Soil Health Day

Soil is something we often take for granted, providing food, textiles and several important ecosystem services that are essential to our survival. However, human history is riddled with examples of how poor agricultural management resulted in famines, displaced civilizations, and left behind long lasting negative impacts on soils that were once productive. Being good stewards of the soil is critical to harness its inherent ability to feed for the World’s growing population, improve water quality, sequester carbon and provide an extremely diverse habitat for terrestrial life on the planet. On a local level improving soil health creates opportunities to reduce our reliance on the importation of external resources, increase our regional food security and bolster the local economy.

Luckily, soil health has recently been becoming increasingly popular with agricultural producers and the general public as a whole. Terms like regenerative and sustainable are now commonly used to market products, but at the root of those terms are the principles being used to produce those products. These principles or pillars include minimizing soil disturbance/ tillage, and maximizing living roots, soil cover, biodiversity and integrating livestock into the system. There is also an increasing interest in measuring soil health indicators which include physical, chemical and biological properties and monitoring them overtime to evaluate how specific agricultural management practices impact soils. While the foundations of soil health may sound simplistic, applying them to individual operations requires a commitment and desire to implement adaptive management strategies on a long-term basis. The goals of improving soil health include reducing erosion and runoff, that lead to adverse environmental impacts, increasing soil organic matter and improving soil structure, which increases its ability to hold water and nutrients, making it more resilient to extreme weather events.

The Cornell Cooperative Extension Tri-County Ag Team is excited to announce there will be an upcoming free, Soil Health Day at Sheland Farms in Adams, New York on Thursday June 25th, to highlight the farms innovative agricultural practices. There will be a brief field tour to feature how double cropping triticale following lower relative maturity corn silage follows important soil health principles and produces high quality forage for dairy production. The tour will also include an overview of how manure injections improve nitrogen efficiency, reducing the amount of synthetic fertilizer that is required to produce the crops. There will also be an overview of programs that are currently available to qualifying producers from Jefferson County Soil and Water Conservation Service and the Natural Resource Conservation Service, and a brief farmer question and answer panel where local farmers will discuss how cover crops improve nutrient management and the resilience of the soil. The CCE Statewide Ag Climate Resiliency Specialist will give a talk on compaction and climate considerations, and the Cornell Soil Health Trailer will provide a rain simulator demonstration to showcase how different agricultural management practices impact soil available water holding capacity, soil erosion and runoff.

 For more information, please contact Eric Antrim, the Crop and Soil Specialist at esa63 [at] cornell.edu.