This is an uncommon site in Alabama!
Actual soil organic matter in an agricultural field!
You can see the dark, rich organic matter in the top 2 cm of the soil profile. This is the result of 3 years of no-till with high biomass cover crops and organic mulches. Though it might not seem like a lot, keep in mind that it take about 500 years to build one inch of soil...
This is what can happen when you don't till your field. Tillage turns plant residue into the soil, accelerating decomposition. In Alabama, our climate is usually thought to be too hot and humid to allow for appreciable organic matter accumulation in agricultural fields, but if you grow lots of biomass and stop tilling, you can get some good organic matter accumulation.
Actual soil organic matter in an agricultural field!
You can see the dark, rich organic matter in the top 2 cm of the soil profile. This is the result of 3 years of no-till with high biomass cover crops and organic mulches. Though it might not seem like a lot, keep in mind that it take about 500 years to build one inch of soil...
This is what can happen when you don't till your field. Tillage turns plant residue into the soil, accelerating decomposition. In Alabama, our climate is usually thought to be too hot and humid to allow for appreciable organic matter accumulation in agricultural fields, but if you grow lots of biomass and stop tilling, you can get some good organic matter accumulation.
Taking a soil sample...
...and fractionating the sample by depth.The samples will be analyzed for nutrient content, microbial respiration, nitrogen mineralization rates, and aggregate stability.
4 comments:
That's amazing! Just shows you what we can do by changing our systems a little. We have lost so much soil in the last hundred years of industrialized farming. We need to reverse the trend quickly.
I can see how the process can bring excellent results. I reckon the word needs to be spread beyond the experimental stage to regular use by farmers, not only in Alabama, but beyond. A big educational programme may be needed to change mind sets. The main thing is, the results are demonstrably there.
That first comment was mine, btw...in case you thought Mike was talking to himself.
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