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Clues from past help build soil health

Jay Fuhrer

A soil health specialist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service says farmers should try to mimic the original landscape.

Jay Fuhrer is based in Bismarck, North Dakota and tells Brownfield there are many benefits to going back to what he calls “pre-European” farming.

“If you look at what was on the landscape on a specific locality a couple hundred years ago or more, and look at the diversity that was there, animal populations and how it functioned.  There’s so many clues in that original landscape.”

He says cover crops fit well with this line of thought.

“If we put in a cover crop and plant one species, that doesn’t really closely mimic the original landscape.  But if we put in a cover crop with multiple species because the original landscape was multiple species, then we start to see some benefit and a return on functionality.”

Fuhrer says the premise of his research is taking what is known about original landscapes and then integrating that knowledge into current cropping and grazing operations.

“We know from a lot of work in biology and nutrient cycling that diversity drives.  And its diversity of carbon going into the soil, and then how do we bring that into a scenario where that feeds the soil biology.”

He says a good starting point is assessing what the farm does and doesn’t have.

“Take a corn/bean scenario.  We know that farm already has a warm season grass and a warm season broadleaf.  What its missing is a cool season grass and a cool season broadleaf.”

He says that approach will give producers an idea of what types of cover crops best fit their farm.

Fuhrer participated in a soil health workshop hosted by the Land & Stewardship Project in Plainview Thursday.

More workshops are planned for later in the month.

 

 

 

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