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Soil Feedback

Unread postPosted: Wed 15 Mar 2017, 13:07:41
by onlooker
Soils Could Release Much More Carbon Than Expected as Climate Warms
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2017/03/09/so ... n-climate/

Re: Soil Feedback

Unread postPosted: Wed 15 Mar 2017, 13:49:14
by farmlad
What they don't tell you is that the loss of soil carbon has already contributed more CO2 than all the contributions from burning fossil fuels. The loss of soil carbon has a lot of costs beyond just Climate change such as loss of soil capacity to infiltrate and store water, which has contributed to more flooding as well as droughts. Soil carbon is also vital to hang on to other soil nutrients, keeping them from leaching down below the roots and into the water table.

In temperate climates forest soils are commonly around 4 to 6 percent carbon and grasslands and savanahs around 5 to 12 percent carbon. Modern farming and ranching practices have reduced that in most agricultural soils to between 1 to 3 percent.

Small but growing groups of farmers ranchers and researchers (which I am one) are currently managing hundreds of thousands of hectares(and growing) in ways to increase soil health and increasing soil carbon is one of the ways we quantify our progress.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgmssrVInP0

http://soilcarboncoalition.org/ http://www.amazingcarbon.com/ https://holisticmanagement.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuwwfL2o9d4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yExpSwpRkEs

Re: Soil Feedback

Unread postPosted: Wed 15 Mar 2017, 14:07:22
by onlooker
Yes, I have heard of this whole holistic/permaculture movement. If a future is going to exist, you all are in the vanguard. Much praise to you all

Re: Soil Feedback

Unread postPosted: Wed 15 Mar 2017, 16:50:21
by vtsnowedin
You might want to add this to your reading list.
Not an endorsement, just a good example of what is being done as far as I have been able to follow it over just a few hours. read / view and make up your own mind. :)
http://brownsranch.us/

Re: Soil Feedback

Unread postPosted: Wed 15 Mar 2017, 21:49:00
by farmlad
Watching Gabe's video presentations during the last couple years has put me way ahead of the curve. My brother and I are now managing the home farm in Paraguay. He took over 13 months ago right after the soybean harvest. He planted a Gabe inspired Multi species cover crop. Especially in the poorer areas the covers had the hardest time growing without fertilizers. After about 3 months they started to grow more but by then the weeds were basically predominant but we figured they are natures cover crop. The neighbors predicted we will soon loose the farm.

After 7 months of covers and weeds we sprayed with herbicides and and raised a crop of soybeans with all the conventional inputs. We were a little worried that with all those weeds gone to seed we would have some weed issues but with similar herbicide applications we had the cleanest fields in the area and our beans yeilded significantly better than last year and were some of the best yeilds in the area.

After the soy harvest he planted it back to a similar cover crop and this time they are growing like weeds. The cover crop was knee high in 3 weeks, and almost weed free, with no herbicide or fertilizer. I had high hopes for following principles of soil health but nothing like what we are seeing.

35 years ago most of our farm was jungle and today it has become extreemly degraded. I'm ashamed to say that as a kid I helped clear those jungles. We never dreamed that someday they would mostly be gone, but just like the American Bison and crude oil, by the time folks figured out that we might have a problem it was almost all gone.

So I find it so exciting that we can rejenerate soils so fast. And we are hopeing for more improvements so that we can make a profit while continuing to cut out chemical inputs and rejenerating soil to support so much more quantity and diversity of biology.

Re: Soil Feedback

Unread postPosted: Wed 15 Mar 2017, 22:12:03
by vtsnowedin
farmlad wrote:Watching Gabe's video ....
....
So I find it so exciting that we can rejenerate soils so fast. And we are hopeing for more improvements so that we can make a profit while continuing to cut out chemical inputs and rejenerating soil to support so much more quantity and diversity of biology.

WoW!! That I can hit on a topic and find a member here with first hand experience on the same day is amazing.
I hope we can both take value from the exchange of information as we both move forward to a more profitable and soil building future.
I know that sounds pretty cheesy but for once I would like that to be the final outcome and will give it a fair shot.

Soil matters more than you think

Unread postPosted: Fri 03 Nov 2017, 20:15:33
by AdamB

As I walked through the verdant fields filled with a dazzling array of sorghum, hairy vetch, daikon radish, collards, cowpeas, clover, millet, kale, and other crops, I was struck by how different this field looked relative to so many other farms I've walked over the years. When we conducted a spade test, digging out a section of the soil with a simple tool, it revealed heavily clumped, rich brown matter with visible earthworms: soil life. The farmer showing me his soil was Gabe Brown, one of the most pioneering farmers in the world. His approach to farming leverages the power of diversity to feed the soil, which in turn feeds people and his pocketbook. Each crop planted in this field served a different purpose, be it nitrogen fixation, taproot penetration, nutrient scavenging capabilities or livestock feed. My visit to his farm, in


Soil matters more than you think