Enhancing Soil Biology for Greater Soil Health...The soil is alive. Just because we can’t see...
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Enhancing Soil Biology for Greater Soil Health Justin Morris Regional Soil Health Specialist USDA-NRCS
Transcript of Enhancing Soil Biology for Greater Soil Health...The soil is alive. Just because we can’t see...
Enhancing Soil Biology for Greater Soil Health
Justin MorrisRegional Soil Health Specialist
USDA-NRCS
Ray Archuleta: “Ray the Soil Guy”
Doug Peterson
SOIL HEALTH:
The capacity of a soil to function as a vital, living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals, and humans.
Understand psychological,
social, and ecological
context
Cover the soil at all times
Grow a living root 24/7
Reduce chemical,
biological, and physical stress
Synergize with diversity: crop rotations and cover crops
Integrate diversity of
animals
Human integrity= ecological integrity
Holistic Planning
Modern agriculture and society runs on ancient sunlight!
What is the most important item in the water cycle?
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Timpas, Colorado, Jan 12, 2014
What have WE learned in 79 years?
April 14, 1935
Soil Scientists in the U.S. have determined that soil losses of up to 5 tons/acre/year are tolerable and acceptable when practicing agriculture.
• Is any soil loss tolerable?• Is any soil loss acceptable?
Exud
ates
Soil Root
Rhizosphere
Rhizosphere
The number of organisms in the rhizosphere is up to 2,000 times higher than in the rest of the soil.
Regeneration Through Soil Health
The living soil!
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The soil is alive. Just because we can’t see these organisms doesn’t mean they are not vitally important. There are literally millions of these organisms per acre. I am not even going to try and describe them or exactly how they work because in some cases I don’t know. I do know that each has a role to play in turning decaying plant and animal material into a natural fertilizer that can be reused by the living plants. Organic matter is not just a natural form of fertilizer but it is the food source that begins this natural process. If we can take unused plant material and trample it on or even into the soil surface we can make sure the biological activity continues to function properly.
Soil health begins with a functioning water cycle
The Underground Livestock Herd
Type of Organism Number/Acre Pounds/AcreBacteria 800,000,000,000,000,000,000 2,600 Actinobacteria 20,000,000,000,000,000 1,300Fungi 200,000,000,000,000 2,600Algae 4,000,000,000 90Protozoa 2,000,000,000,000 90Nematodes 80,000,000 45Earthworms 40,000 445Insects /arthropods 8,160,000 830
8,000Soil Food Web
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15 zeros Quadrillion 18 zeros Quintrillion 21 zeros Sextillion Here is how much soil “livestock” there is in a healthy soil. 8000 lbs. What do they all do? I am pretty sure I can’t tell you what they all do. I don’t even know if I can tell you how many there are. Can you tell me how many there are? 800 Quintrillion Bacteria. I chopped off 3 zeros so it shows 20 Quadrillion Actinomycetes but it really was 20 Quintrillion . I didn’t figure you could pronounce the name so I didn’t figure you would miss 3 zero’s. I can tell you they are ALL critical to the soil health. For example Fungi act as root extensions. They attach to the roots and can extend 30-40 feet. Some of the others make minerals more available to plants. In effect they make the plant roots 40 feet long. Each one is like a link in a chain. If one is killed or destroyed the entire chain will not work. So if we all have soil do we all have these microorganisms?????
Rhizosphere
• Number one food source of most soil organisms is a living root.
• Living roots release many types of organic materials into the rhizosphere around the surface of the root.
Plants interacting with mycorrhizal fungi
• Assists with P uptake from the soil
• Moves P from the non-legume plant to the legume plant
• Moves N from the legume plant to the non-legume plant
The Nature and Property of Soils, Brady and Weil
When soil temp reaches. . .140° F
130° F
100° F
70° F
Soil bacteria die
100% moisture lost through evaporation & transpiration
15% moisture is used for growth 85% moisture lost through evaporation & transpiration
100% moisture is used for growth
J.J. Mc Entre, USDA SCS, Kerrville, TX, 1956
What does diversity really mean?
Cool-season grassWarm-season grassCool-season broadleafWarm-season broadleaf
Root Diversity
A Balanced Diet in Pasture
Soil organisms are like livestock…they require a balanced diet to attain high performance
Building Soil
How did nature make all that soil in the first place?
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The bison roamed around eating the grass. Primarily it was warm season grass and forbs but there was a tremendous amount of diversity. There is still discussion about exactly how the bison grazed. There were a lot of factors that came in to play. Time of year, growing or dormant grasses, available water, what areas burned, what didn’t burn, lots of things. Some writings and accounts say they were in small groups grazing only in the burned areas for the entire year. These burned areas would have been grazed pretty hard while unburned areas were almost ungrazed and then the next year they moved to another burned area. There are also accounts of large herds numbering in the hundreds of thousands. As you can imagine when a large herd like this moved through an area everything probably got grazed and/or trampled pretty hard. In either of these scenarios the grasslands were severely grazed and then rested for a long period of time, severely grazed and then rested. It was this type of management that developed some of the most fertile soils in the world. I think we can use different forms of this type of management to repair our eroded and worn out soils.
10 - 12”
6”
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This is an example of the recommended begin grazing and end grazing heights on cool season grasses and legumes (CSGL). This slide is from the 60’s. Notice the 4 inches and 12 inches stop/start grazing heights (on the left side) on CSG has been around for a long time. Why don’t we just graze those green leaves to the ground? Only a few plants can take being grazed within an inch of the soil surface. Even then, these plants do not yield as well as they would if they were allowed to recover to the ‘begin grazing height’.
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If we start grazing just before or at the boot stage, we still can have nutritious feed for the livestock, lots of biomass (quantity), and trample some of the dead leaves into the soil surface to feed the microbes.
Benefit of more paddocks
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Number of paddocks
Perc
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Source: Greg Brann, TN NRCS State Grazing Specialist
Daily intake/days on paddock
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Days onPaddock
Intake %Bodyweight
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Source: Greg Brann, TN NRCS State Grazing Specialist
Improving Soil Health on Pasture
• Don’t overgraze– Don’t keep animals too long in one spot– Don’t allow livestock to return too soon– Don’t allow plants to be grazed right after coming out of
dormancy
• Maintain adequate residual– Cover, cover, cover– It takes leaves to grow more leaves
• Increase stocking density not stocking rate– Don’t allow livestock to consume more than 50%– Plants need to be more mature for good trample effect– Very short graze periods (1 day or less)
For More Information
Justin Morris, Regional Soil Health SpecialistNatural Resources Conservation ServiceMadison, WisconsinPhone: 608-514-4377Email: [email protected]
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