Soil fundamentals library

[SD51555]

I'm not worried about any of the nutrients. Here's the issue with soil tests and data. They are snapshots of what is available at that moment. The conventional soil test does not measure living soil's ability to free up nutrients from residues and organic matter as the season goes along. And it shouldn't because you can't always count on that in an annual fallow system.

I pulled those cores on May 4th. It was still cold. There is no mineralization going on when the soil is cold coming out of winter. There is no K problem. I couldn't have grown the biomass I did without the K. I'd be stunned if there wasn't upwards of 800 lbs of K20 equivalent in my standing residue. You just cant' grow that much biomass without the nutrient capital.

On the micros, those will come. Most of those micro nutrients don't require 4 ppm for the entire season. If I can mineralize 1ppm/month, it'll be there. Once it warms up, the microbes will go into hyperdrive eating 20,000 lbs/ac of balanced C:N biomass above and below ground and poop out mountains of soluble nutrients. I don't worry about deficiencies. If I can't see one, it isn't there. They will show themselves in stunted or discolored plants.

This is the big difference between biological systems and systems that see a hard fallow every year. If you spray or disc every season, you upset and reset that entire system. This is why you get purple grains and yellow and purple brassicas. When my stuff comes up, it's always green. There is no purple or yellow period, and no exposed dirt. That's the other side of all of this, covered soil is cool and moist soil. When it's cool and moist, it operates at peak efficiency, even on low to no moisture. There are limits to that of course, but a balanced biological system with a good coat of residue will always outperform an annual fallow and pellet fertility system when conditions get harsh.

Check out this article just on the power of earthworms alone. This doesn't count the immense amount of root exudates from the living plants all season. This is how I say I can produce $100,000 of worm castings per acre. Even when I was pulling my cores, half of them had worms come up in the core.

EARTHWORM PRIMER

“Biological Agriculture” relies on earthworms and other soil critters to do what plows and synthetic chemicals do in conventional agronomic systems. Follow the advice below to encourag…

worldagriculturesolutions.com

 

[SD51555]

This was the road plot on June 15th last year. It was already at 85.8% calcium when it punched out this crop, and with 2" of rain in april and zero snowmelt. When it is balanced, covered, and alive all year, there is no need for special tests and special tonics. The answer is always the same. I about tipped over when i measured 36" balansa, and I had some went even taller.

 

[Buckhunter10]

Great stuff SD.

As much as you share and enjoy, I find it surprising that you seem uninterested in some of the more robust biological quantitative data. It seems like it would be in your wheelhouse!

I agree with all you’ve said - the ability to cycle nutrients when things are balanced is amazing!! This year on my worst fields, I will drill directly into it in the Summer and likely the fall. I wont even crimp or spray - just continue to make it a MESS of plants and root diversity.

Love the earthworm article!

Do you mind sharing specifics (I have an idea, but I’d liked to hear) about how you figure your biomass consumption of microbes in lbs per acre? I’ve never seen anyone share that type of data specifically (more generally in OM mineralization, biological necromass, etc.), and that’s super intriguing to me if you have it dialed down or if that was more so an estimation. Either way, fantastic data share as always.

I need to dig out some old tissue testing I did and share it. I did soil testing and then tissue testing (within the same 2by2 square). It was super interesting to compare the two.

 

[SD51555]

Great stuff SD.

For as much as you share and enjoy - I find it surprising that when it comes to knowing some of the more robust biological quantitative data - that you seem uninterested. Seems like it would be in your wheel house!

I agree with all you’ve said - the ability to cycle nutrients when things are balanced are amazing!!

Love the earth worm article!

Do you mind sharing specifics on (I have an idea but I’d liked to hear) how you figure your biomass consumption of microbes in lbs per acre? I’ve never seen anyone share that type of data specifically and that’s super intriguing, especially when considering below OM mineralization with that as well.

Sure.

20,000 lbs/ac of biomass is a conservative estimate. Yellow sweet clover produces 10,000 lbs/ac when it's only 24" tall. In the second year, I'm conservatively estimating it makes 20,000 when it's 4x that size. Mine reached 7' across the plot, and it was layered in with 40" balansa, 36" red clover, 7' chicory, some cereal grains, and a few thistle that reached 5'. You have to double your above ground biomass to account for the root to shoot ratio of what is above is also below. Big building, big footings.



If you've got 20,000 lbs of biomass and 4% of that is P, K, Ca, Mg, that is 800 lbs macros just from residue. Then throw in a conservative million earthworms per acre which produce 1-ton of castings per day, and you get 31 lbs/day K from worm castings. Now, those worms are eating a bunch of that residue, so let's not count both twice. Just castings alone times 100 warm growing days in my region would give me 3,100 pounds of available K per acre just from worms.

But it's not all at once. A factory produces every day and worms do to, and at the rate the plants using it need it. Worms perfected the JIT system before the japanese.



1 ton x 1.56% = 31 lbs/day K



Can I sustain a million per acre? No problem.



So the big question becomes, I've got way more fertility than I can use, so what is the yield limiting factor? I'd argue it's day length, season length, moisture, oxygen, and limits of the plants themselves. At a certain point, they need to stop and reproduce, or start building reserves for next season. It would be interesting to get some sunnhemp out there to see what it could do in a season.

I think this is also the reason that southern guys can get 7' tall rye, and we struggle to hit 5' most years in zone 3. We just don't get the heat the southern guys get before day length triggers reproduction.

 

[SD51555]

And I don't get wrapped up in data anymore. You can skip to the end knowing the steps that get you to the end. The guy eating healthy and doing healthy things is gonna have better outcomes than the guy eating doritos and sitting on the couch. Those things don't need to be proven. The data is important to make lime recommendations, but beyond that, the same steps will get you the rest of the way regardless of the conditions.

I will always bet on the guy using these principles over any other system. The other system can work well when nature cooperates, but when it doesn't, the regen guy is gonna have a crop at the end of the day, and the iron and pellet guy is gonna be cursing the weather for failures.

 

[SD51555]

Sometimes I give the farmers a hard time, but I also understand their bearings are up against the bandsaw every season, and they can't risk failure, or the auction is just around the corner.

That said, we got one inch of rain since winter, and it came at once. There's a farm a couple miles away from me, and that dude farms it conventionally. He plows and cultivates and sprays and puts down fertilizer. We've been in stage 2 drought or worse for 5 years. That one inch of rain took 8" of topsoil ten feet wide out of all of his gullies, and his field doesn't have hardly any slope. It just hit the pan and slid right off.

 

[Buckhunter10]

Heck yes @SD51555 great stuff.

I still love testing but time and money limit me. Sometimes a shovel alone allows me to see my progress.

Top is an old logging deck in probably 5 to 6 years we’ve made huge improvements in soil - as seen.

Second pic started of better but I mistakenly abused that soil for years with conventional system. Not only does that soil now have high microbial biomass ( both fungi and bacteria) via plfa testing - a simple shovel could have showed me I was in good hands (worms).

Now my limiting factor is deer browse. Undoubtedly it’s an issue and one I am working hard to manage via harvest, timber mgt. and more acres in plotting.

 

[Buckhunter10]

Sure.

20,000 lbs/ac of biomass is a conservative estimate. Yellow sweet clover produces 10,000 lbs/ac when it's only 24" tall. In the second year, I'm conservatively estimating it makes 20,000 when it's 4x that size. Mine reached 7' across the plot, and it was layered in with 40" balansa, 36" red clover, 7' chicory, some cereal grains, and a few thistle that reached 5'. You have to double your above ground biomass to account for the root to shoot ratio of what is above is also below. Big building, big footings.

View attachment 77386

If you've got 20,000 lbs of biomass and 4% of that is P, K, Ca, Mg, that is 800 lbs macros just from residue. Then throw in a conservative million earthworms per acre which produce 1-ton of castings per day, and you get 31 lbs/day K from worm castings. Now, those worms are eating a bunch of that residue, so let's not count both twice. Just castings alone times 100 warm growing days in my region would give me 3,100 pounds of available K per acre just from worms.

But it's not all at once. A factory produces every day and worms do to, and at the rate the plants using it need it. Worms perfected the JIT system before the japanese.

View attachment 77387

1 ton x 1.56% = 31 lbs/day K

View attachment 77390

Can I sustain a million per acre? No problem.

View attachment 77388

So the big question becomes, I've got way more fertility than I can use, so what is the yield limiting factor? I'd argue it's day length, season length, moisture, oxygen, and limits of the plants themselves. At a certain point, they need to stop and reproduce, or start building reserves for next season. It would be interesting to get some sunnhemp out there to see what it could do in a season.

I think this is also the reason that southern guys can get 7' tall rye, and we struggle to hit 5' most years in zone 3. We just don't get the heat the southern guys get before day length triggers reproduction.

You could also figure in microbe mineral solubilization of geological minerals/nutrients in this, both fungi and bacterial necramass as well!!

Super exciting to consider how much tonnage we can truly cycle.

 

[SD51555]

Heck yes @SD51555 great stuff.

I still love testing but time and money limit me. Sometimes a shovel alone allows me to see my progress.

Top is an old logging deck in probably 5 to 6 years we’ve made huge improvements in soil - as seen.

Second pic started of better but I mistakenly abused that soil for years with conventional system. Not only does that soil now have high microbial biomass ( both fungi and bacteria) via plfa testing - a simple shovel could have showed me I was in good hands (worms).

Now my limiting factor is deer browse. Undoubtedly it’s an issue and one I am working hard to manage via harvest, timber mgt. and more acres in plotting.
View attachment 77393View attachment 77394

If your deer are cleaning you out on whatever caliber of forage you're offering them, dial it down a notch. I would love to grow beans, corn, and radishes, but I don't have the acres to outrun the deer. Instead, I grow clovers, cereals, flowers, and broadleaves that are further down the preference scale.

When I started the last consideration I had was feeding deer. My initial objective was to grow the thickest blanket of residue possible. Once I had that, I could tinker with other stuff, but I also kept an eye on making sure I get the next residue crop as well. I'm a little concerned about this year because I really screwed up with that 12 bushel/ac rate of oats. The creator got a chuckle out of that under 5" of duff and dropped 1.5" of rain on it the day I planted.

Every dang oat germinated and they snuffed each other out. I don't know if my clovers are going to survive those conditions. I planted them last fall anyway, but I'll find out in 30 days if they made it through.

 

[Buckhunter10]

If your deer are cleaning you out on whatever caliber of forage you're offering them, dial it down a notch. I would love to grow beans, corn, and radishes, but I don't have the acres to outrun the deer. Instead, I grow clovers, cereals, flowers, and broadleaves that are further down the preference scale.

When I started the last consideration I had was feeding deer. My initial objective was to grow the thickest blanket of residue possible. Once I had that, I could tinker with other stuff, but I also kept an eye on making sure I get the next residue crop as well. I'm a little concerned about this year because I really screwed up with that 12 bushel/ac rate of oats. The creator got a chuckle out of that under 5" of duff and dropped 1.5" of rain on it the day I planted.

Every dang oat germinated and they snuffed each other out. I don't know if my clovers are going to survive those conditions. I planted them last fall anyway, but I'll find out in 30 days if they made it through.

I plant my mixes, which are heavy in clovers (fixation balansa, frosty berseem, vetch, crimson, chicory, etc.). Our summer mix has been fantastic, as we have increased the sorghum and Sudan.

Last year, I drilled 40 acres of plots (20 acres twice a year) and broadcasted probably another 5-10 acres. The issue is honestly just a deer density problem. We manage our 300-acre farm for timber production, and I have done probably 25 acres of specific TSI, with who knows how much random hinge cutting/felling/edge feathering/etc.

In SE Ohio - foothills of Appalachia - I shouldn't have deer eating beech stumps, the foresters want you to treat them with herbicide post-cut, as the deer "won't keep up with them". That is not the case in my neighborhood.

Over the past two years, I have increased my clover planting and my diverse cover crop acres. I am working on another 17 acres of TSI, and lastly, we will hammer antlerless deer come season.

This is one of the reasons I am very interested in the testing (for myself). I like to see my total nutrient digest in the soil profile at 6 inches. I can assume worms are helping to increase the availability of nutrients (as well as microbes and fungi)and certainly soil aggregation.

I can also play out the worst-case scenario from a nutrient availability perspective if everything continued to walk off the field year after year (obviously, that's not the case, and the biomass I am getting, specifically in the Summer, will be mid-cab height on the tractor). Nonetheless, I am interested in testing every few years to see if I can notice any changes in the TND profile.

 

[Buckhunter10]

As you see - biomass coming out of winter is amazing. However I know that the browse during fall and winter sets back some photosynthesis and root growth. It’s not just food plots, but also the forest. We’ll keep working on it!!

 

[Westwind]

we do micros with gypsum and humics base

What is the timing of putting this on? I'm slightly behind and haven't started planting, probably start Sunday.

I have one strip at the extreme north edge of my place that is tan, dryish clay. Comes up thinner than I want no matter what I plant. 20 feet away is soil that supports anything I plant. I was going to give it a shot of 10-10-10, seed heavily with a smorgasbord of seed but now I'm thinking that might only be a partial solution.

 

[Buckhunter10]

What is the timing of putting this on? I'm slightly behind and haven't started planting, probably start Sunday.

I have one strip at the extreme north edge of my place that is tan, dryish clay. Comes up thinner than I want no matter what I plant. 20 feet away is soil that supports anything I plant. I was going to give it a shot of 10-10-10, seed heavily with a smorgasbord of seed but now I'm thinking that might only be a partial solution.

So I would love to say put these down and reap the rewards, but I would honestly suggest a soil test first. Based on what you are saying it sounds like it could be low OM, and probably inadequate CA to help soil base saturation %, porosity, and structure. I have applied the micros at planting or with lime. It does have gyspum and humics in it, which also helps with soil structure a bit but likely wont be enough at 25lbs to an acre to really impact the saturation levels.

This is a long way of saying that you can put them on before planting (I don't like putting them on after young seedling growth), but I would highly recommend a soil test so we can review Ph, OM, Nitrate at 6inch, P, K, Micros and Saturations. I hope this helps!!

 

[Westwind]

So I would love to say put these down and reap the rewards, but I would honestly suggest a soil test first. Based on what you are saying it sounds like it could be low OM, and probably inadequate CA to help soil base saturation %, porosity, and structure. I have applied the micros at planting or with lime. It does have gyspum and humics in it, which also helps with soil structure a bit but likely wont be enough at 25lbs to an acre to really impact the saturation levels.

This is a long way of saying that you can put them on before planting (I don't like putting them on after young seedling growth), but I would highly recommend a soil test so we can review Ph, OM, Nitrate at 6inch, P, K, Micros and Saturations. I hope this helps!!

It does. I keep trying to shortcut the soil test- I just gotta do it!

 

[SD51555]

Humic acid forms in living soil naturally. The only way to stop it is to stop it with fallows, iron, or chemicals. This is the same reason that intensely managed farm ground can have residues build up over multiple years in corn on corn on corn or wheat on wheat on wheat, because the biological processes are so dead that no living organisms exist that can break down the residues. For a while, the jug hustlers were selling applied biologicals to spray on your residue to try to restart decomposition. I dont' know if that ever got legs.

D-Comp – Organic Residue Decomposer

Again, two systems. One, nature does it for free. The other, very expensive, time consuming, and outright questionable in it's effectiveness.

 

[farmlegend]

My test results are in.

View attachment 77351

Road Plot
This is the same plot from the sweet clover thread. This is also the one that had back to back massive years of biomass grown on it with no tillage or spraying and has been kept green since the summer of 2022. I was surprised by the OM reading. I figured it'd be north of 4, but I didn't imagine it'd go 5.6. It's also at 85.8% calcium, and I've been chasing that with calcitic lime and gypsum. It's good to know I'm there and can quit with the gypsum all together. That much OM alone will release enough sulfate sulfur to make crop from here forward. No signs of compaction on this soil test. May end up biting the bullet on a penetrometer to keep investigating.

Yard Plot
This is where I've been toying with freakishly high rates of gypsum to snuff out a burdock problem. I'm puzzled by the high rate of available P. I have never applied P to this plot. The gypsum also points to the high calcium number and high sulfur number. This plot may have been the site of an barn long ago. There was a junk pile right next to it that points towards a fallen down barn and everything just got pushed in a pile. If it was a cow yard, that could point to the high P. The junk pile is full of iron, wire, rocks, old lumber, and broken glass. I moved the pile away, leveled the surface, and have been using that old dirt for my gardens.

North Plot
This is the one with subsoil laid over the topsoil about a foot thick. I'm surprised this registered 2.7% OM. It tested 0.6% when I moved it 4 years ago. This one has gotten maintenance gypsum, and calcitic lime to raise the pH. That clay is very high in magnesium, so I'm not surprised I'm only at 72% calcium base saturation. When I tested it before amending it, it was in the low 60's for calcium. Lots of room to keep applying gypsum, but I'm in no hurry to boost it, I'll just keep on with a maintenance application.

I'd call that pretty good numbers. You've done a nice job.

I recently got my Haney results back from my what I call my "jumbo" food plots, which I broke into three zones based on my observations of plant performance after three years of cover cropping, comprising nine acres of ground.

Not real pretty, though I feel some progress has been made with infiltration rate. Badly need some calcium.

Guy who farmed it for the previous 40 years thought it was fine dirt, since he was still coaxing 140-150 bushel corn and 50 bushel soybeans out of it each year by tilling the daylights out of it twice a year and pouring on some potash and anhydrous ammonia.

 

[SD51555]

I'd call that pretty good numbers. You've done a nice job.

I recently got my Haney results back from my what I call my "jumbo" food plots, which I broke into three zones based on my observations of plant performance after three years of cover cropping, comprising nine acres of ground.

Not real pretty, though I feel some progress has been made with infiltration rate. Badly need some calcium.

Guy who farmed it for the previous 40 years thought it was fine dirt, since he was still coaxing 140-150 bushel corn and 50 bushel soybeans out of it each year by tilling the daylights out of it twice a year and pouring on some potash and anhydrous ammonia.

The good news is, you’ve got a low CEC. You can bring up those calcium numbers a whole lot easier than if you had a heavier ground.


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[Brian662]

The good news is, you’ve got a low CEC. You can bring up those calcium numbers a whole lot easier than if you had a heavier ground.


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What do you consider a "higher" CEC to move calcium through? Most of my soil is between 10-14.

 

[farmlegend]

The good news is, you’ve got a low CEC. You can bring up those calcium numbers a whole lot easier than if you had a heavier ground.


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Given my failure to score some ag gypsum.....do you imagine calcitic lime to be of benefit for me? Much lower in magnesium than dolomitic lime, plenty of calcium, and I've got "room" to afford a bit of a pH boost. I believe this would be much easier to accomplish than gypsum procurement.
My CA:MG ratio really sucks.

Speaking of cation exchange, fwiw - by far the best performing portion of this ground (in terms of plant growth) was the portion headed "Jumbo S N", which also had the lowest cation exchange factor.

 

[SD51555]

What do you consider a "higher" CEC to move calcium through? Most of my soil is between 10-14.

10-14 ain't too bad. It's north of 20 when you get into lime recs that are measured in multiple tons of lime per acre if you're starting with a sub 6 pH. Check out the chart in the next post. This is where the buffer pH is such a big deal because it's the key to making a lime rec in tons per acre.