL SAMPLE BY ZONE

“When we think about flipping the soil or trying to get it in good shape, the first thing we always look at is soil fertility,” Bauer explains. “That starts with making sure soil samples are taken at the right depth and pulled by management zones or soil types.”
Always ask what soil sample depth your soil lab is calibrated to, as that can vary by lab.

2. EVALUATE AND REDUCE PH

“Once we get data from the lab we must check and manage pH because we cannot do well agronomically if we have acidic soils for raising corn and soybeans,” Bauer says. “In much of the Midwest, we need to add lime to stay in that range of 6.5 to 6.8 pH.”

3. REMOVE COMPACTION LAYERS

“A lot of fields that struggle have soil density issues or layers that impede root growth and water infiltration,” Bauer says.
For example, she says corn roots should grow down through the soil at a 35-to-40-degree angle. A simple root dig can shed light on whether those roots are being impacted by changes in density.

“In the spring, some fields will just stay saturated longer after a rain,” Bauer explains. “What happens is that water hits those density layers, and it can’t push through until it builds up enough head pressure.”

(Farm Journal)

4. FIX IT, DON’T FORGET IT

While your plan might be no-till or reduced tillage, a rescue pass might be needed to fix soil density.

“Even some of our best no-tillers own vertical tillage equipment because they might have to go in and fix a field,” Bauer says. “Deep shanks with uniform spacing and shatter across the machine can take out those layers. A vertical tillage leveling tool can level it out before converting the field back to no-till.”

5. RESPECT WORKING CONDITIONS

Always aim to avoid putting stress on soil, Bauer adds. This often means respecting field conditions and the weather forecast.

“If we have a wet fall, consider the size of loads you are pulling across fields with your grain cart,” she says. “If we get a wet spring and we make those ‘dry out’ tillage passes, then we tend to have more soil compaction problems.”

6. DON’T COVER MISTAKES

When rehabilitating a field, Bauer advises to focus on the big issues first — soil pH, fertility and uniform soil density. “Then we can consider adding cover crops into the program to help improve soil aggregate stability,” she says.

Financial Support for Soil Health

USDA is investing up to $2.8 billion in 70 projects under the first Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding pool. The projects, which seek funds ranging from $5 million to $100 million, include everything from flood control to building carbon markets.
According to Tom Vilsack, USDA secretary, these efforts will “increase the competitive advantage of U.S. agriculture both domestically and internationally.”

USDA says farmers can expect:

Technical and financial assistance to implement voluntary climate-smart practices.
Methods to quantify, monitor, report and verify greenhouse gas benefits.
New markets and promotion in climate-smart commodities.

After sifting through 450 proposals, USDA’s funding recipients include groups such as government entities, farmer co-ops, university and conservation groups. Trust In Food, Farm Journal‘s sustainability division, is one of the recipients.

Clinton Griffiths is a TV newsman, turned magazine editor, with a passion for good stories. He believes the best life lessons can be found down a dirt road.

One Nebraska Farmer Says Improving Soil Health Helped Keep Her on the Land

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 22:12:19 GMT

In a moisture deficit area, such as southwest Nebraska, conservation and regenerative practices have long been a staple for farmers. These methods boost soil health and help make their farms more productive and economically stable. That’s important especially in drought years such as 2022.

“Conservation is farming in southwest Nebraska.” That mindset is a necessity for Tracy Zink. Moisture is typically scarce where she farms near Indianola, Neb., so it’s essential she preserve every drop. She accomplishes that by disturbing the soil as little as possible, even for weed control.

“For the most part all of our dryland we try very hard to be no-till. If weeds get away from us or they’re resistant we try to only do the spot where the resistance is,” she says.

No-till practices have improved organic matter and soil health, which keeps even heavy rains from running off and eroding the soil. Plus they leave as much crop residue intact after harvest as possible.

“We try to always have residue on top to help protect soil from blowing,” Zink explains. “When I think about soil quality it’s also that it stays put.”

Crop rotation is also important. On irrigated acres that includes two seasons of corn followed by soybeans. Zink says the dryland rotations are more diverse but depend on moisture levels. We always do wheat, hard red winter wheat is our base for the next crop. Following that, half the acres go to milo and half of our wheat acres go to corn. Then the following year they become corn or milo. The year following is typically summer fallow.

Zink does annual soil testing to set a baseline for fertility, and with the arid environment, she says she has to strike a balance between yield and conservation.

“I don’t look for home runs in yield because I don’t have the water for it. I already have to have that conservation mindset for my yield goals,” she says.

Every practice Zink incorporates on her farm must fit into her holistic approach to conservation because she wants to continue the work her grandparents started. “As you look out and around, none of this would be possible if we weren’t incredibly mindful about proper stewardship, soil conservation and managing wind and water erosion.”

By improving soil health she knows her farm will be sustainable for years to come.

Evaluate Soil Economics

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 06:04:54 GMT

A soil health program aimed at determining the economic, yield and environmental benefits of farm practices such as cover crops, nutrient management and reduced tillage has enrolled 111 farms across 12 states.

The Soil Health Partnership (SHP) is an initiative of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) testing conservation practices on farms using 20- to 80-acre plots. The size of the test fields “allows us to have reduced variability on each farm to strengthen our data set,” says Jack Cornell, operations manager for SHP.

The research trials take place on just over 4,000 acres across the program, but that doesn’t necessarily reflect its magnitude, Cornell says. “It’s important to understand that these acres are representative research acres, strategically placed geographically to represent different soil types, climates, and cropping systems,” he says. “This program is not necessarily about how many acres change practices within SHP. It’s about how the data those farms gather can demonstrate a positive economic impact from these practices, and that in turn can convince many more farmers to adopt the practices on a larger scale.”

The program receives financial support from Monsanto, NCGA, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, The Walton Family Foundation, General Mills and the Midwest Row Crop Collaborative. Technical support is from the Environmental Defense Fund and The Nature Conservancy.

It aims to provide long-term, farm-specific data insights including soil lab reports, mid-season aerial imagery, and profitability and ROI analysis in partnership with startup AgSolver (now EFC Systems).

The project leaders shared interim data at farmer field days and research meetings this summer and fall throughout the Midwest, and researchers will prepare articles for publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals, SHP director Nick Goeser says.

Restoring Soil Health Takes Time

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 06:04:10 GMT

After rapid gains from vertical tillage, pH and fertility, the improvement pace slows down

Another year of results from a long-term comparison of healthy and unhealthy soil in central Illinois confirms the trend:

Improvements in soil health can be documented in just a few years, enough to move yields from unprofitable to profitable.
The fastest improvements involved fertility and pH (the chemical aspect of soil health) and eliminating compaction (the physical aspect).
Improvements in the biological aspect of soil health take longer.
Restoring abused soil to health might take a very long time.

This past year’s results provided more good news—but the improvements were less dramatic than Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie, who is conducting the study, had hoped. The 2016 results showed, in some situations, even small soil health improvements from a single year of cover cropping might impact yield.

The study involves two farms about a mile apart—Farm A and Farm B. Both farms primarily contain two types of soil. One is a lighter silt loam, with about 3% organic matter content and a cation exchange capacity of 15 to 16. The other is a heavier silty clay loam. The organic matter content of that soil is 4% or more, and the cation exchange capacity is 20 to 25. If both soils were in perfect health, the silty clay loam would always outyield the silt loam because it has higher natural fertility and water-holding capacity.

The soil on Farm A has always been well-cared-for and healthy, but Farm B had been abused for 30 years, resulting in unhealthy soil. The practices used on both farms were similar except the operator of Farm A no-tilled. The operator of Farm B disked soybean stubble before planting corn, which destroyed soil structure and left an impermeable compaction layer.

The soil on Farm B also had become very acid. Because of these factors, the unhealthy soil on Farm B had more erosion, slower decomposition of residue and poor water infiltration.

In 2011, the new operator of Farm B set out to restore its soil health. He used vertical tillage to remove sudden density changes and compaction. He also aggressively applied lime to build up soil pH. Ferrie calls that “shooting the slow rabbits first” because these changes are the easiest to make and they produce quick improvements in soil health and yield.

“The vertical tillage used to fix physical problems helped incorporate some of the lime into the soil profile,” Ferrie says. “As we got soil pH somewhat tamed, the operator moved back to no-till, which he prefers. Since we were no longer incorporating lime, we had to reduce the amount applied and apply it more often.”

On the fertility side, everything involves the 4Rs—right product, right rate, right time and right place. “We have implemented variable-rate fertility, including applying some with the planter and sidedressing some of the nitrogen,” Ferrie notes.

Restoring soil health is complicated because the physical, chemical and biological aspects are interrelated. For example, the acid soil required high rates of lime, but you can’t add lime without tying up some phosphorus, Ferrie says. “Much of nutrient variability is controlled by soil microorganisms, the biological aspect of soil health.”

Shooting the slow rabbits of compaction and acidity produced quick results. The corn yield on Farm B’s silty clay loam rose from an average of 130 bu. per acre between 2008 and 2010 to 225 bu. in 2013 and 215 bu. in 2015. (The farm is in a corn/soybean rotation.) On its silt loam, yield increased from 123 bu. per acre from 2008 through 2010 to 215 bu. in 2015. The yield improvement was enough to make the farm profitable.

However, Farm B’s corn yield still lags 20 bu. to 30 bu. per acre behind Farm A.

Now comes the hard part: continuing to improve the chemical and biological aspects of Farm B’s soil health. “Because the soil was acid for so long, and subjected to too much tillage, much of Farm B’s soil structure has been destroyed,” Ferrie says. “We can’t fix structure with a single treatment—although the lime we’ve applied helped because the calcium flocculates clay particles (while the carbonate corrects acidity).”

Poor structure causes soil particles to run together and seal. That leads to erosion and surface crusting, which causes stand problems.

“While corn’s grassy roots might help build soil structure, the soybeans in Farm B’s rotation don’t help much,” Ferrie says. “We realized we had to add wheat or a grass cover crop to the rotation for continued improvement.”

The farmer chose a grass cover crop. Flying annual ryegrass seed into soybeans in 2014 sounded promising; but, for reasons not fully understood, the cover crop failed to establish.

In fall 2015, the farmer harvested some of the corn early (4% more moisture than the rest of the field) and drilled cereal rye into the stalks. “The timely seeding produced a good stand,” Ferrie says. In spring 2016, they no-tilled soybeans into the cereal rye.

In the more productive silty clay loam, the cover crop had no effect on yield. But in the less productive silt loam soil, in two locations within the field, there was an impact. In the first location, the cover cropped portion yielded 58 bu. per acre and the no-cover portion yielded 56 bu. In the second location, the cover cropped strip produced 55 bu. per acre, compared with 54.6 bu. without a cover crop.

Unlike a previous attempt at aerial seeding into soybeans, drilling a cover crop into corn stalks produced a good stand and had a small but measurable impact on soil heath.

Attempting to explain the yield effect, Ferrie ran several soil health tests. The results for the water-soluble (ortho) phosphorus and aggregate stability tests provided a clue.

“Water-soluble phosphorus is a pretty good indicator of biological health,” Ferrie says. “The increase from 1 ppm to 2 ppm at the first location is significant.”

Aggregate stability also improved under the cover crop. But Cornell University’s Comprehensive Assessment of Soil Health scores both areas under 20, on a scale of 100, which is considered very low. In contrast, Farm A’s health was rated 80. (See table below.)

“Although the improvement in aggregate stability was small, the score did move in the right direction,” Ferrie says. “Eventually, improvements in aggregate stability should result in improved water infiltration, and we’ll see improvement elsewhere, such as in the soil’s carbon/nitrogen ratio.”

The 2016 yield increase was not enough to pay for the cost of the cover crop (drying the early harvested corn, planting the cover crop and terminating it in the spring), Ferrie notes. “But at least it wasn’t a yield drag,” he adds.

A cereal rye cover crop was seeded in fall 2016. This spring, the operator will strip-till corn into the cover crop.

“We hope to keep the ball rolling, in terms of soil health improvement,” Ferrie says. “This past year’s results were encouraging but also disheartening because soil health is not improving as fast as I had hoped. Still, we proved we could make the farm profitable in just a few years.”

Despite boosting pH and fertility and removing dense layers on Farm B, the soil-test phosphorus readings, water-soluble phosphorus and aggregate stability percents and ratings are still much higher on Farm A, which suggests why the average soybean yield on Farm A is 7 bu. more per acre than Farm B.

Building on the Systems Approach, the Soil Health series details the chemical, physical and biological components of soil and how to give your crop a fighting chance. To learn more about this multiyear effort to nurture sick soil back to health, visit www.FarmJournal.com/soil_health

A Tale of Two Soils

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 05:59:23 GMT

On-farm tests help restore healthy soil characteristics

Imagine two farms less than a mile apart with the same silty clay loam and silt loam soil composition. During the past three years, corn yields on Farm A have averaged 200 bu. per acre on the silty clay loam soil and 187 bu. per acre on the silt loam. Farm B, on the other hand, has averaged only 130 bu. per acre on its silty clay loam portion and 123 bu. per acre on its silt loam.

The farmers of the two tracts use similar practices—no-till and a mostly corn/soybean rotation. The primary difference is that Farm A has been no-tilled for 30 years, and Farm B for only two years. Prior to that, it was farmed using horizontal tillage.

The massive structure of Farm B’s unhealthy soil shows why water fails to infiltrate and crop roots don’t penetrate.

Leaves, husks and silks were still evident on Farm B two years after a corn crop. Their presence indicates an absence of soil organisms, which indicates poor soil.

Perhaps you’ve seen similar yield differences in your own fields and wondered why one area yields more corn than another. Modern testing tools can help you pinpoint the culprit. On Farm B, the lower yields can be linked to poor soil health.

Farm A and Farm B are real. Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie has been working with Farm B for four years, helping the farmer restore soil health in order to boost yields.

In the beginning, Ferrie used soil pits and visual observation to evaluate soil health. But now, simple on-farm tests let him and any farm operator give the soil a “physical exam.” The tests provide numerical soil health ratings, which serve as benchmarks for evaluating soil health improvements.

Ferrie gave both farms a physical exam this past spring. “Because of the difference in soil health, the best soil on Farm B still can’t yield as well as the poorest soil on Farm A,” he says.

“Improving soil health means sustaining productivity and profitability,” Ferrie explains. “It requires a systems approach because healthy soil involves many components. The components fall into three categories—physical, chemical and biological.

“In some cases, it might be possible to fix physical and chemical problems fairly quickly. Often, improvements take many years, especially when the biological component is involved. Even so, the 70-bu. yield difference between the two farms shows that improving soil health is worth the effort.”

A physical exam—just like the one your doctor gives you—begins by assessing the farm’s appearance. Even after four years of effort on Farm B, the visual differences were still striking.

“In spring 2012, despite some heavy rains, all of the old crop residue remained in place on Farm A, which even has some slopes.” Ferrie describes. “On Farm B, with much less slope, the old crop residue and the soil eroded away, carried off by water.”

A glance at the soil surface revealed part of the reason why water is infiltrating into the soil on Farm A but running off the surface on Farm B. There were thousands of night crawler burrows visible beneath the residue on Farm A but almost none on Farm B. “Among the benefits of night crawlers, their burrows allow water to infiltrate the soil,” Ferrie says. “They also help remove excess water, functioning like part of your drainage system.”

Part of the reason water couldn’t infiltrate the soil of Farm B was its degraded structure. Digging revealed impenetrable blocks of soil, compared with Farm A’s healthy crumb-like soil structure containing macropores for water and air.

Another symptom of poor health, visible on the surface of Farm B, was two years’ worth of old crop residue. Not only was 2012’s soybean residue present, but even the fine leaves, husks and silks, which should be among the first and easiest to decompose, were present from a corn crop grown two years ago.

“That indicates a biological problem because residue is decomposed by soil organisms,” Ferrie says. “The absence of night crawlers is one of the indicators that confirms it.”

Simple tests conducted by Ferrie’s assistant, Thomas Zerebny, placed the degree of Farm B’s problems on a numerical scale. He used equipment from a Gempler’s Soil Test Kit.

A slake test, which involves immersing surface soil in water and seeing whether it holds its structure, produced scores of 2.7 for Farm B’s silt loam and 5.0 for its silty clay loam, compared to 3.7 and 5.7, respectively, for the same two soils on Farm A. The higher the score, the healthier the soil structure and the less chance it will seal over during a rainstorm and restrict infiltration.

Zerebny used a rainfall simulator, available from Cornell University’s Soil Health website, to analyze aggregate stability or structure in the top 6" of soil. It revealed that structural problems on Farm B are not limited to the surface of the soil.

The rainfall simulator also documented the difference in water infiltration caused by poor soil structure. Farm A’s silty clay loam took in 8.6" of water per hour, compared with 2.8" per hour for Farm B’s silty clay loam. Farm A’s silt loam soil took in 3.6" of water per hour, compared with only ½" per hour on Farm B’s silt loam.

Gas detection tubes (also called Draeger tubes) were used to measure the amount of carbon dioxide being released by soil organisms. The beneficial organisms breathe oxygen and release carbon dioxide, just like people, which is why soil needs pore spaces—to provide oxygen for the microbes. The amount of carbon dioxide is an indication of microbial activity. The results showed about 50% more microbial activity in the healthy soils of Farm A.

Health quest. Ferrie’s examination of the results showed that the operator of Farm B needs to continue to focus on physical and chemical issues to improve soil health. The operator is using vertical tillage tools to remove hardpans, compaction and tillage layers.

Vertical tillage and liming work together to fix structural problems. “When a field gets extremely acid, acidity destroys structure and stops water infiltration,” Ferrie says. “When we apply lime, we are attempting to flush out the acidity. If we have poor infiltration, we can’t get water into the soil to make the lime work.

“Applying lime, (calcium carbonate) helps fix structural problems and keeps pH in the 6.3 to 6.5 range, which is optimal for soil microbial activity. The carbonate bonds with hydrogen (acidity) and helps flush it out of the soil.”

Calcium improves structure by helping to flocculate clay particles. Flocculation means the particles are held together, yet somewhat apart. “It’s the first step in creating better aggregate stability or structure,” Ferrie says. “A healthy crumb-like structure lets water infiltrate and contains macropores. The macropores hold air and usable water, which is accessible to crop roots.

“Together, vertical tillage and lime applications will let us gradually build up soil pH from the 5.0 range, where it was when the operator took over the farm,” Ferrie says. “Eventually, after soil health improves, he will no-till Farm B just like his other farms.”

Cover crops are also part of Farm B’s recovery plan. Deep rooting crops can penetrate some hardpans and compacted layers. The roots of grass crops aid in the process of producing a glue-like substance that helps bind soil particles together.

In fall 2012, the farmer’s initial attempt to aerial seed a cover crop of annual ryegrass and tillage radishes failed, apparently because of environmental conditions. That illustrates how resuscitating abused soil takes a long time—probably decades for Farm B.

Regardless, gradual improvements in soil health will lead to gradual improvements in yield, Ferrie concludes. They will also lead to healthier water sources because of fewer nutrients washing away and a more sustainable farm for future generations.

Building on the Systems Approach, the Soil Health series will detail the chemical, physical and biological components of soil and how to give your crop a fighting chance. www.FarmJournal.com/soil_health

You can e-mail Darrell Smith at dsmith@farmjournal.com .

For Earth Day, while some look to hug a tree, let’s not forget to kiss the ground

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 20:43:18 GMT

For those of us fortunate to be working in the agriculture industry, our everyday is Earth Day.

We have a connection to the earth unlike any other.

Almost all non-marine life on earth is dependent on those first few inches of soil that allow plant roots to anchor to the Earth’s surface. Equally important, each square inch of topsoil provides a home for billions of microorganisms, which are essential for breaking down essential nutrients, often naturally occurring but otherwise bound in the soil, to feed the roots.

With 95% of our direct and indirect food supply coming from the soil, our very subsistence is highly dependent on the health of the ground below our feet.

More from Brian Maxted: National Ag Day highlights farmers’ resilience, but the hard work is only the beginning

However, we’ve asked a lot of our soils over the years. According to a 2015 report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, about 33% of the world’s soil is “moderately to highly degraded due to erosion, salinization, compaction, acidification, and chemical pollution of soils.” And according to the EPA , poor soil management practices account for nearly half of all greenhouse gas emissions emitted by the ag industry.

While many fingers are pointing toward these challenges, the agricultural industry sits at a unique crossroad, with many in California already taking the steps to make a difference.

Many of the growers we work with have been farming the same ground for multiple generations. Our company has been providing farmers here in Central California products and services essential to soil health since the time of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression.

Our growers understand that the soil is the foundation for everything we do. And keeping that soil healthy and productive is their life’s work.

It is not always written about, or well publicized, but California farmers are true stewards of the land, and are recognized within the industry as some of the most innovative and sustainable in the world.

“If you can make it in California,” they say, “you can make it anywhere.”

We take a scientific approach to growing and producing the food that feeds our planet. We take regular soil, water and tissue samples. Our in-house agronomy programs combined with precision deep ripping technology ensure we’re maximinzing land development, optimizing inputs and proactively catching stressors before they negatively affect current or future crops.

We revitalize the soil with amendments and organic matter that replenishes the soil’s health, which in turn makes for healthy root systems and plants instead of relying on hooking the plants up to synthetic solutions that take more from the land in the long-term than they produce.

Can we do better? Yes, we all can.

We can continue to improve our soil management programs, finding creative ways to enhance soil organic matter and the availability of naturally occurring nutrients, and strive to only use the amount of inputs our soil needs to maximize production – all while helping to feed a growing population expected to surpass 9.7 billion by 2050.

We can continue to restore our lands, by rotating or planting cover crops, helping prevent erosion and increasing the amount of carbon stored in our soils.

The good news on this Earth Day? The FAO report “offers evidence that this loss of soil resources and functions can be avoided.” And turned around, in many cases.

A more recent 2019 report, California’s Climate Change Implementation Plan , for example, notes that farms and forests could absorb as much as 20% of California’s current level of GHG emissions.

Supplement soil sequestration with improvements in soil management practices, technological advances such as GPS and variable rate applications, and improved soil sensing and sampling technologies, and we’re now able to provide our soils with only the amendments and nutrients it needs to maximize soil health and production.

In that sense, technology and improved soil management practices have made our connection to the soil even stronger in recent years.

So for Earth Day, this year instead of simply hugging a tree, let’s not forget to kiss the ground – and sustain that connection and dedication to improving the land we farm for generations to come.

Brian Maxted is CEO of Holloway Agriculture, a provider of soil-first solutions and services out of Bakersfield, Calif. Learn more at hollowayag.com .

National Ag Day highlights farmers’ resilience, but the hard work is only the beginning

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 18:44:12 GMT

Soil management, rising input costs, water scarcity still challenge the ag industry

Today, on National Ag Day, we celebrate our farmers, ag workers, and the essential role agriculture plays in maintaining a strong economy.

The theme of National Ag Week, “Food Brings Everyone to the Table,” is a fitting one, as it has been a full year since the COVID-19 pandemic completely changed our nation’s food-supply system and how we all interact with one another.

And as we pick ourselves up from a forgettable 2020, it is time to start thinking about the long-term health of our industry again.

For those of us in agriculture, we understand sustainable farming never takes a back seat … even during a pandemic.

We are also not blind to the fact that most everyone was affected by cutbacks last year, whether market driven or just due to being budget conscious during these uncertain times.

We have all heard stories about operations having to make the hard decisions to cast aside precision ag tools or crop-required inputs in favor of safety supplies or other COVID-19-related issues. Labor became even tougher to come by in 2020, and regulations made day-to-day operations even more challenging for our farmers.

But California agriculture kept pushing ahead – despite losses estimated between $5.9 and $8.6 billion, according to the California Farm Bureau Federation .

Yes, it is true that “Food Brings Everyone to the Table,” but if we don’t get back to focusing on the other long-term challenges our industry is faced with, putting that food on the table is going to be tougher than ever.

While ag resource issues have not made many headlines over the past year, land degradation, poor soil management, rising input costs, water scarcity and other drought-related issues continue to plague our industry.

If we have proven anything over this past year, it’s that our industry is a resilient one, and we never turn our back to our biggest challenges.

By 2050, our agriculture systems will need to support another 2 billion people, yet, the Soil Heath Institute estimates our agricultural soils have lost about half their organic matter, with the environmental costs estimated to be as high as $85 billion every year.

But what is often overlooked in articles covering the environmental impact of poor soil management is the cost to our farmers. According to a report by the University of Colorado , “one-third of the fertilizer applied to grow corn in the U.S. each year simply compensates for the ongoing loss of soil fertility, leading to more than a half-billion dollars in extra costs to U.S. farmers every year.”

Agriculture is constantly under the spotlight when it comes to soil and water management, but we can combat these storylines and rising input costs with improved soil and water management techniques.

It’s a lot of work to feed our growing planet, pandemic or not. But if we have proven anything over this past year, it’s that our industry is a resilient one, and we never turn our back to our biggest challenges.

Thanks to everyone in the ag industry for their contributions over the past year. Food brings everyone to the table, and no one in the agriculture industry takes that work for granted.

Brian Maxted is CEO of Holloway Agriculture, a provider of soil-first solutions and services out of Bakersfield, Calif. Learn more at hollowayag.com .

Secrets of the Soil

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 05:58:22 GMT

Farmers know fertility is critical for success. But beyond the “big three nutrients” of N, P and K, not nearly as much time and resources are invested to learn more about so-called secondary nutrients.

USDA researchers, university scientists, consultants and others met in Indiana Aug. 21 to share their findings and practical insights about two lesser-understood nutrients, calcium and sulfur. More than 150 people were on hand to learn more about gypsum, a mineral that delivers both calcium and sulfur, at the Midwest Soil Improvement Symposium (MSIS), held at the Rulon family farm in Arcadia, Ind. The event was sponsored by Rulon Enterprises, Gypsoil and the Conservation Technology Information Center.

Gypsum is a soft mineral that is composed of calcium sulfate dehydrate, which breaks down into calcium and sulfur over time. Farmers around the world have used it for centuries (Benjamin Franklin was a proponent in colonial times, for example), but gypsum has largely evaded modern research. The researchers presenting at MSIS have championed the efforts to learn more about gypsum, even when it was not popular to do so.

“People used to tell me I was wasting my time,” says Warren Dick, professor at The Ohio State University’s school of environment and natural resources. “But now there’s all sorts of interest in gypsum.”

Dick wrote the book on gypsum – literally. He is the co-author of a leading publication on the topic, Gypsum as an Agricultural Amendment. Dick and other researchers have studied gypsum’s benefits not only to crops like corn and soybeans, but also to the soil itself. Retired USDA soil scientist Darrell Norton, for example, spent several decades studying evaluating how gypsum affected soil and water quality, particularly as a runoff management tool.

Ongoing research confirms that gypsum can improve crusting and erosion by allowing the soil structure to filtrate water better. Recent USDA studies showed adding gypsum could reduce the rate of contaminate phosphorous in water runoff by as much as 34%.

Norton says he is worried that future regulations could create a scenario where “it could be illegal for nutrients to leave your farm.” Still, he says, there is tremendous upside for farmers who invest in improving soil health on their farm through a variety of practices, including gypsum usage, cover crops, conservation tillage practices and more.

“As you increase soil quality, someday the value of those fields is going to increase greatly,” he says.

Joe Nester, an Ohio-based consultant who participated in one of the MSIS panels, agreed that looking into different ways to improve soil health is a smart investment.

“There’s going to come a time when soil health will be measurable and it will affect land values,” he says. “Soils aren’t all created equal.”

In the video below, Dick lays out a quick timeline of agricultural interactions with gypsum through the ages.

Soil-As-A-Service Startup Aims to Reboot Land’s Natural Potential

Wed, 14 Jul 2021 21:36:10 GMT

MyLand is a startup in agriculture with a focus on amplifying the natural microorganisms within soil. Specifically, the company has a system that take soil samples from a farm, extracts native microalgae, reproduces those on-site, and then reintroduces the algae back into the field in mass quantities.

The company has recently completed a 10-week sales push to get one million acres under a letter of intent.

“Our goal is to be the center of gravity for soil health. This is the beginning of a mega trend of a shift to regenerative ag and a focus on soil health,” says Peter Williams, MyLand CEO.

The MyLand system has been in development since 2010, a second generation system was developed in 2014, and in 2018 the company had a commercial grade system.

“We’re very unique in what we do. We aren’t a product. We aren’t equipment. We are service based,” says Dane Hague, co-founder and president of MyLand. “We have a system we can put on any field depending on the dynamic of what someone is growing. And it’s a subscription model–they pay on a monthly basis. We may get three years down the line, and we’ll just swap out the technology if we have something new and better. That’s unique given what we’re doing.”

(Farm Journal)

Its current setup includes a system that is placed on the field for on-site production of the farm’s native microalgae which is then applied through the current irrigation system on the field. The system is operated remotely from Myland’s headquarters.

The leaders say their platform is also unique because it’s not looking for a “super strain” of microalgae to apply, but rather taking the naturally occurring native algae.

“We have created the soil-as-a-service concept. This allows farmers to implement regenerative ag without upfront costs and without an overhaul of their operations. At a very low cost, they can implement this practice at scale,” Williams says.

The past six months have been highlighted with a successful capital fundraising and a minority equity stake taken in the company by Ag Growth International (AGI). As part of its agreement, AGI will collaborate on the installation of several MyLand systems on grain farms in North America.

Next on the company’s horizon will be flagship soil health centers in key geographies–Florida, California and Texas. The leaders say these facilities will be tools to increase interaction with farmers.

“Growers understand we aren’t changing the dynamics of their soil overnight. And that’s part of our conversation with them. Each grower’s circumstances are a bit different. We want to demonstrate we care about their most critical asset—the land,” Hague says.

As a success story, Williams shares an example of a grower in the desert soils of Arizona who increased organic matter from less than 1% to more than 3% over a three-year period.

(Farm Journal)

You Can’t Product Your Way Into Good Soil Health

Fri, 13 May 2022 17:26:52 GMT

Adam Jones, a conservation agronomist at MFA Inc., came on The Scoop podcast to share how he helps farmers implement an entire system of soil health, conservation, and yield success on their farms.
In his role, he’s part of an integrated agronomy team—an approach he says has been a differentiator for MFA’s business.

“We want to be on the cutting edge of what our member owners are enacting on their farms. So our staff needs to know the practice in and out and be able to provide technical expertise on the practice,” he says.
As an example, he says carbon markets are a conversation that are bringing soil heath practices to the forefront.

“Carbon has been a great tool for outreach on core soil health system practices, and that’s how I always talk about it because it’s a great way it’s a way to bring up talking about cover crops, about reducing tillage, and how do we make these practices work,” Jones says.

He says along with increasing these types of conversations, carbon markets have also set a framework for additional opportunities such as edge of field practices and biodiversity credits.

Key for 2022, Jones is encouraging farmers to not overlook opportunities and stay committed to their plans for their farms.

“Persistence and attention to detail pays off for sure in 2022,” he says.

In that vein, it’s not a single product or single practice that will bring farmers to reach their goals.
“You certainly can’t product your way into good soil management,” Jones says.

It’s the intersection of conservation and agriculture that Jones believes will be a big part of the future.

“I hope folks do business with us because they see how our company is ran, which direction that we’re going, and how we incorporate these practices company wide,” Jones says.

Listen to the full interview on The Scoop podcast:

9 Tips for Improving Soil Health on Your Farm

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 02:19:55 GMT

Create a groundwork for high yields and profitability

Farmers know improving soil health can supercharge crop performance. However, it’s not always clear what steps or adjustments a farmer can take to see real results. Try these nine strategies first to transform soil from good to great.

1. START WITH THE FOUNDATION

First, look at how well water moves up and down the soil profile, says Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie . “One of the biggest issues affecting soil health a lot of times are past sins, such as compaction layers that restrict root and water movement limiting soil oxygen.”

If flipping a field’s soil health is the goal, he says, it might require deep tillage to remove layers or improving field drainage with tile before adding other systems like cover crops or no-till.

2. KEEP A LIVING ROOT

“The soil is alive; in one teaspoon of healthy soil there are more microbes than there are people on the earth,” says Mitchell Hora, CEO of Continuum Ag . “Those microbes need to eat, which means we need to pump more carbon and simple sugars into the ground via photosynthesis.”

Without living roots, microbes can die off and processes such as nutrient cycling, water management, building aggregate stability, improving water holding capacity, storing carbon or building organic matter all stop.

3. TAKE A HOLISTIC APPROACH

“The whole farm, every single acre, works in tandem because the environment all works together,” says Jamie Johnson, a farmer in Frankfort, S.D., and 2022 regional winner of the American Soybean Association Conservation Legacy Award. “We try to approach it as a whole system.”

For them, that means incorporating other types of agriculture back into the operation, such as livestock to provide added nutrients, organic matter and biodiversity.

4. ADOPT PRECISION AG

Precision ag practices, such as variable rate applications and creating management zones, can save farmers money and resources by limiting over or under application while focusing on improving overall soil heath.

“If we can tell through precision ag applications a soil type is not able to produce a certain number of bushels, then there’s no reason to plan for bushels beyond its ability because the soil is the limitation,” says Neil Dominy, assistant state conservationist for partnerships for the Nebraska Natural Resources Conservation Service. “Management zones can help us dial that in.”

5. BALANCE SOIL PH

The bacteria that break down organic matter don’t work well in highly acidic soils. Organic matter can tie up important nutrients, including nitrogen. A pH range of 6 to 7 is optimum for making sure nutrients are available to plants, although most field crops work well between 5.5 and 6.5.

“We always think about nutrients producing a big crop, but those nutrients also feed the microbial biology in the soil,” Ferrie says. “If a farm is too acidic, for instance, it really slows down the biology.”

6. NO-TILL CEREAL RYE AHEAD OF SOYBEANS

Farmers looking for an easy place to start should consider no-tilling cereal rye as a cover crop in the fall ahead of next season’s soybeans.

“In that soybean year, you can drill your soybeans or plant your soybeans green and then let the rye keep growing,” Hora says. “You’re getting the benefit of that rye managing your moisture while feeding nutrients back to the seedbed.”

(Farm Journal)

7. MINIMIZE DISTURBANCE

Farmers focusing on soil health should limit or minimize disturbance of soil, Hora says.

“If you’re building those microbial communities up but then destroy their home with tillage or over application of fertilizers, what good are we really doing?” he asks.

By limiting disturbance, you can help improve aggregate stability, add pores, improve carbon sequestration and increase water infiltration.

8. PLANT GREEN, TERMINATE RYE LATER

Before you terminate a cover crop such as rye, wait until it starts to drop pollen, or the soil becomes dry after soybeans are up and growing. Then hit the field with a single herbicide pass on a day when rain is not in the forecast.

“This lets you reduce that early pass of herbicide,” Hora explains. “We don’t need a pre-emerge, we don’t need that preplanting pass of herbicide or even that early post- emerge pass.”

He currently relies on a quart of generic glyphosate. If you want to eliminate chemistry further, use a roller or crimper to terminate rye even in soybeans between V1 and V3.

9. BE ON OFFENSE, NOT DEFENSE

“Often cover crops and no-till have been branded as defensive management tools — defense against erosion and defense against water quality problems — but really that cover crop is my offensive tool,” Hora says. “It’s my nutrient stabilizer, it’s my herbicide program, it’s my moisture management program, it’s my soil building program, it’s my resiliency program.”

Farm Journal Editor Clinton Griffiths is a TV newsman turned magazine editor with a passion for good stories. He believes the best life lessons can be found down a dirt road.

Truterra Pays $5.1 Million to Farmers for 2022 Carbon Program Payments

Wed, 17 May 2023 13:36:15 GMT

In its second year, the Truterra carbon program had 273 farmer participants with an average payment of more than $18,000. In total, the 2022 program paid farmers more than $5.1 million for 262,000 metric tons of carbon stored.

“At the end of the day, it’s Truterra’s farmer focus that makes us preferential to their carbon program and sustainability solutions, and we are dedicated to helping farmers in their sustainability journey in lock step with the Truterra team,” says Daniel Mullenix, Director of Ag Technologies at GreenPoint Ag.

“I had read about carbon programs without giving it much thought until GreenPoint Ag mentioned they work with Truterra and it’s a real thing that I could enroll in and could not only help with my bottom line, but also the sustainability of my farm,” says Robert Walters, a farmer in Alabama.

Since its launch, the Truterra carbon program has now paid farmers more than $9 million for more than 462,000 metric tons of carbon.

“Farmers are fast realizing that Truterra’s farmer-friendly approach aims to strengthen the connection between sustainability and profitability,” says Tom Ryan, President of Truterra. “By working with and through farmer’s trusted advisor, the carbon program has continued to achieve great success in its second year, and we look forward to continuing to meet farmers where they are in their sustainability journey in order to help them make the best agronomic, economic and environmental decisions for their farms.”

Truterra is expanding its service to farmers with sustainability. This includes soil health assessments, roadmaps for improving soil heath, and its farmer-centric, retail-driven carbon program. Read more about that here.

Truterra Eyes a Path For Every Farmer, Transformation to Carbon Insets

Truterra Carbon’s First Year: $4 Million to Farmers for 200,000 Metric Tons of Carbon In 2021

Truterra Launches Carbon Program, First Payments In Summer 2021