Ohio Farm Tours

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Soil Health Friday – NO TILL ALONE, ISNT ENOUGH!

One of my favorite things to do is pull soil samples and send them to Ward Labs for analysis. I have been blessed to manage the same farm for over a decade. The fields, and results – although improving – are far from surprising. This year was different, this year I got a chance to help manage a brand-new farm in NE Ohio. Everything about this farm is different, from the topography to the soil types to the surrounding agricultural practices. Once we found the 3 acres we were going to plant and bush-hogged off the area, it was time to get the soil probe out and take some samples!

As a point of reference, you can see the soil results above. Due to this being a brand-new field and fairly sizeable, I divided this into three, one-acre sections. Then in each of these sections, I took multiple samples, to give me a solid grid collection area within the sections. I am very happy to see the consistency across the field and results (this implies that my sampling techniques were homogenous and we don’t need to remove any outliers from the equation).

Now, this field has not been farmed for decades. The majority of the farm is heavy brush and brambles, with a few intersecting tree lines full of oak and hickory trees. We carved out this small section to create our 3-acre food plot. One might assume, due to the promotion of no-till, that this field would be loaded with nutrients, I mean – it hasn’t been worked or planted in YEARS, right? Wrong!!

Let’s dive in - although the above-ground biomass and root structures are going to eventually release nutrients, we are in a major nutrient tie-up situation here. Woody plants have been growing and absorbing nutrients for years. The lack of N fixing plants in the field further reduces its ability to cycle nutrients – as we want for a crop or food plot production field. Although this field has been “not tilled” for decades, without the focus on C: N rotations and nutrient cycling, all we have accomplished is bio-mass buildup and tie-up.

How do we know we are having an N tie-up? Well for one the inherent makeup of the field's plant species were woody types, which are going to be higher in C: N ratios, which will take longer to break down. Correlatively to our soil test results, you can see our nitrate readings at 6inchs, are almost non-existent. Our organic matter percentage is decent but relative to the CEC of our soils, and the fact it has not been tilled in decades, further shows that just letting a field fallow, without management, will not build our OM. Lastly, as we look at our base saturations, we see they are not nearly where we’d like them to be for this CEC type, driving the point home further that leaving a field fallow for decades will not create good soil on its own.

So, what is next?

The first thing we will do is get lime down. The PH needs to be raised, as do both our CA and MG base saturations. Simply by getting our PH in balance, and our CA to MG base saturations, we will have a major impact on the soil structure and nutrient availability. This will not happen overnight but will be our point of focus for the next couple of years.

This year we were not able to get into this field for Spring planting. This field would have done very well with our Nitro-boost as it could use some legumes natural N fixing abilities. However, we need to work with the cards we were dealt, so we will be starting in the fall. We will be letting the grass green up and doing a chemical burndown in August. We will then seed our highly diverse Carbon-Load mix into the dying thatch. This will help to prime the pump, for next Spring’s Nitro-Boost planting. Due to the extremely low amount of nitrate available in the soil, no plantings being done before this fall planting to help promote N-fixation, and a large amount of high C: N biomass/thatch on the surface that needs to be broken down – we will likely use a foliar/starter N, humic acid, and micros application at the time of seeding to help jump start this degraded system.

Over time, by using no-till practices and our 1-2 system from Vitalize Seed that focuses on nutrient cycling, we will wean off the need for fertilization and only amend to balance CA, MG, and PH, on occasion.

Not any one soil is the same, but we love pulling soil samples and coming up with a plan based on the history of that location to ensure success for the growers.

Thank you for considering Vitalize Seed as your seed supplier.

Sincerely -

Albert
 
Nothing major to report other than I should have plenty of updates by end of the weekend.

Big focus on an equip contract- need to finish some invasive treatment. Also going to be scouting fields to see how they look, possibly taking some cover crop tissue analysis - might wait a few more weeks.

Overall looking forward to a few days of getting some work done on the farm!
 

Great podcast and resource for all things soil health. Although not “regen ag” we can learn a lot from multi generational farmers, who have increased OM and farm 3k+ acres.
 
Soil Health Friday –

7th soil health principle? My vote is – Nutrient Cycling!

We often hear the term “build soil” – I am guilty of using it far too often! However, when it comes to a garden, AG, or food-plotting situation it is not as much about “building soil” with a singular mix or planting, as it is about cycling nutrients between plantings. Building soil (increasing our OM, microbe populations, etc.) is simply a bi-product of sound nutrient cycling processes and following the 6 soil health principles.

When we focus on nutrient cycling, we always need to think one step ahead of the current planting. Here at Vitalize Seed we often refer to C: N ratios and the importance of this balance and cycle. We have worked hard to take the guesswork out of this for our customers, hence a Spring planting that feeds the Fall and the Fall planting that feeds the Spring.
As we go from one planting to the next, we need to think in terms of carbon and nitrogen ratios. If we have a very high carbon fall planting, and we follow it with another high carbon Spring planting – we are setting ourselves up for nutrient tie-up – this often leads people to bring out the tiller again! This in and of itself can reduce our ability to "build soil".

To dive into this more, we must remember that the average microbe is made up of 8:1 Carbon to Nitrogen. These microbes need a diet source of at least 24:1 C: N. Hairy-Vetch, for example, is only 11:1 C: N – this means if you have a mono-culture of Hairy-Vetch, you are likely going to have some hungry microbes on your hands, in the near future. These microbes can and will find a carbon source, often mining our own organic matter…not building soil!

A counter-example of this would be cereal rye as the monoculture cover crop, before corn or even sunflowers. Unless you plan to spend a lot of time and money on N fertilizer, you are going to have N tie up. You have given the microbes a significant carbon source, but not enough nitrogen to break down the biomass, this is assuming all no-till. If we add tillage, we can break down the bio-mass faster, but there are negatives that accompany that decision - another blog for another day.

What happens when we do cycle nutrients efficiently?

With our mixes or any balanced system, you can use biology to cycle the above and below-ground biomass to feed the subsequent plantings. This helps to reduce or even eliminate the need for synthetic fertilizers.

How does this work?

We are mining nutrients, making them plant available to the next crop, and assimilating some nutrients into soil organic matter structures through the work of the microbes (bacteria and fungi) breaking down the previous plantings. Due to the C: N focus of our mixes, we can be confident that as the beans break down from the Spring planting, a rye grain will be there to assimilate the nitrate, for example.

Likewise, due to the diversity, a turnip or radish will be doing work by sending a tap root deep into the soil, helping grab any additional nitrate before it leaches out of our system. Due to the promotion of no-till and diverse plantings, we are also promoting fungal system establishment over time, allowing our system to become even more efficient at cycling higher lignin-filled crops. These fungal networks continue to promote the creation of biotic glues that further drive better soil structure, and aggregation, which help to promote healthy microbial populations in our soil profile, driving better soil creation!

All this nutrient gathering and cycling leads to healthier plants, soils, crops, deer, etc., and reduces our needs for inputs.

Thank you for considering Vitalize Seed as your seed source.

Albert
 
Vitalize Seed “NitroBoost” is rocking!!! Beans, peas, sorghum, vetch - etc. the legumes are fixing N and the other species are mining N. We will terminate this in a month and plant carbon load into this same field. No fertilizer has been added here. Just using nutrient cycling to feed the plantings. #soil #deer #foodplots #covercrops #diverse #foodplot

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Looking good Albert. Mine is way behind yours - planted in mid June up here…and really struggling with the hot temps and lack of rain. Will be drilling right through it soon with my “Wild Thing’s Carbon Load”. I already had most of the seed on hand but waiting for some inoculated Hairy Vetch to add to the mix.

Almost forgot - Had to nuke a 1-acre plot of my summer cover crop as I got a pigweed infestation in it. Will likely spray that plot one more time before drilling the fall crop.
 
Looking good Albert. Mine is way behind yours - planted in mid June up here…and really struggling with the hot temps and lack of rain. Will be drilling right through it soon with my “Wild Thing’s Carbon Load”. I already had most of the seed on hand but waiting for some inoculated Hairy Vetch to add to the mix.

Almost forgot - Had to nuke a 1-acre plot of my summer cover crop as I got a pigweed infestation in it. Will likely spray that plot one more time before drilling the fall crop.

Best of luck sir! I am sure it’ll be great this fall for you!!
 
Ohh my…Nitrogen!!! This week's soil health Friday will be talking about how these little fertilizer balls of N, impact our soil's ability to manage residues as well as feed the next crop!!
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Soil Health Friday – Nitrogen Cycle?

Soil chemistry can be overwhelming and complicated. This does not dilute the importance of our need to understand as much of it as possible if we want to grasp what is happening in our fields.

If you are following the blog posts, you see my weekly attempt to explain, in detail, the soil structure and functionality so that the reader and grower can use this knowledge to increase their efficiencies with their fertility management on their farm.

Often the word chemistry is thought to be synonymous with “man-made” or “synthetic”, however, chemistry is as natural as H20! As an additional example, inorganic forms of nitrogen are naturally occurring. These forms of nitrogen are transformed through biological processes in the soil profile, creating a more plant assimilable form (nitrate, inorganic). I have always found this to be fascinating because this is where chemistry and biology intersect within the medium, that is soil.

Nitrogen dominates the discussions as it is often considered to be a core driver for plant growth. We must recognize the importance of nitrogen in both the plant assimilable form as well as the organic forms (amino acids/protein/etc. within our organic matter, for example). Also, we should keep in mind the role nitrogen can play in aiding our microbes with a balanced diet, to help further drive carbon breakdown and nutrient cycling.

A very well documented but often overlooked aspect of nitrogen is the nitrogen cycle itself. This has been around a long time and if you Google search it, you will come up with various graphics that help to visualize the cyclical nature of nitrogen.

This is important because as you see in the below picture, we are fixing nitrogen through the natural process that legumes offer to our systems. They are taking atmospheric nitrogen (N2) and converting it to ammonia (NH3), what you see on the roots. This is done through a symbiotic relationship between the plant’s root exudates and n-fixing bacteria (rhizobia) The typical nitrogen cycle diagrams show assimilation occurring in the nitrate form. We do know that plants can also assimilate ammonium, which is made available from OM mineralization, there has also been ample research showing the plant assimilation of nutrients through microbes themselves (Rhizophagy Cycle, PhD. James White), but for this write up we will focus on nitrate. Worth noting, that in most aerobic soils, nitrogen converts to nitrate rather rapidly and is the most frequently absorbed form. Nitrate is also the most leachable form of nitrogen, more on this to follow.

So why does all this matter?

This goes back to a blog I wrote a few weeks ago about nutrient cycling. If we can understand the forms in which nitrogen takes and are assimilated, we can better adjust our fertility management and crop rotations. Here at Vitalize Seed, we strive to reduce or eliminate fertilizer needs for our growers. We are doing this by balancing the residue breakdown through carbon: nitrogen ratios, and also by keeping the N (for sake of this blog) in the cycle! This is why we have a highly diverse Spring blend that captures N and fixes N simultaneously (through balancing complementary plant species) and a fall blend that will further mine N in our systems, with a sound balance of N fixing capabilities as well.

As you can see from the last paragraphs the idea is to keep the N in the system and balance the residue breakdown so that when N does come available, we have adequate “miners” to “grab it”, allowing us to make our soils far more self-reliant and the entire system is more efficient. As we increase this efficiency we see higher microbial functionality in our soils, resulting in healthier crops and better nutrient cycling.

Thank you for considering Vitalize Seed as your seed source.

Albert
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Soil Health Friday – RESULTS ARE IN!!

When we started Vitalize Seed, we set out to test and quantify our system and results. I knew the science behind the system and I have watched the results with my own eyes on my farm for several years. However, we didn’t think that was enough for our customers. We felt it was necessary to further test and quantify our nutrient sequestration ability to further show how/why our systems reduce fertilizer needs, and create healthier soils – leading to healthier animals!

Tissue testing is time-consuming, tedious, and relatively expensive. We believe that tissue testing is critical if you want to show what is going on in the cover crop, from a nutrient-gathering perspective, and show that your plants are doing the things, you are telling customers they should be doing. This is why we continue to spend time and money on this type of testing throughout the growing season.

We set out to the fields with our square and a pair of scissors on July 15. We gathered our samples and sent them into WARD labs for their cover crop analysis, a few days later- the results were even better than anticipated!



Sample 1:

Nitrogen 49.59lbs per acre

Phosphorus: 19.46lbs per acre

Potassium: 80.77ls per acre

Sample 2:

Nitrogen: 45lbs per acre

Phosphorus: 21.28lbs per acre

Potassium: 74.38lbs per acre



These numbers alone are staggering, but what we must keep in mind is that this is ONLY the above-ground biomass from the Sring cover crop. (Nitro boost). This is also a month before termination, which means this will likely be higher in NPK and Micros, at the time of termination. This C: N ratio is relatively low compared to our fall planting (Carbon Load), which means this is going to break down quickly and allow our fall mix to take full advantage of the above nutrients!!

We also must keep in mind the Organic Matter mineralization rule of 10-30lbs of N per 1% OM. If these fields are 3% OM, we conservatively can figure another 30lbs of N, on top of the N in the above-ground biomass (listed above). The good news is it doesn’t stop there.

We can also consider our root biomass. Plants' root mass is often where we can have the largest impact on our soils. Our Spring Nitro boost is loaded with legumes, which will be fixing N all summer long, and that N is tied up in the ammonium form in the roots – not accounted for in this bio-mass sample. The roots will also have additional nutrients that will be released as well, after termination – again feeding the fall crop. The last item I want to mention is thatch – these fields still have some thatch on them that is breaking down from last year's fall (carbon load) planting. This is also not accounted for in our nutrient release but should be mentioned as it will also be feeding this year’s fall planting.

The fields where we have sampled have never had fertilizer put on them. These fields have had lime when needed. They can cycle nutrients and provide ample nutrient availability for the next crop all through nutrient cycling and balanced C: N ratios.

Based on these results, I look forwards to planting my fall crop and continuing to cycle nutrients, feed soil, and feed wildlife without the need for expensive inputs.

Thank you for considering Vitalize Seed. Have a safe and wonderful weekend.

Sincerely-

Albert
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Ty was nice enough to have me on his podcast last week. I had a blast talking about soil and ways we can make plans work for our goals.

Check him out and give his podcast a follow!

 
Soil Health Friday – Benefits of Diversity for Wildlife

This past Spring, we had several customers plant our Vitalize Seed Nitro Boost in areas where they had previously never been successful, due to over-browse. They had previously planted bean monocultures and they just couldn’t keep the deer from eating the beans to the dirt – despite their best efforts in harvesting does during hunting season.

When they planted the Nitro Boost, they were nervous this would be an issue again for them. However, they were extremely excited to see that they were able to grow “the best plots they’ve ever grown!”.

Now, I’d like to sit here and tell you we have created some superb genetically modified seed that allows deer to not over browse it, lol! However, the key here is the balanced diversity in the mix.

We focus a lot on soil health, and diversity is king! The variability in root exudation alone is of massive benefit to the soil microbiome and the solubilizing of nutrients for our crops to assimilate. Often, what we don’t speak about is how this diversity benefits wildlife.

Three reasons for diversity?

We are offering various crops that are maturing at different rates. This allows the field to be attractive at varying times throughout the season. This helps us to continue our photosynthetic capture for long periods vs. a plot that is eaten to the ground and then baren for the remainder of the year.

The fields are offering browsable plants at varying heights – the deer cannot just walk down a row and nip each top off. This increases the browse tolerance of the fields. We also capture the maximum amount of sunlight vs. allowing the sun to hit the soil directly - even in a closed canopy bean field, some light will get between beans, this is why weeds can still get through the canopy (at times), and this light is a missed opportunity to capture that energy with a crop we want for wildlife! Our diverse mix ensures each layer of above-ground biomass is covered, this results in tonnage and is an amazing vehicle for solar energy capture (photosynthesis)!

We are creating mini eco-systems. I have documented this well in my garden but it also applies to food plots. When you have varying levels of plants, species, pollinator-attracting species, etc. You create an environment outside of a mono-culture field. I often find frogs, snakes, and various positively predatory insects doing my pesticide control! As an example, in my garden, I watched dying sunflowers in September (right before Roma tomato harvest) attract aphids, only to have carpenter ants eat the aphids! Upon checking my tomato and pepper crop, I did not have a single aphid on a single crop plant! This is a small example of the natural symbiosis diversity in fields creates. This same example can be applied to food plots, not to mention feeding the microbes as some plants die off and feed microbes, further driving the nutrient cycling.

All in all, if you are not using diverse mixes - I hope this helps you to consider just a few of the benefits they offer.

Sincerely thank you for considering Vitalize Seed as your source!

Albert
 
Our fall mix was drilled directly into our Summer mix this weekend. We had fun and got about half inch of rain Sunday on the plantings.

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Thanks sir! Been long time coming!! The extra HP is nice!! Drill took like over a year but I’m happy with it!!
Have you been adding weight over the coulters? If so, how much? I'll be using my SAYA 507 for the first time in the next few days. Thanks.
 
Our fall mix was drilled directly into our Summer mix this weekend. We had fun and got about half inch of rain Sunday on the plantings.

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Was your intent in planting into the summer crop with the fall planting to terminate the summer crop?
 
Have you been adding weight over the coulters? If so, how much? I'll be using my SAYA 507 for the first time in the next few days. Thanks.

I did not add any weight as I felt I had perfect depth. However, I will likely add a little weight as the tractor pics the drill up very easily. My thought it just to get some tall buckets and fill them with quickrete. I could add 800-1000lbs easily.
 
Was your intent in planting into the summer crop with the fall planting to terminate the summer crop?

Ideally yes! I need that summer crop terminated as I want all the freed-up nutrients to be able to feed the soil. I felt strongly, based on the plant composition, that I could terminate most of it by drilling right through it. There were some fields that I sprayed due to weed pressure from over-browse (I need to shoot more does).

My opinion on these types of planting is it is highly dependent on the grower's goals. I don't care if a plot isn't 100% clean, as long as it isn't terrible weed pressure. However, if someone wants a totally perfect plot - I always suggest drilling, mowing, or drilling/spraying, or some version thereof.
 
Ideally yes! I need that summer crop terminated as I want all the freed-up nutrients to be able to feed the soil. I felt strongly, based on the plant composition, that I could terminate most of it by drilling right through it. There were some fields that I sprayed due to weed pressure from over-browse (I need to shoot more does).

My opinion on these types of planting is it is highly dependent on the grower's goals. I don't care if a plot isn't 100% clean, as long as it isn't terrible weed pressure. However, if someone wants a totally perfect plot - I always suggest drilling, mowing, or drilling/spraying, or some version thereof.

I had a similar crop to yours above ... beans, sorghum, millet, clover. I had not considered terminating as I wanted some tal cover. As this is just an observation, it appeared the beans did not see the high browsing pressure they normally see. I just overseeded brassicas, clover, turnips, & hairy vetch into this.

Any benefit to terminating while green versus mowing after frost kills these plants?

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