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
Tag Archives soil health — page 13
Lasting impact: The secret to increasing carbon is in the soil
Microbial activity, not volume of biomass, gets more credit for adding carbon
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
Soil health measurement project seeks standard set of indicators
The North American Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements hopes to recommend scientifically sound indicators
Glacier FarmMedia – Soil health measurements can vary widely depending on management practices, show early results from a North American study. Paul Tracy, who manages the non-profit Soil Health Institute’s project to assess 31 indicators of soil health in all three countries, said agricultural and environmental interests are promoting lots of measurement systems and indicators. […] Read more
Editorial: Still lots to know about mechanisms of soil health
The maintenance of soil health has come into much greater prominence in the past five to 10 years. That’s an important step — our soils are the basis of civilization and those that have not understood that have had civilizations collapse. Check out the Nile River delta today. We’re a long way from the lack […] Read more
Soil health products part of new entrant’s offering
Fertilizer stabilizers among products coming from Timac Agro
A French company is bringing its unique model and crop technology to Ontario. Timac Agro Canada, a division of international agriculture company The Roullier Group, offers fertilizer products, especially stabilizers and treatments than can help with nutrient efficiency in soils. The company started in France when the founder discovered that there were opportunities to use […] Read more
New ONFARM program to build soil health measures and learning
The long-term program will help set up sites and resources for information sharing
A new $5.75 million program aims to increase soil health through multi-year on-farm research. The program called the On-Farm Applied Research and Monitoring (ONFARM) project, will be funded by the Canadian and Ontario governments through the Canadian Agriculture Partnership (CAP). The project was announced on Dec. 5, World Soils Day. The ONFARM project will support […] Read more
Researcher grades on-farm soil management
Eastern Canadian farmers get high grades for soil health awareness, but low grades for increasing soil organic carbon
Glacier FarmMedia – The grades are in. Eastern Canadian farmers get high grades for their understanding of soil health and the rapidly growing use of cover crops, but low grades for increasing tillage which reduces soil carbon storage. Mario Tenuta, a University of Manitoba soil scientist, says eastern farmers get a B for adoption of […] Read more
Provincial soil tour looks at minimal tillage, biostrips
The tour visited regional farms as part of the Ontario Soil Network
There’s no one system for improving soil health and that was on display during a recent Ontario Soil Health Network tour across the province. The tour visited more than 20 farms, from Kingsville to Douglas, arriving at the farms of the members of the first cohort of the Ontario Soil Network over four days. Farmtario […] Read more
New initiative launched to improve soil health education
The Soils at Guelph aims to bridge the gap between agriculture and the general public
Soils at Guelph, launched at the University of Guelph on Sept. 19, aims to put more high quality soil health information in the hands of farmers. Why it matters: The continuous degradation of soil health across Ontario and Canada is creating a barrier for farmers as soil quality dwindles. The development of the program began […] Read more
Has the time come for integrated tillage management?
Understanding bulk density for compaction prevention
Tillage has its benefits, but the list of drawbacks to soil health is long. This poses a question: Like Integrated Pest Management, is it time for Integrated Tillage Management? The question was posed by Aaron Breimer, manager for Veritas Farm Management, during a presentation at Elgin Compaction Day on Aug. 8. For him, taking an […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
