Ohio Farm Tours

This is carbon load from last year. As you see we have a mix of legumes, grains and brassicas. We planted our NitroBoost green into this field and terminated with herbicide due to crop growth stage (late spring here in Ohio and crimping wasn’t an option)

This will breakdown and keep ground covered, feed our soils microbes and feed NitroBoost as it prepares the ground for fall planting of Carbon Load! Further reducing our reliance on needs for inputs!

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Soil Health Friday – Why do I think tillage has its place?

Over the years “soil health” has been thrown around and can be undeniably polarizing. There is a massive movement from the garden to agriculture space that often divides those who are no-till vs. those who till. In the food plot space, it may be even more polarizing as many squeeze their finances to afford a no-till drill and steel roller-crimper for a part-time hobby.

Now, before we think this is going to be an article that is all pro-tillage, I hate to disappoint you, but it won’t. I also will highlight my hypocrisy, as I am the gardener and food plotter who has dreamed of the day of owning a no-till drill and has preached about no-till for years.

What I have learned is there is a continuum in the soil health, farming, gardening, and food plotting industry that everyone falls on, and to impact soil health - we need to appeal to the masses and just get folks started.

I want this article to be focused on inclusion and the importance thereof. The goal of find a way to support all people in the pursuit of better soil conservation and soil health. To achieve greater inclusion, I think we must start by identifying the ideal system (at least based on what we know today).

The ideal system would maximize the six soil health principles. (noble research institute cited below). A no-till drill to reduce disturbance, keeping thatch on the ground, using diverse cover crop mixes (Vitalizeseed.com), etc. will help to maximize these efforts.

The six soil health principles are:
  1. Know Your Context
  2. Cover the Soil
  3. Minimize Soil Disturbance
  4. Increase Diversity
  5. Maintain Continuous Living Plants/Roots
  6. Integrate Livestock

So, let’s talk tillage. What if a guy will not be interested in soil health if he can't disc or till? Do we just give up on that cohort? Or can we work together to explain the damage of tillage, chemical fallowing, etc., and possibly get them to consider a form of conservation tillage? I will take the latter and find a plan that works for that grower's context.

Conservation tillage is light tillage that leaves 30% or greater thatch on the top of the surface of the field. Some might think of vertical tillage as a popular means of conservation tillage, for example.

My theory is that if we can be inclusive and teach all about the principles of soil health and just get someone started, we can fine-tune the processes and work towards idealism later.

To be clear, we know that tillage causes damage to fungal networks, and soil aggregates, and pumps oxygen into the system which overstimulates our microbes and can facilitate oxidation reactions that tie up our nutrients. A heavy tillage system, without cover crops and huge reliance on inputs is destined for degradation of the soil profile. Similarly, no-till without diverse cover crop mixes, crop rotations, etc. will plateau in its benefits. This brings us back to the 6 soil health principles, the more of these we involve in our system the faster our soil's potential is realized.

At Vitalize Seed we want everyone to feel more educated and confident in implementing a soil health plan that works for the growers’ goals on their slice of heaven. Each year working towards fewer synthetic inputs, less disturbance, more diversity, and better healthier soils.

We have years of experience in testing our mixes in no-till methods, and we know that we can reduce to eliminate the need for synthetic inputs by taking advantage of biology and nutrient cycling in our wildlife pastures and gardens, using VitalizeSeed diverse, well-balanced mixes.

We hope you will give building soil a try! Enjoy the journey and build better soils!

AT

Buckhunter ... good stuff, thanks for sharing. Watched a few of your videos, also good stuff!

I am planting soy beans this spring into standing WR & clover. My soil ranges from loamy sand to some better stuff.

What are your thoughts on building the soil going forward? I will over seed more clover this summer and over seed with WR this early fall. How do I balance additional components for improving the C:N ratio?

Should I over seed clover right away after planting the beans? I will most likely need to spray the beans with glass to kill the foxtail and other no desirable weeds.
 
Buckhunter ... good stuff, thanks for sharing. Watched a few of your videos, also good stuff!

I am planting soy beans this spring into standing WR & clover. My soil ranges from loamy sand to some better stuff.

What are your thoughts on building the soil going forward? I will over seed more clover this summer and over seed with WR this early fall. How do I balance additional components for improving the C:N ratio?

Should I over seed clover right away after planting the beans? I will most likely need to spray the beans with glass to kill the foxtail and other no desirable weeds.
Hey Buddy! Thank you for the kind words! Gosh, some of my videos need to be redone!! I learn more each day.

So I am obviously biased towards my own mixes (lol). However, I think you have a good plan going. Beans are a great deer attractor but not the best N-fixer. Winter Wheat is a good N scavenger but I don't think it's as attractive or winter hardy as winter rye, also its root structure isn't as deep as tuber forming brassicas. Clovers are wonderful but there is a lot of variety in growth rates, N fixation, root structure, etc. For example, some ladino types spread like wild and are hard to control, whereas Crimson or Berseem is more easily terminated and cycle nutrients fast, without the overtaking tendencies.

So in my opinion to build soil we need to follow the 6 soil health principles as closely as possible
  1. Know Your Context
  2. Cover the Soil
  3. Minimize Soil Disturbance
  4. Increase Diversity
  5. Maintain Continuous Living Plants/Roots
  6. Integrate Livestock (manage deer browse)
So if you are running beans and clovers, those are lower C:N plant species - when they die, they will be consumed quickly, relative to your microbial and fungal populations in the soil profile. Now just over-seeding with WW in the fall will help to cycle some of the N that is in the system from the legumes fixation all summer, but will it be enough to keep the microbes fed, and enough for the plants healthy, without the aid of fertilizer? I am not sure. I also don't know if you will produce enough N to cycle the WW breakdown the following Spring (assuming no-till methods) unless you add more legumes and other lower C:N sources to balance it out.

This is why (tip of the iceberg) I like a lot more diversity in my mixes - so we can increase N fixation but also have varying levels of decaying materials that are feeding the microbes and plants through the subsequent growing seasons. This allows us to have the ground covered, and enhance nutrient cycling.

At a minimum, I would seed into my beans WW, Clover (of your choice), and Radish.

Just focusing on N here but for talking purposes, N will get to nitrate form and if we are not able to have a root there ready to assimilate it, we are at risk of it leaching. The better job we do at fixing N and cycling N through diversity, the easier our job gets to make it look like we are darn good food plot farmers. We can further discuss the other benefits of high diversity, nutrient solubility, plant assimilation, and stress mitigation at any time - these are just some of the benefits of balanced diverse mixes.

I like to say " At Vitalize Seed we have diversity with a purpose!!"

I hope this is useful - message or comment at me anytime.

Albert
 
Soil Health Friday – Nitrogen (mining vs. fixing)

At Vitalize Seed, we often preach about nutrient cycling. As we go down this rabbit hole, it is very easy for folks to assume that if N fixing is a good thing; more must be better! This is where we can get into trouble.

Nitrogen fixation occurs through legumes and the bacteria (rhizobacteria) in the soil that colonize roots and fixes atmospheric N. Note: there has been science that shows it can also occur in highly functioning microbial systems, with the increase in microbe populations and the response to diverse plant species within the microbiome, outside of solely legumes. I digress. The importance behind nitrogen fixation is often discussed and, one could argue, often over-simplified.

The part that is left out is the rest of the nitrogen cycle. Nitrogen will naturally cycle from gas (N2) or NH4 (ammonium – often from decomposition/nitrification) and will eventually making its way to nitrate (N03). Again, there is science that shows plants can assimilate both ammonium and nitrate but for this article, let’s just assume nitrate assimilation is the main topic.

Nitrate is the most leachable form of nitrogen and, depending on your growers’ practices and soil structure, you can easily lose some of the nitrogen your plants and ecosystem worked so hard to convert! This is one of the reasons why a monoculture of legumes is not a benefit to the system as a whole. Nitrate leachability is a major issue, from environmental pollution to pulling Ca off the soil colloid, which can further change our soil structure.

This brings us to the importance of nitrogen mining. Nitrogen mining can occur through various crops that “like” nitrogen. For simplicity, let’s look at radish. Radish has been shown to scavenge a lot of nitrates from the soil profile and convert this nitrate into organic forms that can then be released and re-used during the next planting cycle as the radish decomposes. I have read about ranges from 70 to 200 lbs per acre of N scavenging!

Some research papers refer to this as nitrate recycling, which I think is great! It helps to visualize the importance of having diverse crops in our system that assimilate various nutrients, convert them, and again make them available for the subsequent plantings. This is the idea behind nutrient cycling (specifically N but we can cover others in another write-up)!

We can reduce our dependence on synthetics as we increase our input of nitrogen through N fixation. This is all occurring via the microbes and recycling any additional nitrogen through scavenging and recycling!

So now that we have a general understanding of the nitrogen cycle, this allows us to have a better understanding of why balanced carbon to nitrogen mixes are so important! If we have too much N in the system, our microbes will look for carbon and can literally “mine” our organic matter out of our systems if we don’t have another adequate carbon source. If we have too much carbon in the system and not enough N, we can have N tie-up, which results in major grower frustration and can often lead to turning the soil or spraying N to help expedite the thatch breakdown.

With the Vitalize Seed Mixes, we can continue to fix N and cycle it through our balanced system. We are further able to sequester other nutrients in the soil profile through the feeding of microbes and fungi which results in more complex nutrient cycling.

As we plant our spring and summer mixes, we prepare our soil for fall and our fall mix prepares our soil for spring! Each subsequent year, the planting becomes more and more efficient as our nutrient cycling is enhanced through stronger microbial and fungal populations.

Build Better Soil!
 
Soil Health Friday – Tissue Sampling

I took tissue samples of Carbon Load in a 3x3 square in a HEAVILY browsed plot (planted last fall, taken this spring). The timing for sampling was not ideal for getting nutrient readings, specifically nitrogen. A few reasons for this:
  1. It was early in May and many of the crops were still fairly young in their growth, and not yet at seed head stage.
  2. This field is small and the browse pressure was very heavy. This can set back the grains (from a tissue sampling perspective, they were still growing – which is a plus for soil!).
  3. We had several large rain events, that will push nitrate (noticed on the soil test) deeper into the soil profile. If the previous crop is unknown, Ward Labs assumes 25lbs/ac of nitrate in soil profile below the 6inch mark. However, in no-till, heavy legume and balance systems, like Vitalize Seed, we can see this number become far larger. Assuming the most conservative of numbers, we have 30lbs of nitrate readily available, even on this small plot. With our legumes in this mix, this number is likely higher. Our crops in the Nitro boost will also mine nutrients deep in the soil, and further drive the nutrient cycling.
We still want to keep in mind that we also have 2.6% OM (which will mineralize and provide nutrients to plants) and of course, our tissue sample is showing additional 15lbs per acre that will be broken down and available for plant uptake. I am confident that, had I taken this sample in a larger field where the rye was more headed out, the N reading would have been higher per acre for tissue sampling, and my nitrate value would be greater in a 12-24inch depth. I am satisfied with the results and, as they are, I will not fertilize this plot again this year (more to explain why below). I also am not solely focused on N assimilation since, as we have discussed, there are various other benefits (discussed in other blogs) to highly diverse systems and how they benefit the microbiome to plants to animals consuming such plants.

What is most impressive is when we look at the phosphorus and potassium that are being taken up by the plant. Due to the fungal networks in the soil in a highly diverse, no-till system, we can make much of this more bio-available than what shows on a typical soil test. You will notice the discrepancies between the soil test fertilizer recommendations, and plant decaying nutrients back into the soil profile.

Soil sample recommendations are very useful, but they don’t take into account above-ground biomass or even OM mineralization. There isn’t a real way to tell how functional a system is without a full in-field audit or a combination of soil health assessment tests, knowing the growers’ practices, etc. We know that with the Vitalize One-Two system, we can optimize our nutrient cycling and by doing so, we can allow our subsequent plantings to benefit from the last.

Another item I must highlight is that this is JUST a tissue analysis. This does not figure in the root biomass, organic matter mineralization, or additional N-P-K fixing inputs from our Nitro-Boost that was planted into this soil (on this same day). The Nitro-Boost has both legumes and non, so we can not only take advantage of massive N-fixation but also mine our nitrate from deeper in the soil profile, as discussed above.

Let’s take a further dive into phosphorus. According to the soil test recommendations we need 50lbs of P to achieve a top yield goal of a cover crop mix. In the past, we would take this number and go buy P. By cycling nutrients using Carbon Load in the fall and Nitro-boost in the spring, we can see our results and fertilizer needs or non-needs.

According to the soil test, we have 19lb of Phosphorus available. Now take a look at the tissue testing (much of which will break down quickly due to our high microbial systems), we have an additional 6lbs. OM mineralization will give us another 2lbs per % - adding up to 5.2lbs. This gives us over 30+lbs of phosphorus available! This doesn’t count any of the root biomass (huge amount of nutrients there) in the calculations of the terminated fall crop. Furthermore, if we use the same method with K, we will see in the tissue sample alone, that we have assimilated almost enough K for the next crop!

The reason this is important is that we are continuing to record and research how our mixes are impacting biology to interreact with the macro/micronutrients within the soil. Over-fertilization can lead to less productive microbes and the breakdown of stable organic matter. Over tillage can lead to the destruction of fungal networks - these networks help to break down these higher C: N, lignin-filled plants and are crucial to nutrient cycling. They also help to release enzymes that further drive the nutrient uptake of plant-available NPK.

We are not anti-fertilization but we are HUGE advocates for research so we know exactly what needs to be put down, when, why, and in what amounts. This helps to reduce the grower’s reliance on fertilization as well as enhance our microbial communications with the plant communities.

In conclusion – this is about the worst-case scenario I could highlight on my farm: the plots were still fairly immature, tremendous amounts of rain had occurred recently, it’s been a cold spring, and the plot size is about ¼ of an acre. On top of all that, this is in a high deer density area, further reducing my above-ground biomass, relative to my other larger fields with inherently higher OM, above-ground biomass, etc.

This field was a good one to show as it is more representative of what many folks are planting and dealing with. By quantifying what we can achieve and build from over time through the Vitalize Seed One-Two System, I am extremely satisfied with the results!

I hope you find this useful. I promise to never stop researching, learning, and sharing information about the robust world of soil health.

Thank you for considering Vitalize Seed as your seed source.

Albert
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We are taking pre-orders for the fall seed mix - Carbon Load. If anyone is interested.. Orders will ship in July.

 
Soil Health Friday – Keeping Soil Covered

One of the important principles of soil health is “keeping the soil covered”. You might hear this said a few different ways, such as “armor the soil”, “constant thatch”, etc. All in all, these are different variations of saying the same thing, and one of the big driving factors for no-till growing methods.

Keeping the soil covered allows the grower to slow rainfall down, reduce erosion risk (specifically when accompanied by a growing root), reduce soil surface temperature, increase water infiltration, and reduce water evaporation. Having this armor on the soil also will slowly break down, releasing nutrients to our growing plants (correct carbon to nitrogen ratios over cover crops and crop rotations play a big role here and with nutrient cycling, we can cover more of this in another blog).

So why does this matter?

As we keep our soil covered, and increase our duration of having a constant root growing in our soils, we increase our microbial (specifically fungal) networks in our soil structure. These fungal networks create biotic glues (glomalin) which further help to hold the soil together (aggregates). When you combine this with root structures in the soil, you have further created a porous soil structure for better water infiltration. You have also slowed down the raindrops before they are pounding into the top layer of the bare dirt (traditional deep tillage system) – this helps to heavily reduce erosion and even compaction! There have been studies that show rainfall on bare soil is a leading cause of compaction – mind-blowing!!

Now that we have the soil covered and we are taking advantage of all in the list above, we can increase water infiltration in our soils. This means that we are increasing water efficiency. So, in times of heavy rains, we are not having our water and soil run off, as it is infiltrating which is allowing our plants to take full advantage of the available rainfall, far beyond the immediate time in which it fell. Likewise, in dry periods when having the soil covered we can reduce the soil temperature and reduce dew evaporation, allowing us to take advantage of even the smallest amounts of moisture that would otherwise be lost in a traditional system.

As we continue to increase the health of our system and soils through better microbial activity, we achieve better nutrient solubility, water efficiency, water infiltration, etc. We can continue to stimulate other microbial communications that further drive the synergistic nutrient cycling and symbiotic plant communications with the soils, making our soils and plants healthier.

Here at Vitalize Seed, we have come up with two mixes and plans for planting these mixes that help to drive all of these systems and soil health benefits. We fully believe in transparency and research and want to continue to share information about soil health, to allow our growers and customers to choose the best methods for their slice of heaven.

Thank you for considering Vitalize Seed as you cover crop seed source. We believe in diversity with a purpose.

Albert
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I’m guessing the pics have some broadcasted and some drilled. It looks better where it was broadcasted honestly just from the coverage aspect.
 
I’m guessing the pics have some broadcasted and some drilled. It looks better where it was broadcasted honestly just from the coverage aspect.

Correct. We actually drilled and broadcasted between rows on larger fields. It’s hard to see in those pics but the growth between rows is slightly behind the drilled row. By end of growing season we should have major tonnage and between rows broadcast methods will have caught up!!

Super happy with both methods and even how a 2 row planter worked on a diverse mix!!

Thanks for following along!
 
What style of 2 row planter did you use? I'm playing around with double planted corn on 72 inch or so rows this week. Was planning on broadcasting a diverse mix between the rows but now am tempted to run some through the other side of the planter. Figure just throw a bean plate in there and see what happens.
 
What style of 2 row planter did you use? I'm playing around with double planted corn on 72 inch or so rows this week. Was planning on broadcasting a diverse mix between the rows but now am tempted to run some through the other side of the planter. Figure just throw a bean plate in there and see what happens.

I used my buddies old Allis Chalmers 2 row planter with no-till coulters. We did put a smaller bean plate in after we "calibrated it" - so we know roughly how much seed was being put down per so many feet. We then figured wed broadcast the difference over the top and as you can see it is filling in pretty well! Our mix has 13 different species in the Spring/Summer Mix - one of the items we needed to be cognizant of when using the planter is seed separation. We achieved great seed distribution by simply mixing seed up in the boxes every couple acres. I am sure if you ran for 5 hours straight without adding or mixing seed, you'd have some seed separation. Just an FYI.
 
Soil Health Friday – Soil Structure?

One of the keys to understanding soils and nutrient cycling is understanding what gives structure to the soil. Often, we see CEC referenced on our soil samples results but the grower might be unsure of how to apply that information. We also might hear the words aggregates, base saturation, sandy, tight, clay, loam, etc. to describe our soil conditions, but what does it all mean and how can we implement an approach for the best plan on that particular field? Let’s dive in!
We must start by recognizing the complexity of soils and structures of soils, these are very complex, and very few fields will even be homogenous throughout their entirety. Soils are variable and the biological component in them is fluid and forever moving, living, respiration, and changing. The goal is to allow our biological aspect of soils to best work for us, through reduced disturbance, diversity, constant roots growth, and all additional the soil health principles.
To ensure our soils have good structure, we must start by looking at base saturations and our ideal targets for these, based on the CECs of our soils.

Let’s assume we have a very low CEC, which is typically indicative of sandy soil. We will want to ensure that this soil structure is tighter than say a higher CEC (more clay) type soil. Therefore, we are going to aim for a higher MG base saturation in this soil to hold the soil tighter. The inverse of this would be a high MG soil, in a higher CEC soil type. This soil might need more CA to increase the porosity and formation and spacing of the IONS on the soil colloid, also driving out the MG for a more porous structure. Simply by managing our base saturations, often can be accomplished with lime, we can enhance our soil’s structure. This is the foundation, in which we can build our soils and microbes homes.

Now that we have enhanced our soil structure through an adequate base saturation focus and adjustment. We can now switch our focus to our biological processes and planting methods. With Vitalize Seed we use a One-Two system that is designed to help with nutrient cycling, ideally through no-till systems. Due to the vast amount of diversity and balanced C: N ratios of our mixes, we are optimizing microbial communications in our soils and cycling nutrients so that one crop planting is feeding the next.

As we continue with these systems not only are we cycling nutrients, and adding OM through above and below-ground biomass. We are (more importantly) leading our systems to more fungal-dominated systems, over time. As we increase our mycorrhizae (and other fungal networks) in the soil and communicate with these networks through root exudation, we will increase our fungal enzyme releases and glomalin (biotic glue) production. Glomalin works as a “glue” for the soil and aids in the formation of soil aggregates. Soil aggregation is extremely important to the structure of the soil, the CEC of the soil, the water infiltration, and the microbial communication and transferability through the soil profile, and up into the plants. Aggregation is very susceptible to tillage, and tillage will damage or destroy the aggregation that our microbiome worked so hard to create.

In the end, if you are growing on beach sand to Appalachian clay – by following these above steps, over time – you will be able to create a better soil structure. This will help you with plant growth, microbial communications, water infiltration, root structure, erosion control, and much more.

As always, I hope this is useful, and thank you for considering Vitalize Seed as your source for balanced, cover crop seed mixes.
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Few update pics on the NitroBoost this Spring.

Feeding deer and soil - getting ready for the fall plantings!

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For anyone that cares - I got to be on Jared’s podcast Habitat Podcast - talking about our fall mix and our one-two system. Also what we strive do offer as a company that helps us stand out from the crowd. Happy Friday!!
 
Soil Health Friday -Organic Matter

As the soil health movement permeates into food plotting, gardening, etc. the key metric for success seems to be more fluid than ever before. One that is often thrown around is the increase in organic matter, relative to a previous soil test. My goal in writing this is to get the reader to think a bit deeper about how soils function and how OM is built over time.

What does Organic Matter do for our soils?

Organic matter is the humus layers in our soils. This is inherently high in Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC), this allows our soils to hold nutrients. Organic matter is a carbon source and storage vehicle as well, which if not carefully monitored through crop rotations, we can mine with our own microbes’ appetites. Organic matter allows for good water infiltration and will become mineralized per annum, releasing nutrients in bio-available forms to the next crop species to be grown.

Organic matter, in the past, was thought to take centuries to build, but that has been disproven in highly diverse systems, with enhanced microbial populations, and often heavy animal integration- in rotational and controlled grazing systems.

What Organic Matter isn’t-

Organic matter is not indicative of our soil’s functionality, microbial or fungal populations, and communications. We must keep in mind that OM on soil test readings can be extremely variable, especially when sampling procedures are not followed with ultimate precision. Even in areas where we have relatively high OM, we can still see where these soils are heavily reliant on human inputs to yield the grower's goals. Although these OM releases are likely to aid the crop in some way, if the crop and the system in which the crop is grown are reliant on inputs – the overall benefit we get from our natural OM releases will be stunted. There are also areas where our CEC and OM are extremely high, these can often be defined as MUCK-type soils. However, unless we are in a position to run tile, to help with the water drainage – we have reached a point of diminishing returns relative to our goal for higher OM and CEC and yield outputs.

So why is this important to understand and consider?
  1. Don’t feel you are failing if you are not seeing OM increases in a year, I like to track OM for quantifiable nutrient releases over a growing season and to see if I can notice a trend on a 5–10-year program.
  2. Be very leery of anyone telling you to use XYZ input, seed mix, etc., and claiming quantifiable OM increases, in the short term. Ask how the sample was taken, from what locations (same year over year), what depth, shovel, or soil probe, what time of year, what planting methods and mixes have been used over the last 3 years, browse/grazing pressure on the area, etc. Again, soil tests to show quantifiable OM increases need to be scientifically controlled to reduce variability.
  3. Keep in mind Newton's third law- every action in nature has an equal and opposite reaction. Although Newton was referring to physics and not biological processes, there is something to be observed here. Every input, tillage pass, seed mix, etc. have an impact (equal or opposite reaction correlative to our goals) on our soil’s profiles. An example, I often see recommendations for large amounts of manure or chicken litter to be spread to help increase OM (specifically in sandy or rocky soils). On the surface, this sounds appealing, but what we must keep in mind is the nitrate level of these manures and how that might be impacting our microbial populations, nitrate leaching, Calcium on our soil colloid, and plant-to-fungal communications. After large manure applications, these plants now have ample nitrate available (this is somewhat variable depending on the quality of the manure) the reason for the plants to pump exudates and communicate with the microbiome is now stunted. This is reducing our bacterial to fungal communications, which slows our mycorrhizae growth and creation of glomalin – biotic glue that helps create soil aggregates. Soil aggregate creation is extremely important, furthermore in sandy soils! I am not saying we should never add manure or other inputs, but we must be cognizant of their additional impacts on the soil profile, more is not always better. OM is not the only thing that will help us to create a functional soil profile. Organic Matter is a byproduct of a functional system, over time.
So, what can we do to manage our success?
  1. Focus on the 6th soil health principles - https://www.noble.org/regenerative-...h-principles-for-regenerative-cattle-ranches/
  2. When soil testing, take a look at your nutrients from year to year – are they increasing? Decreasing? Why?
  3. Consider a soil health assessment from WARD labs – this type of test is going to give you biological and conventional indicators of your soil’s health. These can be done year over year, to help track multiple indicators of soil health and the overall health of your soils system. https://vitalizeseed.com/product/ward-labs-soil-health-assessment/
  4. Take a shovel into the field and observe the soil. What does it look like? Smell like? Do you notice an increase in earthworms? How does water infiltrate after rain?
  5. Consider how you can use mixes that balance your C: N ratios of plant species, in highly diverse fashions. We have done this for you at Vitalize Seed with our One-Two System! As we increase our soil functionality and nutrient cycling through correct Carbon to Nitrogen balances in our soil profile, everything from increases in nutrient densities, pest resistance, and yes even OM over time.
  6. Don’t overlook the importance of your base saturation balances on your soil colloid and how that can benefit your soil structure.
  7. Don’t get discouraged!!!
Most importantly, have fun and enjoy the process. Continue to learn, ask WHY, and enjoy every day you get a chance to focus on soil health.

Thank you for considering Vitalize Seed as your seed source.

Sincerely –

Albert
 
Knee high by the 4th of July - the Sorghum in our NitroBoost understands the assignment!!

This growth continue to impress me as you zoom in and see the diversity and every area we have to capture sunlight is being utilized.


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Soil Health Friday -Integrating livestock - but we just have deer!!

One of the 6th principles of soil health revolves around integrating livestock. I’d argue this gets most often overlooked as most don’t have livestock to graze. What if we do have whitetails – can we make this work? Often it comes down to grazing pressure. Various studies show photosynthesis stops when fields are browsed past a certain %. Eventually, these browsed plants will never recover. When our plants are not photosynthesizing, our microbes are not being fed.

This is one of the benefits of planting a diverse and balanced Spring/Summer mix, we use our Nitro Boost to feed the soils and deer. Although it’s highly attractive to whitetails -its heterogeneity, at a time of year when deer have ample natural browse, allows even small acreage to grow great above and below-ground biomass - maximizing photosynthetic capture.

We suggest following this mix with our fall mix (carbon load). Carbon load is heavily focused on carbon biomass creation, which feeds off the N (and other nutrients) that have been fixed through the previous planting. Carbon load is highly browsable and cold tolerant, which allows us to extend our photosynthetic capture - into the coldest months of the year. This further helps to sustain our microbe populations that were fed all summer from the previous planting, supplementally driving our nutrient cycling, through balanced C: N ratios.

The ultimate goal of any well-managed whitetail farm is to ensure we have ample native browse all year, but as hunters, we all still want to attract deer to our Summer and Fall fields. The good news is when deer are urinating and defecating in these fields, this is adding organic matter to our system - this is a WIN! However, this win, does come with a caveat, and that is, it is only a win as long as the deer are not removing more than what is being grown.

As land managers if our goal is to grow the healthiest soil and deer, this is where we must emphasize monitoring browse levels (both native and food plots). If we are observing deer removing far more than we can plant - we need to consider increases in harvests quotas or planting more food - often both are necessary.

Remember, photosynthetic capture is our conduit for feeding microbes, and building soil over time. We cannot rotationally graze whitetails, but we can monitor our native browse and food plots, and manage our grazing/browsing pressure with a trigger. This will create healthier soils, and wildlife, and provide healthy protein for our families.
As always. Get outside and enjoy the process!

Thanks for allowing Vitalize Seed to be considered your source for cover crop seed mixes.
Albert
 
Here is a great example of how a diverse, no till system - can add a ton of food in a small area. This plot is about 1/10th of an acre. We no tilled in with a 2 row planter and broadcasted over the top. No fertilizer has been put down here! You can see the sorghum, buckwheat, sunflowers, clovers, beans, etc. all popping and with the amount of diversity it’s handling deer browse well! I Can’t wait to plant the fall blend to really step up the diversity!
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SEED IS IN STOCK FOR ONLINE AND DEALERS!!

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