This Week In Ag #94

On Thursday we celebrate #WorldSoilDay. Along with water, soil is Earth’s most precious resource. That’s because 95% of our food comes from soil. The importance of nurturing soil can be traced back to Biblical times. Jesus himself spoke of the importance of seeds falling on good soil. While soil health has become a buzzword in today’s agricultural circles, the movement to preserve soil is nothing new.

Since that famous blacksmith invented the steel plow in 1837, tillage has been prevalent across American plains and prairies. Many reasons for turning the soil still hold true today: from warming and drying cool damp soils in the spring, to controlling weeds and pests, for improving seed/crop performance and even for aesthetics. But sadly, we’ve been turning the soil too much. And adding far too many products that are anything but soil friendly. Too much of the complex ecosystem known as soil is in peril. Over one-third of the world’s supply has been degraded.

Back in the 1970s and 80s, large plows and high-horsepower tractors reigned supreme across the Midwest. Soil loss from these practices necessitated a program named “T by 2000”. The goal was to achieve tolerable soil loss (“T”) by the year 2000. While the goal was not achieved, much attention was drawn to the subject. Since then, many voices have championed soil-saving practices. The 1985 Farm Bill called for Swampbuster/Sodbuster conservation compliance requirements. To become eligible for USDA benefits, farmers had to maintain a minimum level of conservation, such as adopting no-till, on designated highly erodible land (HEL acres). They also were not allowed to manipulate wetlands designated by the USDA. Since most farmers heavily rely on government payments, conformity wasn’t necessarily voluntary. Ironically, much of the push for soil conservation came from chemical companies. ICI Americas launched their famous “Farm Ugly” ad campaign, citing “farming is not gardening, it’s a business.” This ushered the term “burndown” into our vocabulary. ICI was promoting Gramoxone (aka paraquat) herbicide to kill, or burndown, existing weeds prior to planting no-till crops. The campaign promoted a shift from planting crops into finely ground soil and instead to plant into ugly, decaying corn stalks. In the mid 90s, John Deere launched its 750 drill, which represented a breakthrough in seeding accuracy and performance into heavy residue. Later that decade Roundup Ready crops changed the game for weed control. Not only could farmers use Roundup as a cost-effective burndown herbicide, but just a single pass six weeks post emergence cleaned the crop. This basically retired cultivators. Yet one of the largest drivers for reduced till and no-till crops have come from rapid advancements in genetics. Yield drag was often cited as the barrier to reduced tillage, especially in corn. Modern seeds, aided by seed treatments, are now bred to emerge quickly in cooler, wet conditions and easily through heavy residue. Yields are no longer compromised by tillage practices in most situations. Now, the game is changing again. Soil conservation was long thought of as a defensive practice, a way of saving soil from wind or water erosion. While this is still true, farmers are now going on the offensive, by implementing soil heath practices to reduce expenses, manage stress and improve yields. This has encouraged farmers to look to the past. Along with reducing tillage, practices such as crop rotation, cover crops and manure – popular practices we used on our farm when I was a kid – are now keys to ensuring the future health of the soil. So are using age-old products such as humates. Since those soil-flinging days of the 70s and 80s, corn growers have reduced soil loss by 40% while improving land use efficiency by 44%. Among growers involved with the US Cotton Trust Protocol – a voluntary sustainability program – soil loss has been reduced by 79% and water use by 14%, while achieving a 12% yield increase over the past ten years. So while there’s still much work ahead of us, it’s refreshing to see so much promise for what lies beneath us. You might say that when it comes to working with the soil, we’ve just scratched the surface.