Successful Farming – August 2019

Can I make the principles

behind soil health work

in my geography?

Whether a farm’s soils are heavy

clay, blow sands, or anything in

between, the principles of soil

health will work.

“Start small, on a portion of the

farm,” says Hugoton, Kansas, farmer

Nick Vos, whose 600 acres of wheat,

corn, and grain sorghum feature

several soil textures from sand to

loam. Vos grows cover crops in

between his cash crops whenever

possible. He also grazes Dorper sheep

on the cover crops to further intensify

his soil health program.

Benefits include:

• Improved soil aggregate stability


• Better infiltration


• Reduced weed pressure
  
  
  • Fewer irrigated water applications
    Meanwhile, Doug Toussaint and
    his sons, Brad and Nick, farm in heavy
    clay soils near Wahpeton, North
    Dakota. Adopting no-till and cover
    crops help wick away excess moisture
    in the spring.
    More importantly, topsoil stays
    put on their fields. For years, the
    Toussaints watched topsoil blow off
    of farm fields and into road ditches in
    North Dakota and Minnesota.
    “That is an eye-opener,” says Brad
    Toussaint. “I keep thinking about future
    generations to farm. Why lose that
    topsoil? Let’s keep it.”
    The Toussaints grow corn,
    soybeans, sunflowers, and small
  
  
  
  

grains (including wheat, winter rye,

or barley) and try to use cover crops in

every part of their rotation. They seed

covers after wheat harvest, interseed

corn into cover crops, and companion-

crop sunflowers to support beneficial

insects and to manage weeds.

The Toussaints plant winter rye

after harvesting cash crops in the fall.

The rye that overwinters uses excess

spring soil moisture that allows them

to do fieldwork more rapidly.

Improved soil aggregate stability

and resiliency is noticeable after five

years of these practices. Brad noticed

improvement during soybean harvest

two years ago, when he was able to

easily combine a field that had been

cover cropped, while neighbors fought

mud and ruts.

Adopting soil health practices

does not come without frustration.

Sometimes, Vos tills fields to kill

stubborn herbicide-resistant weeds

or weeds that have grown too large

because rainfall has delayed herbicide

applications.

After each tillage pass, though, he

quickly plants a blend of cover crops

that covers the soil and keeps soil

biology working. Sometimes, tillage is a

necessary evil, he says.

“Is it detrimental? Absolutely. But

sometimes that’s the trade-off,” he says.

“You have to pick your battles. As long

as you have your goals on the horizon,

you’ll make progress toward where

you’d like to be.”

What is

healthy

soil?

The USDA NRCS
defines soil health
as “the continued
capacity of soil to
function as a vital living
ecosystem that sustains
plants, animals, and
humans.” Christina
Currell, Michigan State
University soil health
specialist, clarifies that
definition further: “The
improved function
in terms of crop yield
response to inputs,
such as fertilizer
efficiency.”

Your hometown has a mix of characters – including farmers and ministers,

bankers and accountants – who make a thriving village hum.

Your farm’s soil is a vibrant community, too. Earthworms and ants, mites and

nematodes, and bacteria and viruses work in synchronicity to create lively soil

that spurs crop yields. Destructive activities like tillage raze that community.

The good news? You can maintain and even improve the health of your soil

community by nixing tillage, diversifying crop rotations, and always covering

the soil with cash and cover crops. Here are 20 ways to do it.

NDSU’s Abbey Wick

(left) and Doug

Toussaint examine

soybeans planted into

standing cereal rye.

46 Successful Farming at Agriculture.com |August 2019 Photography: Gil Gullickson