Increased SOM 50 100% 😏 (Soil Organic Matter)
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- čas přidán 21. 05. 2024
- Join us as Denver Black and Craig Harding discuss the surprisingly impressive gains on the Riverside Farm Institute in Zambia, Africa.
- 🌾 Combining synthetic urea with carbon sources and balancing nitrogen and carbon can significantly increase organic matter in soil.
- 🛠️ Balancing the use of tools and management practices is important in agriculture.
- 🍽️ Providing healthy and affordable food for all is a priority.
- 🦠 Biology can help mitigate the negative effects of herbicides.
- 🧱 Maintaining soil structure is crucial for soil health. The distinction between organic and inorganic materials in agriculture is complex and can vary depending on definitions and processes.
- 🌿 Microbes play a crucial role in converting inorganic ingredients into organic compounds through fermentation and digestion.
- 🌱 Regenerative agriculture principles, such as keeping the soil covered and feeding the soil to promote plant health, are key to building healthy and productive soils.
- 💧 Balancing nutrients and using biostimulants can help reduce plant stress and improve nutrient use efficiency.
- 🌾 Regenerative practices are scalable and practical, offering sustainable solutions for agriculture.
📞Call us to learn more about the solutions we have for the challenges you face in farming and ranching. info@soilcraft.com or 509.907.7305
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![[S4E7] Gabe Brown: From Dirt to Soil](/img/n.gif)
Endlessly fascinating thanks guys! There's a lot to take in... I'll need to listen to this a few times over 😅
Our farm is in San Ramón, Matagalpa, Nicaragua and we face many of the same challenges that you describe. I often joke that you could play a professional basketball game on our hard ground, and it would be competitive. Like you, we also are in a very severe drought. One thing that people do not understand is that you can plant cover crops and do Permaculture chop and drop, etc. but none of that material will break down and potentially add organic matter to the soil without rain. It also takes a good amount of water to make compost. But when water is scarce, organic matter from cover crops and other efforts does not break down with microorganisms. Instead, it breaks down through a different pathway by the sun and much of the carbon enters the atmosphere instead of the soil. Water is a major limiting factor to increasing SOM. I will be very interested to learn what things you are doing to increase SOM, including what efforts you are engaged in to increase water availability.
Great point.
Thank you for sharing and confirming our experience. We are using Principles, Systems, and Tools to achieve these results. It is holistic in nature, but it is based on our "principles of regenerative agronomy"... video link shared soon...
In short if we adhere to the 5 principles of regenerative agriculture including soil cover, living roots, crop variation, minimal disturbance, and inclusion of livestock we will set the stage.
What we are finding to accelerate the increase in SOM and soil/crop health is to add labile, or "caloric" carbon sources with nitrogen applications and the addition of beneficial microbes. Now this is not "new" to most any of us, but I think often the rates are not high enough of either to reach critical mass. The number on carbon we are seeing as a good starting point is around .6 liters/ unit of N applied. When Im talking about the carbon source, ours is a very concentrated blend of molasses, fish, soy, corn steep etc blended with bio stimulants like kelp, pyroligneous acid etc. We try to create the most concentrated liquid with the most carbon sources possible in a "suspended" liquid to be applied with other sources of NPK etc.
Hope this helps. We will be doing follow up videos and we will include more detail and examples.
How are you measuring
determinating water/nutrient availability. Instrumentation/yields?? Using several labs analyses. I not a plant scientist but simply a food technologist reared on a dirt farm. Gotta run for now.
For over 20 years, Gary Zimmer has been convinced and taught to always add any source of nitrogen WITH active carbon sources so that the soil microbes do not mineralize the SOM/C to make use of the added nitrogen.
Very true. Garry is a very cool dude and we stand on his shoulders for sure. 👍🏽
One of the key difference in this model compared to what Zimmer recommends is avoiding tillage completely. The difference is massive from the one filed we used light tillage on to the one we didn’t. Tillage is extremely expense in terms of soil OM burned off in our climate.
Could that be another benefit of "beneficial" cover crops...Dennis
Depends on your region I guess. In the north I've built up SOM from 2% to 7% using only N and minerals within 5 years. Never took anything substantial "off" the field though...also put about 5 bu. of corn seed in as a cover crop each year on the 1/2 acre. Guess that accounts for some carbon but the majority of carbon was grown on site.
I'm a synganic gardener all the way. Having an accessible source of N in cool weather of April and may is a must for a healthy soil.
Great show! Sounds like you’re ready to have John Kempf as a guest. I’d love to hear it!
I used to be very into taking care of my lawn and would do testing every year. The year that I was applying synthetic nitrogen as well as humates and kelp was the year my OM went from 3% to 4%.
How do you know from 3 to 4% ?
@@robertreznik9330 soil testing, take a sample of your soil and send it to a soil testing facility
i would suggest not to use any synthetic things, and just cover you ground with organic matter, compost is good for fertility and introduce microbes to your soil but those microbes need food and living space to thrive and grow and multiply, un other words 4 inches for the least of mulch mostly wood chips, make sure the wood chips are not uniform in size, you need it to be all of different sizes, some or small as powder, some or sizes of small rocks, like im just trying to say keep the sizes of the wood chip diverse and youll be good, always add this material to yur soil and never leave it uncovered, youll be socked year after year by the results you get, never disturb the soil, the microbes living in it will handle everything all you need to do is feed it, but giving it synthetic things chemical things, you are killing those living organisms, just watch Back to Eden Gardening documentaries and tours and youll learn all you need to know
We sent soil samples to reputable laboratories for testing of Soil Organic Matter as well as NPKS, Ca, Mg, trace elements, base saturation, pH etc.
Yes. This method has shown great success... but many producers farming on multi thousand acre farms are looking for solutions to achieve this without applying 4" of wood mulch.
There was a reported 157,736,800 arable acres in the USA alone in 2021... the amount of mulch needed to cover those acres would be approximately 84,820,211,830 cubic yards and would require the harvesting of Approximately 84.82 billion trees just to cover the soil...... Im not sure what eden would look like if we had that kind of deforestation... just saying.
The carbon sources we use to accompany our synthetic nitrogen sources which are derived from atmosphere are all by-products of other industries like fishing, sugar cane production, and ethanol.
Again, thanks for watching and for your input.
The "back to eden" method is wonderful and displays the power of keeping the soil covered and proper carbon cycling. I would say we use cover crops and stubble retention in large scale agriculture to accomplish this.
This is the useful information we need ❤
thanks for posting the podcast mr denva u really inspire me
Happy to hear that! Godspeed
The KEY CARBON SOURCE for Soil Regenetation... is Atmospheric CO2.... producing EXCESS Sugars and Lipids in the plants...To feed Soil Microorganisms.
If you're not doing anything to OPTIMIZE PHOTOSYNTHESIS (i.e. by providing timely optimized plant nutrition... like the Consultants at Advancing Eco Agriculture INSISTS is required) you're not going to provode the best food for Microorganisms (abundant plant exudates in the Rhyzosphere)... Compost has value, but NOT CLOSE to abundant Root Exudates.... required to FEED THE RIGHT ORGANISMS... around the roots... the soil biology. You ALSO MUST provide proper SOIL PHYSICS... Compaction is a killer (tillage &/or Cover Plants)....and Water Retention in the Soil are key limiting factors.
Check out some of our content on precise nutrient applications! 👇🏼
czcams.com/video/sFSFbUOXZN8/video.htmlsi=M-Fs-N98vLditvWx
Indeed! We utilize plant SAP analysis 📊 at Apical labs 🧪 and apply precise nutrients to increase photosynthesis, decrease ROS, and improve plant lignification etc etal.
It’s all about nutrition!!
I really enjoyed this podcast so much.. would like to know how to apply this wonderful info to my field.. loved it.
Thank you! Please reach out and get in touch with us so we can discuss the ways to make the best improvements on your farm! 👍🏽
Thank you very much🙏🏾This was extremely informative. I find it helpful as here in Arizona. We have many similar environmental issues you describe in this video regarding your soils in Zambia.
I’ve been growing wheat for several winters here, amp grazing cattle in the winter on the wheat, and in summer using a Sorghum-Sudan based mix.
Our wheat yields have been dropping for the past few years. We’re trying to stick to regenerative-organic principles as much as possible, and are planning to put in row crop blackeye peas, to bring nitrogen into the system and expand our agricultural products.
I was originally thinking to use mechanical cultivation as we do have a lot of weed issues, including prolific Johnson grass… however, after listening to this video, and the priority put on keeping cover on the soil, I’m questioning if strip-till might be a better option…? Do you have any thoughts on this?
Thanks very much! Glad to have helped. I would say that anytime you can accomplish what is needed and still refrain from tillage we should. Tillage is a powerful tool and should be used when appropriate, but we try to use it when it is there is no other tool that can do that task. If you can to strip till over full width I think that's best. Keeping that soil covered is 100% essential. It is the #1 step in our regenerative principles.
Not too many seem to understand how much carbon is in the SOM in 6" soil or 2 million lbs of soil. 1% is 16,000 lbs of Carbon per acre. Half life mineralization is taking out carbon also. A cover crop adds just hundreds of lbs, a small amount!
23 years no till, cover crops, and organic, with livestock on the land. Started out at 5-5.5% SOM on the home farm, which is pretty high. The guy I bought out was way ahead of his time. No tilling in the 70’s, and did some cover crops during 80’s and 90’s. It’s a tad over 10% now.
SOM is not a silver bullet, it’s one factor. I have newer ground that is in the 2’s, and it does really well after just a few years of conservation practices. It soaks up water, is really mellow.
@@LtColDaddy71 thanks for sharing your experience. Soil texture matters.
I´m confused, 40 minutes into this talk and I still don´t get what the trick was they used to increase SOM by 100%, was it just to apply synthetic urea to the soils?
they just trying to complicate things, i suggest go watch Back to Eden Gardening, trust me its not meant to be this complicated, by watching Back to Eden Gardening you will be enlightened by the simplicity of life, the way it was designed to be for us
"back to eden" is so powerful and a wonderful way to produce food on smaller acreage. Most of our clients are farming "at scale" and we find that trying to use some of these specific practices across thousands of acres becomes logistically and financially prohibitive.
Thanks for watching and for your input!
Godspeed
In short if we adhere to the 5 principles of regenerative agriculture including soil cover, living roots, crop variation, minimal disturbance, and inclusion of livestock we will set the stage.
What we are finding to accelerate the increase in SOM and soil/crop health is to add labile, or "caloric" carbon sources with nitrogen applications and the addition of beneficial microbes. Now this is not "new" to most any of us, but I think often the rates are not high enough of either to reach critical mass. The number on carbon we are seeing as a good starting point is around .6 liters/ unit of N applied. When Im talking about the carbon source, ours is a very concentrated blend of molasses, fish, soy, corn steep etc blended with bio stimulants like kelp, pyroligneous acid etc. We try to create the most concentrated liquid with the most carbon sources possible in a "suspended" liquid to be applied with other sources of NPK etc.
Hope this helps. We will be doing follow up videos and we will include more detail and examples.
Adding our liquid blend of carbon sources and bio stimulants with urea for example is moving towards balancing the C:N ratio.... one of the biggest reasons inputs like Urea are detrimental and eroding our soil health is due to the lack of carbon that we see in "organic" input sources like manures etc.
@@jacoobmantraI've walked around the Back to Eden gardens in Washington, we can't use that as the "sole blueprint" as they get over 20" of rainfall there, average, in dry area like where I try to garden 20K Sq Ft of zone 9b arid soils in AZ, and it's like everything else, use what you can, discard the rest, but at least try.
That the reason I watch this stuff, what works for you, what works for me, what works for them might not be the gospel. I have a drop site for tree chips, a burn pit for charcoal, and a dump trailer for a sheep feedlot for manure, and if it wouldn't of broke down I would of added 2' of elevation, not the 1/2 of humates that is left.
@@soilcraft this way of farming though is very contrary to what im used to see in the regenerative ag scene where main focus is to eliminate any and all type of input, what you guys mention must be very expensive and labor intesive, ooposite of what i thought was the key to healthy soil
Urea how much can u use and where is the best place to get it please
I have used several soil test labs. Tissue test labs, seem like they aren't geared to test/recommend building soils useing the practices that you recommend.
Ive been turning 8.7PH dirt into soil in arid Arizona with some of these regenerative practices, now ive started compost teas, worm bins, charcoal, molasses, and its changed.
Which labs are geared to natural recommendations.
There are many good labs. We have used International Ag Labs often. We are also starting to use the soil test done at Apical labs to work on correlation between soil and our sap tests.
The test mentioned in this video were done by Brookside laboratory.
You can try the Haney test. Many regard this highly. We have yet to see it “working” in our western soils or in our African soils… we are still playing with it as many highly regard it for Regen soil building. Stay tuned as we learn. Thanks for your comment!
Herbicide to terminate the cover crop? Why not use a crimper or a sickle bade? I like what you guys are saying otherwise. good soil health or everyone. Tropical and subtropical soils sure don't want to keep organic matter, they want to cycle it as fast as possible. "Tools not systems, the systems come later." well said. I occasionally watch Farm up He's a Uganda landowner who took his technical degree and started chicken farming, He keeps trying to mitigate the costs of chicken feed with growing his own. He too wants to be a good land steward and teach while he's making mistakes as well as progress.
Thanks… we do use the roller crimper as much as possible, but often it doesn’t completely terminate the cover. We ran the crimper on the sun hemp and it took care of 80-90% of it, but 10-20% Sun hemp is way too much in the wheat crop after. Mowing again doesn’t kill the cover.
Nothing wrong to add some urea to decampose crop residue for 1st or 2nd year untill land carbon doesnt raise by some extent
By adding active (microbially accessible) carbon sources WITH any nitrogen input you give microbes a ready source of C energy to quickly mineralize the N without depleting organic C already in the soil. Graeme Saits recommends humic/fulvic acids at 5% of actual N input by weight.
Decomposing plant residues is performed by particular bacteria and fungi. Adding a source of N can help some of them to grow & work more quickly, but some not. IMO from my studies, it is almost always better to add active C, because most crop residues (of the same year/growing season) have enough N but not enough ready-to-eat (active) C for the microbes to grow rapidly & do the hard work of breaking down lignin and cellulose.
@@williamgibson2760 sorry but i didnt understood what u said so can u tell me in simple words? Is there any other mathod to decampose high carbon residue without urea ??
@@Ultimatefitness360sure. Fish and soy hydrolysate.