Tag: soil health

Soil is meant to be covered

I was reading an article in a farming journal the other day and the editorial photo was of a guy wearing a hat that said, “soil is meant to be covered”. I thought to myself how true this statement is as I looked outside my windows to see the fields around me. It suddenly dawned on me that this statement is a no-brainer. Why do we keep our soils black during the winter? We no-till and conservation till, but still, we should find better ways to protect the soil and the health of the soil.

The guy wearing this hat happened to be a soil quality specialist from Ohio State University. He claims that for each 1% of soil organic matter there are 1,000 pounds of nitrogen, 100 pounds of phosphorus and 100 pounds of potash in the top 6 inches of soil. In a healthy soil with 4-5% organic matter, those nutrients could be worth more than $3,000 per acre at today’s going fertilizer rate.

If we look at our soil like it is a living ecosystem, we could actually reduce the amount of fertilizer that we apply on our fields. What is underground is a plethora of microbial activity that have the potential to help farmers save some money.

So, I’m interested in keeping our soils covered in hopes of increasing the health of our soils and will continue to look into integrating cover crops into our operation.

Like-minded people

I have to share a neat interaction I had after my last workshop of the day.

I had eaten a clementine during my last workshop of the day and put the skin on the chair seat next to me so I could take notes. A girl sitting next to me ate an apple during the workshop and placed her apple core on a napkin on the same chair. As the workshop ended, we were all packing up our stuff, and the girl next to me turned to me and asked, “Can I compost that for you?”, gazing down at my clementine skin.

No place else but an organic Ag conference would someone ask me that question. I just thought that was so incredibly cool! And of course I said, “Sure! Thanks!”

I think I ate the healthiest I have eaten in a long time! I stuck to the raw organic food like mixed greens and fruit. There was also delicious meat, cheese, cooked vegetables and desserts, all organic of course. Snacks were fruit, cheese, bread and spreads. Beverages were all organic milk products from Horizon, water, tea, coffee and pure fruit juice. No soda, no candy, and no processed foods.

The conference had an exhibit hall filled with seed companies, grain buyers, equipment manufacturers, oil seed processors, organic advocates, and organizations that educate and network growers. It just proved that there is a market for organic goods here in the Midwest and that there are many people and businesses who have been successful at producing goods for farmers and farmers producing goods for Eco-conscious consumers.

In a 2007 census, California had the most organic farms in the nation at over 5,000 farms. Wisconsin was runner-up, Minnesota at no.6 and Iowa at no.8. It was nice to see that so many Midwest states were in the top 10. It reiterates the idea that we didn’t have to stay in California to have an organic presence. There is a string network right in the Midwest. We are very interested in the outcome of the 2012 census.