We regard soil as a living organism of which we are a part. Every cubic inch of soil contains billions of individual life forms representing thousands of species. Life shapes almost every quality of soil- the glues produced by the fungi and bacteria aggregate and stabilize the soil, roots of the plants and tunnels of insects and worms fill the topsoil with air and connect the living solution of soil water with the atmosphere with which vital nutrients are exchanged. The soil chemistry is modified by living action to create our ever increasingly available and protected pool of resources.
Soil management has enormous impact on soil life. When we arrived at our farm soil life was degraded, numerous test pits revealed a total absence of earthworms, soil tests showed low organic matter and unbalanced soil chemistry. The results were apparent – soil crusting and compaction, severe erosion in areas affected by flooding, lower yields.
Our strategy to protect and improve the soil is based on the positive feedback loop of the life- cycle. Planting everything possible to perennial polycultures helps to slow the movement of air and water over the surface of the soil, changing their potential to strip away to one of deposition, wind drops bonds of dust, pollen and leaves as it slows and still air allows the surface of the soil to warm more easily. Spots that once gullied in floods now grab bonds of silt to enrich pastures. Cover crops occupy the cropped ground as long as possible to capture nutrients and energy to feed the soil web. Tillage is kept as infrequent and as shallow as possible to minimize life disturbance and tillage is confined within permanent grass divisions which act as refuges.
Nutrient inputs are mostly grown in the form of grasses and legumes or purchased in the form of rapidly digestible plant materials.
Crops are grown in rotation, alternating seasons of tillage and nutrient demands. The crops rotation includes periods of perennial sods to allow more complex fungal communities to emerge which can not exist under annual tillage.
All crop wastes are returned to the soil and even topsoil from washing the product goes back to the compost pile.
These simple practices may not make an impact on the amount of soil available to use but they certainly affect the community of life which depends on the soil. The farm now provides support to species we rarely saw before from worms to turkeys to squash bees. Physically the soil is more mellow and rich and crops are healthier. We look to build on this foundation.
Reverence for the soil is the defining difference between conventional (chemical) farming and organic farming. – Willy
Tags: organic farming, soil protection
