Fields that grow continuous corn have fewer nutrients for soil microbes.

Lasting Impact: Technology helps living soils knowledge

Different crops feed soil microbes in different ways

Updated Aug. 11, 2020 This article is the final instalment of a three-part series highlighting lessons learned from two long-term crop rotation experiments at the Ontario Crops Research Centres at Elora and Ridgetown. Soil is teeming with life. And despite their size, fungi, bacteria, and other micro-organisms play an enormous role in soil processes, from […] Read more

At one time it was thought that lots of corn stover was a significant source of soil carbon.

Lasting impact: The secret to increasing carbon is in the soil

Microbial activity, not volume of biomass, gets more credit for adding carbon

This article is part two of a three-part series highlighting lessons learned from two long-term crop rotation experiments at the Ontario Crops Research Centres at Elora and Ridgetown, Ont. The evidence is piling up that the corn-soybean rotation – the most common crop rotation in Ontario – performs worse on every metric than diversified rotations […] Read more


“Resilience cannot be built overnight. It is important for growers to start building soils now to achieve production potentials in the future.”

Lasting impact: The penalty of poor crop rotations

Long term trials show the soil health degradation of short rotations

This article is the first of a three-part series highlighting lessons learned from two long-term crop rotation experiments at Elora and Ridgetown, Ont. Howard Buffett authored a book a few years back with the title, “40 Chances”. The title came from a shop talk Buffett attended where a speaker remarked that the average farmer only […] Read more