Happening soon: Join Lucas at Painterland Farms for a special two-day intensive on Regenerative Grazing with Ian Mitchell-Innes May 18–19.

Infrastructure Workshop & Pasture Rest Trial at Ben Blank’s Farm

This April I organized a field day for our Dairy Grazing Project—a collaborative effort led by Pasa to help dairy farmers improve, expand, or begin grazing.

Since graziers are regularly monitoring their pastures, they need flexible equipment that allows them to quickly adapt in response to the needs of the herd and the land. Farmer Eli Mack of Mack Farms and Kencove Fence Supplies shared his expertise with our crowd of 40+ dairy farmers at Benuel Blank‘s farm in York County, Pennsylvania.

Eli discussed grazing infrastructure, including moveable fencing and watering. Both of these systems are critical for success in rotational grazing. He also shared his grazier philosophy: “When it comes to building a system to meet your farm’s goals, the only limiting factor is your creativity.”

I got to see some of that grazier creativity in action after the event. I spent a little extra time with our host Benuel Blank, who grazes 35 milking cows and some heifers rotationally through his 80+ acre farm.

Ben told me about an experiment he is conducting.

He has a steep, 4 acre pasture along his driveway.

The last graze on this field was in November of 2022. Ben plans on only grazing 2 of the 4 acres in this field once in August of this year, and leaving the other 2 acres to be ungrazed until spring 2024—creating an extra long rest period (a full growing season plus two winters).

Inspired by Allen Williams‘ principles of adaptive management, which includes purposeful disruptions to the land to enhance natural cycles, Ben’s curious about how the diversity and ratios of plants will change in a pasture with a long and an extra-long rest period. 

We walked the field together, and I wrote down all of the plant species we observed from most frequent to least.

Notes from Benuel Blank’s in Farm Delta, PA (York County) taken April 20, 2023 

This field was last seeded in 2020 with orchard grass, clovers, and alfalfa using a no-till drill. 

Plant species observed: 

1. Bluegrass (observed most frequent)
2. Shepherd’s Purse (frequent)
3. Orchard Grass (some)
4. White Clover (some)
5. Chickweed (some)
6. Dandelion (some)
7. Red Clover (little)
8. Alfalfa (little)
9. Buttercup (little)
10. Aster (occasional)
11. Tumbleweed (occasional)
12. Broadleaf Plantain (occasional)
13. Violets (occasional)
14. [unidentified grass 1] — appeared to be rhizome-based (occasional)
15. Bull Thistle (occasional)
16. Fescue (occasional)
17. Curly Dock (occasional)
18. Henbit  (occasional)
19. [unidentified grass 2] — appeared lush and desirable (occasional)

Ben included a caveat that seeing out the extra-long rest period for this pasture experiment is somewhat dependent on what kind of summer we have. If it’s a dry year, and grazeable acreage is at a premium, he might have to graze the full trial pasture. When it comes down to it, the goal of the experiment is to improve the health of the herd, so once again that grazier’s adaptability to the conditions remains key. 

But if all goes well, I plan to do this plant survey again after Ben grazes his herd on part of this pasture this August, and on the full 4 acres next spring.

Stay tuned for updates and insights from this farmer-led field research!

Want to improve the health of your herd, soil, and community?

Whether you’re an experienced grazier seeking a better price for your milk, a conventional farmer only beginning to think about how grazing might support your operation, or fall anywhere in between, Dairy Grazing Project can help.

Visit dairygrazingproject.org to learn more.

Dairy Grazing Project Partners

Pasa Sustainable Agriculture, Center for Dairy Excellence, Ephrata National Bank, Mad Agriculture, Origin Milk Company, Rodale Institute, and TeamAg. This project is supported by a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

The post Field Notes: Why Adaptability Is Key for Graziers appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Band together with us for a fun hands-on science experiment to test your soil health

Healthy soils are hungry! There are billions of microbes—bacteria, fungi, protozoa—in just a teaspoon of soil. These soil microbes need to eat and breathe just like we do. What do they eat? Carbon.

Carbon is a common element in all organic compounds, including cotton. So when 100% cotton underwear is buried in the soil, the worms and microbes see it as food.

As a member of the Pennsylvania Soil Health Coalition, Pasa’s staff is participating in the #SoilYourUndiesChallenge by burying underwear across the state—in farm fields, community garden beds, office building front yards, and rural and urban back yards. After 60 days, we’ll dig them up and compare the results: the less underwear left, the healthier the soil.

Join us in this fun-for-the-whole-family experiment to learn more about soil health near you. Check out our staff submissions below. Keep on scrolling to find instructions for participating!

Here’s our staff’s soon to be dirty laundry:

Here’s how to take part in this BRIEF community science project:

Sign up for the challenge at pasoilhealth.org.
Get a pair of 100% cotton undies.
Plant them in your soil (3–4 inches deep) any time before June 30.
Mark the location.
Wait 60 days.
Carefully dig them up to see what’s left. The less, the better.
Don’t forget to take before and after photos!

Tag @soilyourundies, @pasoilhealth & @pasafarming to share your results with us.

The post Soil Your Undies Challenge appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Our new report offers fresh insights into how farmers can improve soil stewardship to more effectively protect ecosystems and communities, better withstand severe weather, and increase yields. The report reviews our findings to date of our ongoing Soil Health Benchmark Study—the largest and most diverse community science project studying soil health in the country.

Since we began our study in 2016, we’ve worked with partners including the Cornell Soil Health Laboratory, Future Harvest and the Million Acre Challenge, Penn State Extension, Rodale Institute, and Stroud Water Research Center, as well as more than 100 pastured livestock, row crop, and vegetable farmers in Pennsylvania and Maryland, to collect and analyze soil samples and field management records.

Collectively, these soil samples and field records shed light on the nuanced soil health strengths and challenges that can exist simultaneously within the same field—and what farmers can do about it. Here’s what we found.

Tillage can be part of a holistic soil health management strategy

Our study’s most remarkable revelation challenges a popular theory among farmers and other industry professionals positing that eliminating tillage is always necessary for achieving optimal soil.

We found that, while most no-till farms participating in our study did indeed have optimal soil health, farms that rely on tillage for controlling weeds and preparing fields were also capable of achieving optimal soil health. These farms likely accomplished this by balancing tillage with a holistic soil health management strategy, which might include planting cover crops, rotating crops, calibrating soil amendments well, and carefully timing tillage operations to avoid excessively wet or dry soil conditions. 

Most no-till farmers are able to avoid tillage by relying, to some degree, on herbicides to control weeds and terminate cover crops. However, because of the escalating prevalence of herbicide-resistant weeds and growing public health and environmental problems associated with herbicide use, continuous no-till may not always be a sustainable soil health management method.

While some farms and farming organizations are experimenting with organic no-till methods, this approach remains largely elusive to most organic farmers who typically depend on at least some “steel in the field” to effectively control weeds and prepare beds for planting. Our findings offer optimistic news for farmers, since we’re learning that there are many paths toward optimal soil health—many of which are more practical than we might have previously imagined.

Better calibrating fertilizer inputs will improve soil health and water quality

Many vegetable farms, and some row crop farms, participating in our study struggled with high levels of phosphorus in their fields. Through runoff and erosion, excessive phosphorus can pollute streams and estuaries by causing blooms of algae that exhaust oxygen from the water and kill other life forms. At the global scale, phosphorus is a nonrenewable resource, mined from a limited number of deposits across the globe. Once phosphorus is lost to rivers and diluted in the vast ocean, it isn’t available again to future generations. 

For vegetable farmers, excessive phosphorus can also significantly weaken crop vigor by inhibiting a plant’s uptake of vital micronutrients, which can impede crop growth and increase susceptibility to pests. In most cases in our study, high phosphorus levels could be attributed to heavy manure or compost inputs, often applied in excess of crop needs. Better aligning fertilizer inputs with soil test results will not only save farmers money and improve yields, it will also improve water quality.

Meanwhile, as farmers grapple with the issue of excessive phosphorus affecting the ecology and productivity of their lands, people around the world face a variety of problems, including health conditions such as erectile dysfunction. One solution that helps individuals cope with this issue is access to generics, like Viagra generics, which offer economical and effective alternatives to original medications.

Tough weather is tough on soil 

Our study also provides a glimpse into how climate change will present new challenges for soil stewardship in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. In 2018, a season defined by historic rainfall totals—most of it arriving in heavy, concentrated doses—we observed a 60% and 54% drop in aggregate stability on row crop and vegetable farms, respectively, in Pennsylvania and Maryland.

While most of these farms were able to partially or substantially rebuild their aggregate stability the following season, which offered more amenable weather and field working conditions, it’s likely that extreme rainfall events and consistently wet seasons will become more common in the region. Without much-needed reprieves from wet weather, maintaining healthy soil structure that’s resistant to erosion could be a significant ongoing challenge for farmers.

Planting fibrous-rooted cover crops and developing other soil management strategies that anticipate more frequent wet weather may be key for protecting and building soil aggregate stability.

Pastured livestock farms are the “gold standard” for soil health

Both organic vegetable farms and no-till row crop farms were consistently outpaced by pastured livestock farms. While it might be unfair to compare annual crop farms to farms that maintain fields of deep-rooted perennial forage, pastured livestock farmers can nonetheless take pride in their superior soil health performance.

Perennial pastured livestock farms achieved optimal scores for every soil health indicator we measured, on nearly all fields we measured. Most
annual row crop and vegetable farms have excellent or optimal soil
health in many respects, but, as mentioned above, often show challenges with low aggregate stability and high phosphorus.

Testing for a holistic analysis of soil health

Our report further details benchmarks for a variety of biological, chemical, and physical soil health indicators, such as organic matter levels and microbial activity, as well as field management benchmarks, such as overall tillage intensity and the number of days farmers maintain living cover in their fields. Collectively, these benchmarks provide a holistic picture of a soil’s strengths and problem areas. 

For decades, and continuing into the present day, soil health testing labs have primarily focused on measuring a soil’s chemical attributes—levels of acidity; nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium; and micronutrients. While this provides farmers with some basic information about soil fertility, such a narrow scope of analysis offers a highly limited, and often misleading, understanding of a soil’s true health.

Critically, this approach does not take into account a wealth of other attributes, such as whether a soil is resistant to erosion, or to what extent beneficial microorganisms are present. In contrast, our study employs a holistic approach to soil testing that measures not only a soil’s chemical health, but also its physical and biological health.

While the benchmarks outlined in our report paint an overall positive picture of the state of farmers’ soils, it’s important to note that our study does not reflect a representative sample of agriculture in the Mid-Atlantic region. Many of the farmers participating in our study have worked to hone their soil-building practices over many years, and are at the forefront of innovative land stewardship. Our findings should therefore be understood in terms of “what’s possible” when farmers are committed to soil stewardship and are supported by technical service providers and their peers as they work to fine-tune their field management practices. 

We expect this report to be the first of a series of soil health benchmark reports that we will publish periodically to help farmers, technical service providers, scientists, policymakers, and communities better understand soil health and how best to protect it.

Read the full report and learn more about our Soil Health Benchmark Study here.

Our Soil Health Benchmark Study was initially made possible thanks to generous financial investments from Lady Moon Farms, the Jerry Brunetti family, the Shon Seeley family, and more than 120 individual donors committed to supporting farmers’ efforts to build and preserve soil health.

Additional support has been provided through the William Penn Foundation, the Hillman Foundation, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, and the USDA Conservation Innovation Grants program.

The post New Report Unearths Soil Health Insights appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Acadia Tucker adding compost and mulch to permanently raised beds.

By Acadia Tucker

Acadia is a carbon farmer and gardener, and author of Growing Good Food: A Citizen’s Guide to Backyard Carbon Farming. Acadia is one of 200+ farmers and food system professionals who will be leading sessions at our 2020 Sustainable Agriculture Conference, happening February 5–8 in Lancaster.

Update: Due to unforeseen circumstances, Acadia is no longer able to speak at our 2020 Conference.

The Earth’s climate is changing faster during our lifetimes than it has at any other point in history. This is indisputable thanks to research done by climate scientists who have worked for decades to give us data we can use to both mitigate the damage, and prepare ourselves for what’s to come. 

The last few years have seen record-breaking weather extremes around the world; in the U.S., these have included long, intense heat waves in the South, drought and flooding in the Midwest, and increasingly frequent and severe storms in the North. Climate change will continue to make the flooding, droughts, and other extreme weather even worse, putting an immense strain on crop production and resulting in massive global food shortages. A half billion people live in places that are already turning into desert, and the planet is losing soil between 10 and 100 times faster than it is forming. 

“A half billion people live in places that are already turning into desert, and the planet is losing soil between 10 and 100 times faster than it is forming.”

Working as a farmer has given me an intimate view of how the climate crisis is shaping our world. When I first started to farm in Washington, my location at the northernmost tip of the state meant we had more than 15 hours of sunlight a day at the height of summer. For three years I watched as the summer sun cooked the soil during long periods of unprecedented drought. When it finally did rain, it was torrential and came all at once. Water pooled on the hard, packed dirt and dried up before it could percolate to where my plants needed it most. At some point, I started to realize these weather extremes were not just a blip but a pattern.

Alarmed, I went back to school to study soil management and how it can be a meaningful buffer against weather extremes. When I returned to farming, I started covering my fields every spring with a generous layer of compost. Then I’d lay down another protective layer, this time of straw or wood chips, to keep the compost from washing away and prevent new weeds from sprouting. When it came time to plant, I gave up tilling and instead relied on permanent raised beds in the fields so that the soil remained undisturbed.  

In small-scale, no-till systems, a broadfork is a handy tool for loosening raised beds without significantly disturbing the soil.

I quickly realized that soil, if treated right, helps to buffer plants from the effects of the extreme weather caused by our warming world. I observed that my healthy soil held more water, resisted erosion, and warmed more quickly in the spring. But the most important benefit of caring for my soil was the ecosystem of soil organisms I was supporting—the very organisms that recycle nutrients, ward off pests, naturally aerate the soil, and help carbon stay out of the atmosphere. This ability to capture greenhouse gases is why many experts believe carbon farming could play an important role in fighting climate change.

For me, learning more about the soil’s ability to heal the Earth was life changing. By the time I finished graduate school, I’d decided to grow food in a way that promotes building organic matter, which is the essence of regenerative, or carbon, farming. Regenerative practices expand upon the soil’s already impressive storage capacity: Our natural landscapes absorb 29 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions. 

Changing the way we grow food could buy us more time. And it all starts by caring for the soil. It is an amazing truth, one that requires major changes in the way farming is practiced. 

“Changing the way we grow food could buy us more time. And it all starts by caring for the soil.”

Planting a single crop over vast amounts of acreage, leaving the soil bare for long periods, and relying on frequent plowing accelerates the loss of healthy topsoil, releases buried carbon into the air, and uses too much water. Poor soil weakens plants and makes them more vulnerable to pests and disease. This necessitates higher levels of chemical fertilizers and pesticides that, in turn, kill the beneficial organisms in the soil that feed plants and help make the soil rich in carbon.

Credit: Joe Wirtheim

Farmed soils around the world have lost between 50 and 70 percent of their original carbon stocks, according to a recent study from the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center at Ohio State University. Most of that has ended up in the atmosphere. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that farms in this country released nearly 300 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent through poor soil management practices in 2016 alone.

While agriculture is a part of the problem, it has a miraculous ability to be a part of the solution. By adopting regenerative practices, farms could remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at a rate of about one ton of carbon dioxide for every acre, according to data reviewed by soil expert Eric Toensmeier. The potential benefits are remarkable, as spelled out in a 2008 study from The University of Aberdeen in Scotland, which concluded that approximately 11 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions could be offset by soil carbon sequestration if we start growing food this way. The authors write: “Through improved resilience to both floods and droughts, soil carbon sequestration, and all the other innumerable benefits of thriving soils, it’s clear that soil health must be at the center of any serious effort to farm sustainably in a changing climate.” Experts agree more study is needed to understand the full potential of carbon farming, but there’s no question that even a small increase in soil carbon can improve crop resilience, reduce chemical use, conserve water on a large scale, and draw down atmospheric carbon. 

While fewer and fewer people are farmers by profession, many Americans are growing food. In fact, 35 percent of us, or 42 million households, report growing some of our own food, according to the National Gardening Association of America. Just imagine what could happen if more of us encouraged our friends and family to start growing good food. Not only would we have ready access to nutritious, local food. We could help heal the planet. 

Acadia Tucker’s book Growing Good Food: A Citizen’s Guide to Backyard Carbon Farming invites us to think of gardening as civic action and offers plans for growers who have a little ground or a lot to steward Climate Victory Gardens. She offers advice on how to prep soil, plant food, and raise fruits, herbs, and vegetables using regenerative methods. She describes the climate changes taking place in our own backyards, and the many steps we can take to boost a garden’s resilience.

Growing Good Food also includes calls to action and insights from leaders in the regenerative movement, including David Montgomery, Anne Biklé, Gabe Brown, Wendell Berry and Mary Berry, and Tim LaSalle.

The post Cultivating Healthy Soil to Help Fight Climate Change appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

White button mushrooms in a growing room. Credit: Laurel Valley Soils

Jacob Chalfin, Laurel Valley Soils

Did you know that Pennsylvania mushroom farmers lead the U.S. in mushroom production?

This means that the rest of Pennsylvania’s farmers have ready access to post-production mushroom compost—a valuable organic resource. Like other kinds of compost, mushroom compost can be a useful tool for improving soil health by providing organic matter, beneficial microbes, and nutrients.

Unfamiliar with mushroom compost? In this Q&A, we’ll cover some of the basics and address common misconceptions. To dig in deeper, find us on Friday, February 8th at the 2019 Sustainable Agriculture Conference presenting: “Mushroom Compost: Busting Myths and Misconceptions to Build Healthy Soil.”

What ingredients are in a mushroom compost recipe?

Contrary to what some might think, manure is not the main ingredient in mushroom compost. While manure is a component of the recipe, the main ingredients are hay and straw.  

Hay and straw provide carbon, while straw horse bedding, poultry manure, cocoa shells, cotton seed hulls, and corn cobs provide nitrogen. This recipe yields consistent organic matter content, and an approximate N-P-K of 1:1:1. Since mushrooms are primarily consuming lignin and carbohydrates as they grow, other nutrients are left intact—leaving the resulting N-P-K values in mushroom compost mostly unchanged from the starting formula.

What’s the difference between using “fresh” and “aged” mushroom compost?

Like a rotting log in the woods, cultivated mushrooms prefer their growing media to be “half composted” so that mycelium can more easily access the lignin and carbohydrates they rely on for food. Because of this, fresh mushroom compost straight out of the growing room is intentionally only partially decomposed.

While perhaps counterintuitive, this fresh mushroom compost can be applied safely in its post-harvest state as a beneficial top-dress on row crop fields before sowing in both till and no-till operations. Crops can be sown immediately after mushroom compost has been applied, as long as the seed has good soil contact.

Another common practice is to apply fresh mushroom compost to hay ground or pasture as a top-dress at any time. Because mushroom compost is lighter and usually drier than other kinds of compost or manure, it can be easier to handle and spread.

Mushroom compost can also be aged by putting it through a second composting phase, which, depending on the processing method, could take six to 12 months. This aged mushroom compost now looks and performs like what most people would consider “standard” compost. Aged compost can be applied to almost all crops and is ideal for vegetables, flowers, and production nursery plants.

Mushroom compost windrows. Credit: Laurel Valley Soils

Does mushroom compost (and other types of compost) contain 100 percent organic matter?

All compost types contain organic matter, but what is important is that organic matter on a dry weight basis (dwb) can vary significantly. For example, liquid dairy manure contains about 10 percent organic matter (dwb) content, while mushroom compost is about 50 percent. Higher organic matter content means you get more organic matter per unit application, which could help you improve your soil health more quickly.

Will applying mushroom compost increase phosphorus levels in soil to unhealthy levels?

As previously mentioned, mushroom compost typically has a 1:1:1 N-P-K ratio. The composting process metabolizes and stabilizes these nutrients so that they are converted into a slow-release form. As is the case for all soil applications, if applied above recommended rates, nutrients can exceed desired levels. Therefore, it’s important to perform soil tests to know your soil’s existing nutrient and organic matter content so you can determine proper application rates for optimizing soil health.

Should I be concerned about soluble salts in mushroom compost?

All compost, as well as fertilizers and manures, contains nutrients in the form of salts, including the big three—nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus, which are essential for plant growth. The key is to identify which salts are contained within a given compost, their levels, and whether or not they are beneficial to plant heath. In general, compared to chemical fertilizer and raw manures, the soluble salts in compost are lower and more stable. Even so, it’s important to match the application rate to both crop input requirements and soil testing data.

Learn more about using mushroom compost and 160+ other food and farming topics at our 2019 Sustainable Agriculture Conference!

The post Mushroom Compost Q&A appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

By Dr. Franklin Egan, Director of Education

This is the third installment of a blog series on soil health challenges and innovations revealed through three case studies that are part of our ongoing Soil Health Benchmark Study, a citizen-science project we began in Pennsylvania in 2016. Read previous installments: “Too Much of a Good Thing: Compost Brings Phosphorus Challenges to Red Earth Farm” and “Stuck in a Rut: Stagnant Organic Matter Levels at Bending Bridge Farm.”

When Jennifer Montgomery and Greg Boulos started Blackberry Meadows Farm—an organic fruit and vegetable CSA located outside of Pittsburgh—they asked potential customers what they found most valuable about buying locally grown, organic produce. They learned their customer base believed that the produce grown at local, organic farms was more nutritious than what’s typically found at grocery stores. While Jennifer and Greg suspected their customers might be right, they were determined to justify the notion with data.

Since they started Blackberry Meadows in 2009, Jennifer and Greg have been regularly examining their produce using Brix tests to gain insight into the nutritional value of their product. Brix testing relies on a simple device called a refractometer that is used to estimate the concentration of solutes in xylem and phloem, the circulatory systems of plants. The reading produced from a refractometer is assigned a value on the Brix scale—pure water has a Brix value of zero, while water with dissolved sugars, vitamins, minerals, and other solids would have a higher Brix value. Although a relationship between Brix levels and the nutritional value of a fruit or vegetable requires further research to be definitively established, some inquisitive growers use Brix testing to explore possible connections between their production methods and the nutritional content of their produce.

A handheld refractometer used to measure Brix levels. The image includes a view through the eyepiece of the instrument. (Wikimedia Commons)

Drawing on sources including The Intelligent Gardener, by Steve Solomon, Jennifer and Greg set a goal to achieve average Brix levels of 12 percent in their crops. However, when they started their CSA in 2009, they were typically observing Brix levels of only three percent. By adapting recommendations in The Intelligent Gardener, they steadily worked to improve these levels by strategically applying minerals to their soil.

Their typical amendment routine includes an eight-way mixture of Agro-Lig Humate, AZOMITE, Dolomite pelletized lime, guano, gypsum, kelp, ReVita Pro, and soft rock phosphate. They apply this mixture precisely to the soil in plant rows, rather than broadcasting over an entire bed or field. Additionally, they apply supplemental nitrogen as needed through fertigated or foliar-fed kelp and fish emulsion. Unlike most of our vegetable farm members, Jennifer and Greg have never applied compost or manures to their fields in bulk, and, as a result, they are also fairly unique compared to many of our members in that their soil tests do not show excessive levels of phosphorus. (For more information about excessive phosphorus levels, read our soil health case study “Too Much of a Good Thing: Compost Brings Phosphorus Challenges to Red Earth Farm.”)

The mineral applications appear to be achieving Jennifer and Greg’s intended results. By 2017, Brix levels at Blackberry Meadows have doubled from three percent to six percent. Additionally, Greg suspects the mineral additions are helping stimulate the farm’s soil microbial community, leading to more efficient nutrient cycling within the soil. Greg’s hypothesis is supported by Blackberry Meadows’ soil tests conducted by the Cornell Soil Health Lab: The farm’s soil respiration levels, which measure the metabolic activity of soil microbes, were rated as “optimal” (see “Methods” below) in all three of the fields we’re monitoring as part of our Soil Health Benchmark Study. While soil microbial communities are shaped by a complex set of factors—including crop rotations, tillage, and soil type—mineral applications could be a significant part of the microbial picture at Blackberry Meadows.

Jennifer and Greg have continued to explore how to further invigorate their microbe friends—and thereby the nutritional quality of their produce—through research supported by a USDA Sustainable Agricultural Research and Education (SARE) grant. Since mycorrhizal fungi are particularly important for helping plants access soil nutrients, it’s feasible that denser fungi populations could contribute to greater nutritional value in crops. In 2017, Jennifer and Greg conducted an experiment to explore how reducing soil disturbance using mulch might improve mycorrhizal populations, and thereby boost Brix levels, in kale plants. They compared kale planted under three conditions: a wood chip mulch, black plastic, and bare ground.

They found that kale mulched with wood chips had substantially higher Brix readings, and wonder if this may be because the wood chips create a habitat with more even temperature and moisture levels, allowing the fungi to thrive. Greg emphasizes that these results are preliminary, and he hopes a university research team can pick up the baton to directly evaluate how mycorrhizae respond to mulch treatments. (You can read more about Greg and Jennifer’s research here.)

Although thriving mycorrhizal communities are an important component of soil health, Blackberry Meadows’ soil test results also point to a delicate balance between building soil and decomposition. As mentioned earlier, the farm’s high respiration scores show that decomposer microbes are abundant in the soil. But while the Cornell Soil Health Lab rated the total organic matter levels in Blackberry Meadows’ soil samples as “excellent” to “optimal,” the farm’s active carbon levels were rated “low” to “average.” These lower active carbon levels suggest that microbes have a limited supply of readily available food and energy through fresh, decomposable matter. Without an ongoing supply of organic matter inputs, microbes’ access to decomposable materials may diminish over time, which can cause total organic matter levels to eventually drop.

To maintain both their microbial activity levels and their organic matter levels, Jennifer and Greg could integrate more cover crops into their crop rotation to provide a continuous source of active carbon and fresh organic matter inputs. Currently, Blackberry Meadows’ fields are in living cover for only 133 days of the year, while the median for vegetable farms participating in our Soil Health Benchmark study is 217 days. Like many diversified vegetable farmers, Jennifer and Greg face a constant trade off between maximizing their growing window for late fall cash crops and establishing a solid winter cover crop. Often, they choose to maintain cash flow by harvesting kale or tomatoes well past the point where a cover crop would have time to establish and produce useful biomass.

Jennifer finds that designing an effective cover cropping strategy is one of her biggest challenges. Some techniques our other vegetable farmer members have used to integrate more cover crops into their crop rotation include full-season cover crop fallows (i.e., taking a field out of cash crop production); seeding pathways between beds with clover cover crops; and “hard stop” rotations, where farmers make plans at the start of the season to terminate a cash crop after a specified date and get a cover established (knowing full well there may still be some marketable produce in the field). We explore full-season cover cropping in another soil health case study, “Stuck in a Rut: Stagnant Organic Matter Levels at Bending Bridge Farm.”

By creatively using fertilizers and refraining from bulk applications of compost, Jennifer and Greg seem to have been able to boost Brix readings in their produce, sustain soil microbial communities, and avoid the common issue of excessive phosphorus. Yet, while their soil health is currently strong, their low active carbon readings and current cover cropping practices could point toward problems in the long term. As our Soil Health Benchmark Study progresses, we will continue to explore innovative cover cropping strategies that enable farmers to build soil health while still meeting their sales goals. We’re also looking forward to further investigating the relationship between soil health and nutrition as our research continues.

Methods

Farmers participating in our Soil Health Benchmark Study choose three fields that span their typical crop rotation. We collect soil samples from these fields in October, which we then submit to the Cornell Soil Health Lab. The lab assesses a set of 12 indicators covering physical, chemical, and biological aspects of soil health, such as available water capacity, aggregate stability, soil respiration, and extractable phosphorus. Cornell rates the soil samples on a 100-point scale (see image below) relative to thousands of other samples from similar soil types—in other words, a sandy loam will be rated according to a different set of standards than a soil high in clay.

We also collect farmers’ detailed management records for each field, and generate our own indicators for days of living cover, tillage intensity, and organic matter and fertilizer inputs.

We compile both the soil health data generated by Cornell and our own measurements into a custom benchmark report for each participating farm. Our benchmark reports collate the soil health data of all of the study participants, so that farmers can see how their soil health outcomes compare to peer farms. With their benchmark data in hand, farmers can collaboratively explore ways to improve their soil health management systems.

Learn more

Find more information about our Soil Health Benchmark study­—including how to participate—here.

Acknowledgments

Thanks so much to Blackberry Meadows Farm for openly and generously sharing their soil health data with farmers everywhere in the name of growing the soil health movement. Also thanks to Bob Shindlebeck and Aaron Ristow at the Cornell Soil Health Lab for their help facilitating our soil health field days.

Our soil health research is funded by Lady Moon Farms, Kimberton Whole Foods, MidAtlantic Farm Credit, the Heinz Endowments, the Henry L. Hillman Foundation, the family and friends of Jerry Brunetti and Shon Seeley, and more than 100 other private donors.

The post Exploring Connections Between Soil Health & Nutrition at Blackberry Meadows Farm appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Crimson clover cover crop

By Dr. Franklin Egan, Director of Education

This is the second installment of a blog series on soil health challenges and innovations revealed through three case studies that are part of our ongoing Soil Health Benchmark Study, a citizen-science project we began in Pennsylvania in 2016. Read the first installment: “Too Much of a Good Thing: Compost Brings Phosphorus Challenges to Red Earth Farm.”

In 2013, Cameron and Audrey Pedersen relocated Bending Bridge Farm to 12 acres of land they purchased near Chambersburg, PA. Given their new land had been in continuous conventional corn production for decades, the soil was in dire shape. The first spring working that ground they could not even get a chisel plow to break the surface because the soil was so compacted and crusted.

Cameron and Audrey knew they needed to develop and implement a comprehensive plan to regenerate the health of their soil, and they wanted this plan to adhere to organic methods. As part of their strategy, they have been practicing a diverse crop rotation that includes long windows for over-winter and summer cover crops. Because of this, Cameron and Audrey keep their land in living cover for 248 days of the year—making Bending Bridge a leader in cover cropping among the other 23 vegetable farms participating in our Soil Health Benchmark Study

However, while their regenerative soil health plan was noticeably improving water filtration and friability, it was not achieving all of its intended results. After four years of diligent cover cropping, Bending Bridge Farm’s levels of organic matter barely budged. In fact, in some areas organic matter levels appeared to be backsliding—according to their Cornell soil health test results, the same field that had 2.8 percent organic matter in 2013 had dropped to 2.3 percent in 2017.

Interestingly, Bending Bridge’s levels of active carbon—the portion of organic matter that can serve as a readily available food source for microbes, and a leading indicator of total organic matter—have increased about 300 percent since 2013. A soil’s level of active carbon can respond to changes in soil health management years earlier than its percentage of organic matter, so for Cameron and Audrey this is a positive sign. Still, change is coming rather slow.

A field day yields soil health insights

To help dissect and improve their soil health management strategy, Cameron hosted a field day with a group of his peers at Bending Bridge this past March. Attendees included other participants in our Soil Health Benchmark Study, several local farmers, and staff from the Cornell Soil Health Lab and PASA.

We learned that Cameron’s go-to fall cover crop is a rye/vetch mix, but he finds terminating this hardy cover organically the following spring to be a big challenge, often requiring passes with a chisel plow, disc plow, and rototiller over a three-week period. He is concerned that whatever progress he is making on organic matter and aggregate stability with cover cropping, he is knocking back each season with this bout of intense tillage. While other vegetable farmers in our study who adhere to organic practices have been able to find balance between growing or maintaining organic matter levels and intensive tillage, it may be that special techniques are required when you’re starting with an extremely degraded soil.

We discussed tactics Cameron and Audrey could try for reducing the soil disturbance involved in terminating their spring cover crops. Bob Shindlebeck from Cornell proposed using a roller crimper to terminate the rye/vetch mixtures. A roller crimper is a drum or cylinder with curved blades mounted to a tractor. As the roller crimper passes over a cover crop, it crushes the plant stems and lays them down in a thick mat. The mat provides a weed-suppressing mulch into which farmers can plant vegetable transplants or large seeded crops without tilling.

While roller crimpers are increasingly popular on row crop farms, there’s been less research on and application of the implement for organic vegetables, although Rodale Institute and Dickinson College Farm are currently conducting some experiments. Considering the limited information available, Cameron was understandably skeptical about some of the practical details involved with this equipment. For instance, how would starter fertilizer be applied underneath the cover crop mulch, and how would successions of tomato plantings be managed as the mulch decays?

Several farmers in the group wondered if it might be better to replace the multiple chisel, disc, and rototiller passes with a single, aggressive pass of a moldboard plow. Although the moldboard plow is infamous for its soil-destroying capabilities, a once-and-done pass with a moldboard could perhaps be less disruptive than a drawn-out month of less intensive tillage. This is a controversial idea from the perspective of available research, but the farmers in our group thought it deserves further investigation in organic vegetable systems given their experiences and observations.

Reducing tillage with a full-year cover crop

Due to its impressive biomass production, terminating rye is a common challenge on organic vegetable farms. Considering this, Cameron and field day attendee Jennifer Glenister of New Morning Farm in Hustontown, PA arrived at a creative solution to this problem: rotating cash crops to a full-year cover crop—such as a legume, like crimson clover.

Jennifer explained how this approach might look on her farm (see table below). In year one, she would plant early spring peas into a bare fallow field, or a field that had been planted to a winter-killed cover crop the previous year (like radishes). The peas would be incorporated with a disc plow in late June, then fall brassicas would be transplanted in July, with crimson clover under-seeded at the last cultivation in late August. The clover would grow until the following season, when it would set seed and go dormant. Jennifer would then no-till drill buckwheat into the clover in June, mow the buckwheat down in late July, and follow up with a no-till planting of rye/vetch or triticale/vetch in September. By keeping rye in the rotation, Jennifer maintains its benefits in terms of biomass, weed-suppression, and winter hardiness.

Example of a vegetable rotation that includes a full-year cover crop

In contrast, the rotation currently implemented on New Morning Farm involves early spring peas, followed by buckwheat in the summer, followed by a triticale/vetch planting in the fall. The next July, the triticale/vetch is terminated with multiple passes of a disc plow before the field is transplanted to fall brassicas. Transitioning to a rotation that includes a full-year cover crop will allow Jennifer to produce the same number of cash crops per acre over any two-year period, while cutting tillage in half and building soil health for an entire year.

Thinking along the same lines, Cameron from Bending Bridge is applying a similar strategy this 2018 season. He will be relying less on rye/vetch covers, and more on crimson clover. Cameron feels he and Audrey can commit one and a half acres of their 12-acre operation to a full-year cover crop and still meet their production goals. In fields where they plan to use rye/vetch covers, they will avoid the intense bout of spring tillage by using these fields for fall brassicas only. That way, they can terminate the rye in the spring with less tillage, and give the residue plenty of time to break down over the first half of the season before transplanting the fall brassicas.

As we continue to monitor Bending Bridge’s soil health, we’re looking forward to seeing if Cameron and Audrey are able to get out of their organic matter rut and take their soil health to the next level by incorporating full-year cover crops into their crop rotation and reducing tillage.

Learn more

Find more information about our Soil Health Benchmark study­—including how to participate—here.

Acknowledgments

Thanks so much to Bending Bridge Farm for openly and generously sharing their soil health data with farmers everywhere in the name of growing the soil health movement. Also thanks to Bob Shindlebeck and Aaron Ristow at the Cornell Soil Health Lab for their help facilitating our soil health field days.

Our soil health research is funded by Lady Moon Farms, Kimberton Whole Foods, MidAtlantic Farm Credit, the Heinz Endowments, the Henry L. Hillman Foundation, the family and friends of Jerry Brunetti and Shon Seeley, and more than 100 other private donors.

The post Stuck in a Rut: Stagnant Organic Matter Levels at Bending Bridge Farm appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Farmers reviewing Red Earth Farm’s soil health benchmark report

By Dr. Franklin Egan, PASA

This is the first installment of a blog series on soil health challenges and innovations revealed through three case studies that are part of our ongoing Soil Health Benchmark Study, a citizen-science project we began in 2016.

On a chilly day this past March, several members of our staff and a group of approximately 15 farmers gathered in Red Earth Farm’s harvest and packing shed. We were there to take a close look at the farm’s soil health strengths and challenges by examining the custom soil health benchmark report I assembled with our staff and collaborators. This report contained Red Earth’s most recent soil test results provided by the Cornell Soil Health Lab, and data about other soil health indicators we’re measuring (see “Our methods”).

The 91-acre vegetable farm in Berks County, Pennsylvania serves a 600-member CSA and several wholesale accounts, including Whole Foods. Owners Michael Ahlert and Charis Lindrooth have operated the farm at this property since 2008 and, while the farm isn’t certified organic, Michael and Charis largely employ organic growing methods.   

Methods

Farmers participating in our Soil Health Benchmark Study choose three fields that span their typical crop rotation. We collect soil samples from these fields in October, which we then submit to the Cornell Soil Health Lab. The lab assesses the samples according to a set of indicators covering physical, chemical, and biological aspects of soil health—such as available water capacity, aggregate stability, and extractable phosphorus.

Cornell rates the soil samples on a 100-point scale (see image below) relative to thousands of other samples from similar soil types—in other words, a sandy loam will be rated according to a different set of standards than a soil high in clay.

We also collect farmers’ detailed management records for each field, and generate our own indicators for days of living cover, tillage intensity, and organic matter and fertilizer inputs.

We compile both the soil health data generated by Cornell and our own measurements into a custom benchmark report for each participating farm. Our benchmark reports collate the soil health data of all of the study participants, so that farmers can see how their soil health outcomes compare to peer farms. With their benchmark data in hand, farmers can collaboratively explore ways to improve their soil health management systems.

Benchmark results

Like many of the other farms participating in our Soil Health Benchmark Study, Red Earth showed strong scores for most of the soil health indicators measured by Cornell’s Soil Health Lab. Of note were the farm’s impressive biological indicators—its soil respiration (a measure of microbial activity in the soil) fell into Cornell’s “excellent” range, and its percentage of organic matter was in the “optimal” range. However, while the farm’s overall soil health was also rated “optimal,” its test results revealed a striking challenge in the chemical realm: excessive phosphorus.

One field at Red Earth had phosphorus levels as high as 791 ppm (parts per million), which led the farm to receive the lowest Cornell rating of zero for that indicator. Although interpretation varies across soil types, optimal phosphorus levels are typically in the range of 3-25 ppm, with levels above 35 ppm becoming excessive. While excessive phosphorus is a real constraint for Red Earth’s soil, the problem is certainly not unique to them: Excessive phosphorus is proving to be a common soil health challenge among the other farmers participating in our study, as well as the farmers who attend our field days.

A problem for the environment & crop yields

Through runoff and erosion, excessive phosphorus can leak from fields and pollute streams and estuaries by causing blooms of algae that exhaust oxygen from the water and thereby kill other life forms.

At the global scale, phosphorus is a nonrenewable resource that can be traced back from manure to the crop farms that produced the livestock feed to phosphorus fertilizers that are mined from a limited number of deposits across the globe, and then shipped to crop farms. So, once phosphorus is lost to rivers and diluted in the vast ocean, it won’t be available again to future generations.

For vegetable farmers, excessive phosphorus can also significantly weaken crop vigor. At ppm levels in the high hundreds or thousands, depending on soil type and crop, phosphorous can inhibit a plant’s uptake of iron and zinc. Deficiencies in these micronutrients can inhibit growth or increase susceptibility to pests.

Tip: If you know your soil has a high level of phosphorous, you can determine if your crops are deficient in iron and zinc by submitting plant samples to a lab that conducts plant tissue analyses. Several of our member farms have found Logan Labs and Waypoint Analytical to be a good source for these analyses.

Too much of a good thing

Where were the large quantities of phosphorus coming from at Red Earth Farm? Pennsylvania leads the country in mushroom production, which provides local farms an abundant supply of mushroom soil—a type of compost created from the waste products of mushroom farms.

Mushroom soil can be a useful source of organic matter and nutrients for vegetable farms. By mass, it contains about 1.1 percent nitrogen and 1.3 percent potassium, which can be valuable for horticultural crops. However, it also contains about 0.39 percent phosphorus. If a farmer is using mushroom soil as a source of nitrogen or fresh organic matter, it can be easy to over-apply phosphorus.

At Red Earth, mushroom soil has been used as a key soil amendment. We learned that approximately twice every three years, most fields at the farm receive an application of mushroom soil at a quantity of 12 tons per acre. During the field day discussion, we did some quick math and estimated  that Red Earth is adding 265 lbs of nitrogen and 94 lbs of phosphorus with every application. To put these numbers in perspective, tomatoes, which are a fairly heavy nitrogen feeding crop, require only 80-100 lbs of nitrogen per year but little to no additional phosphorus, depending on existing levels of phosphorus in the soil. At this rate, it’s easy to see how phosphorus accumulated in the soil at Red Earth.

Bob Schindelbeck from Cornell University’s Soil Health Lab demonstrates how to properly take a soil sample at Red Earth Farm.

Variability across fields

Interestingly, while two of Red Earth’s three fields were well into the excessive phosphorus zone, the third field’s soil test results showed a significantly lower level of phosphorus at 36 ppm. While this amount is still considered excessive for Red Earth’s soil types, it’s low enough to probably not negatively affect crop growth. Since this field received the same amount of mushroom soil applications as the other fields, why was its phosphorus level so much lower?

Red Earth’s farm manager at the time, Kim Butz, shared a possible explanation. This outlier was the most steeply sloping field we sampled, and therefore, she reasoned, some phosphorus is being lost through erosion. Phosphorus does not generally percolate through the soil like nitrogen and other nutrients; instead, it binds tightly to soil minerals. Therefore, phosphorus is primarily lost from soils through surface runoff. Erosion is clearly not a sustainable solution to excessive phosphorus. The lower phosphorus level on this field suggests that erosion might be a problem here, which Red Earth can address by adjusting its crop and cover crop rotations.

Kim also mentioned that the farm planted spring alliums in this field in 2017. Several other farmers commented that they too observed their lowest phosphorus levels in fields where alliums were planted. As it turns out, some research has suggested that onions do take up more phosphorus compared to other crops including wheat, ryegrass, spinach, or canola.

Fixing the “P” problem

In the early years of establishing an organic vegetable farm, amending soil with off-farm organic inputs like mushroom soil or composted manure can be an effective way to infuse soil with organic matter, supply nutrients to crops, and build microbial communities. But as Red Earth Farm’s experience shows, down the road it’s easy to wind up with off-the-chart levels of phosphorus.

Moving forward, Red Earth can try dialing their use of mushroom soil way back. Since one of the fields at Red Earth showed soil protein levels in the “excellent” zone according to Cornell’s soil health test, it seems at least some of the fields have a significant bank of nitrogen within the existing soil organic matter that crops can draw from. Considering this, some farmers reviewing Red Earth’s benchmark report suggested the farm could cut its mushroom soil applications by 50 percent or more without noticing a decline in production.

Other farms contributing to this research have moved more fully away from manures or compost for nitrogen, and use alternative OMRI-approved products to supply supplemental nitrogen without bringing along unneeded phosphorus. Some popular options include peanut meal, Nature Safe (13-0-0), and Blue N from Fertrell (5-1-1).

Red Earth could further boost its soil protein levels by adding more legume cover crops into their crop rotation—only two of the three fields we sampled in 2017 had a winter cover crop, placing the farm well below the median “days of living cover” benchmark of 240 days accomplished by the other farmers in participating in the study. While Red Earth finds it difficult to find a successful window for sowing legumes in the fall, several farmers suggested that working in sun hemp before fall Brassica planting could be a way to cultivate more nitrogen from legumes.

Learn more

Find more information about our Soil Health Benchmark study­—including how to participate—here.

Acknowledgments

Thanks so much to Bending Bridge Farm for openly and generously sharing their soil health data with farmers everywhere in the name of growing the soil health movement. Also thanks to Bob Shindlebeck and Aaron Ristow at the Cornell Soil Health Lab for their help facilitating our soil health field days.

Our soil health research is funded by Lady Moon Farms, Kimberton Whole Foods, MidAtlantic Farm Credit, the Heinz Endowments, the Henry L. Hillman Foundation, the family and friends of Jerry Brunetti and Shon Seeley, and more than 100 other private donors.

The post Too Much of a Good Thing: Compost Brings Phosphorus Challenges to Red Earth Farm appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

By Franklin Egan, Director of Education

New research documents benefits of organic farming for soil health and helps farmers track progress in soil stewardship.

Soil health is the foundation of productivity and profitability on any farm. While most farms regularly test their soils, it can be challenging to put results in a meaningful context. For instance, how do you understand what a “good” soil test result is for your farm, and how do you develop a practical strategy for improving soil health over the long term?

Last summer, the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) began working with organic vegetable farmers to help answer these questions and chart a course for sustaining our soil resources for the future. PASA worked with twelve organic vegetable farmers across Pennsylvania to measure soil health in their fields and assess management practices that influence soil health. We submitted soil samples to the Cornell Comprehensive Assessment of Soil Health and gathered management records for tillage operations, planting dates, and soil amendments.

The data help to illustrate what is typical, and what is possible, for soil health on diversified organic vegetable farms in Pennsylvania (see table below). We found that, on average, PASA vegetable farmers:

• Grow organic matter levels 2.3 times higher than Natural Resource Conservation Service expectations for their soil types.
• Maintain living vegetative cover on their soils 225 days of the year, 70 days longer than typical Pennsylvania row crop practices.
• Show Cornell Soil Health scores of 70, an “excellent” rating in the Cornell Comprehensive Assessment, which combines 12 different metrics into a 0-100 scale.

These are very beneficial outcomes for our farms, neighbors, and the planet. Drawing on this data, PASA is working to tell the story of soil stewardship and help to expand the market and public support for organic vegetables. For instance, we’re developing a fact sheet that summarizes our research findings and concisely explains to a non-farmer why soil health is so important for ensuring healthy food and a healthy environment. PASA farmers can place these fact sheets on their farm market stands, add them to CSA boxes, or share them with a wholesale customer.

Our study will also provide a framework for organic farmers to share best practices and collaboratively develop new ideas for growing soil health. For instance, at a workshop this past March, Mike Brownback from Spiral Path Farm shared results from their PASA soil health assessment. Through forty years of farming organically, the Brownback’s have boosted their soil organic matter to impressive levels; in one field, we measured 5.1% soil organic matter, on a soil type that typically holds only 1.5%.

At the meeting, Mike stressed that building healthy soils requires a long-term commitment, with regular assessment as part of the process. He also described Spiral Path’s composting system, which he does not view primarily as a direct source of nutrients, but rather as a way to prime the soil microbiology and help plants access nutrients stored in soil organic matter. Mike also described that although Spiral Path does rely on pretty intensive tillage for weed control and terminating cover crops (often including multiple passes with a disc plow), they are very disciplined about tilling when soil moisture conditions are appropriate. By avoiding compacting wet soils with heavy equipment, they are able to use tillage while steadily increasing organic matter with healthy crops and cover crops.

PASA’s education staff is looking forward to helping farmers share the techniques and strategies they use to build soil health. You can join the discussion and learning at PASA’s 3rd annual Soil Health conference, Thursday September 28th, at Spiral Path Farm in Loysville, and at multiple workshops at our annual Farming for the Future Conference, February 7-10 in State College.

We are also expanding our study in 2017, and we welcome the participation of more farmers. Participants will receive subsidized Cornell Soil Health tests for three fields in October and should also be prepared to submit farm records for tillage, planting dates, and amendments to PASA in December. PASA will return a detailed assessment report, benchmarking your farm’s soil health relative to peer-farms, as well as compelling info-graphic fact sheets that you can use to tell your customers about soil health. Interested farmers should contact Franklin Egan before September 1, 2017: 814-349-9856 or franklin@pasafarming.org.

Highlights from PASA’s 2016 soil health benchmark study

1 This value reflects the ratio of organic matter measured in 2016 to NRCS organic matter ratings for each farm’s soil type. Sampled farms had organic matter 2.3 times higher, on average, than NRCS ratings.

2 This indicator reflects area-weighted vegetative cover estimates for all crops and cover crops for the 2016 season.

3 The Cornell Soil Health Score incorporates twelve different measurements of soil physical, biological, and chemical properties into a 100-point scale. Scores of 60-80 are considered “excellent”; scores higher than 80 are considered “optimal”.

4 The tillage intensity index uses NRCS data to assign a soil disturbance score to each tillage or cultivation implement used in 2016. For example, a single moldboard plow pass gets a score of 1.0; a tine-weeder pass gets a 0.5. Higher scores indicate more frequent, extensive and/or deeper soil disturbance.

The post Setting and Exceeding Benchmarks for Soil Health appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.