In this podcast from Stroud Water Research Center, host Scott LaMar discusses soil health with Lisa Blazure, Stroud Water Research Center soil health coordinator; Jim Hershey, president of the Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance and Lancaster County, PA, farmer; and Steve Groff, cover crop expert and farmer, also in Lancaster County, PA.

Some farmers claim that you need to “open up and fluff up the soil with tillage” so it can take in moisture and that no-till just makes the ground hard making it difficult for water to get through. Tradition may make you think that is the case. Read more in this article from the Dodge City Daily Globe (Dodge City, KS).

The soil health benefits of having a perennial forage in the crop rotation are better than any cover crop, because its living roots are in the soil for much longer. Hay prices have been strong over the last couple of years, and there is always a market for high-quality hay. Read more in this article from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Rural Affairs.

Florida vegetable farmers who grow cover crops as a green manure between their cash crops anecdotally tout the health benefits, but a two-year study by University of Florida has provided the research to back it up. In a Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SSARE) On-Farm Research Grant, University of Florida soil health expert Jehangir (Jango) Bhadha shadowed the cover crop practices of eight farmers across the state to measure the benefits of using cover crops (mainly cow pea and sunn hemp) as a soil amendment and nutrient source for subsequent cash crops.

Mitchell Hora walks to a field on his family’s southeast Iowa farm, where 5-inch-high soybeans grow in alternating rows with 4-foot-tall cereal rye. The 25-year-old admits that combining the two crops would make most farmers freak out. Read more in this article from The Hawk Eye (Burlington, IA).

Due to the increased demand for efficiency, farmers have had to pull more resources from the soil to make sure their production practices are as efficient as possible. The extra demand for resources from the soil has led to a decrease in overall soil health. Read more in this article from the Herald Journal News (Logan, UT).

In 2016, Shawn Freeland to make a difficult decision. The 45-year-old Caputa, S.D., rancher attended a Grassland Coalition Grazing School. In addition to reducing his stocking density on rangeland, he no-till drilled a diverse cover crop mix on irrigated hay acres. Read more in this article from Farm Forum (Aberdeen, SD).

Soil microbes are living, working barometers of soil health. They are responsible for turning atmospheric nitrogen into forms plants can use, and for releasing nitrogen back into the air. Read more in this article from the Wisconsin State Farmer.

In the midst of a renaissance in soil health, researchers, agronomists and extension personnel have been pushing the message that everything a grower does in a field is connected to everything else. Fertility is linked to planting depth, just as mycorrhizal fungi are connected to weed management. Read more in this article from Country Guide.

Country Crock, an Upfield brand, and No-till on the Plains, an agriculture educational non-profit, have partnered on a three-year program to support farmers with soil health education and cost-share to plant cover crops to improve soil health on fields.