Sometimes it takes a bit of an evangelist to remind us that praying at the altar of facts and figures can blind one to how they all connect in the bigger picture. In the case of production systems that build soil health, that preacher is Ray Archuleta. “The soil is naked, hungry, thirsty and running… Read more »
Posts Tagged: NRCS
Agriculture: How Not to Be Tools of Our Tools
One recent August day, I stood in a field in North Dakota watching soil being spaded up and listening to farmers talk about the optimal cover crop seeding mixes, how long to mob graze a paddock and which no-till equipment does the best job of cutting through last year’s plant residue. It was 90 degrees… Read more »
Purebreds, Pluggers & Profitable Soil
On a recent August evening in south-central North Dakota, soil scientist Kristine Nichols laid out what I like to call the “purebred vs. the plugger” approach to farming. “With healthy soil, you may not out-yield your neighbor in the best years, but you will out perform them in the not-so-good years,” said Nichols, a soil… Read more »
Teaming with Soil Microbes (part 1)
On a crisp morning in September, North Dakota farmer Gabe Brown held two handfuls of soil and searched for signs of life—theoretically not a difficult task considering one teaspoon of humus contains more organisms than there are humans in the world. But many of the bacteria and invertebrates that lurk in the dark basement of… Read more »
Let’s Stop Treating Soil Conservation Like Dirt
Here’s the bad news: it turns out the USDA’s estimates that soil erosion rates are under control across the Corn Belt—something we reported in this blog last June—are probably overly optimistic, according to a report released a few days ago. The good news? Actually, there is none in this case. The same week this report… Read more »
Erosion Down—Fingers Crossed
The federal government’s latest assessment of how much soil is being washed and blown off our farmland contains some good news: between 1982 and 2007, erosion dropped 43 percent nationally. Recommend on Facebook Share on google plus Tweet about it
CSP: Working out the Warts
The USDA announced this week that farmers have until June 11 to fill out an application for the latest round of Conservation Stewardship Program contracts. That’s a narrow window of opportunity at a time of year when time is precious in Farm Country. But if farmers do have the time, it’s worth stopping by their… Read more »
How to ‘Deal’ with NRCS, Drain a Wetland & Erode More Soil
While driving in southern Minnesota this week, I gazed upon acre-after-acre of black fields—a sign that despite a wet fall, a lot of intense tillage took place before the snow flew a few months ago. Such tillage not only gives crop farmers a jump-start on the spring planting season, it also provides a nice cover… Read more »