week 9 - industrial soil health

what are the 6 regenerative agriculture practices?

minimise soil disturbance, keep the surface covered, keep living roots in the soil, crop diversity, livestock integration

how is soil disturbance limited?

- Reduce intensity of cultivations

- Reduce number of cultivations

- Controlled traffic farming

how is the soil surface kept covered?

- Chopped straw

- Composts

- Digestate

how are living roots kept in the soil?

- Use of catch crops

- Use of cover crops

- Perennial crops

how is crop diversity increased?

- Wide rotation

- Different varieties

- Herbal leys

- Agroforestry

how is livestock integration implemented?

- Sheep

- Cattle

- Farm-yard manures

in which ways does livestock integration boost organic matter content of soil?

· Increase soil organic matter

· Improve soil nutritional content

· Improve soil structure if managed well

· Degrade soil structure if managed poorly

what are projected favoured root characteristics?

· Deeper roots

· Enhanced branching plasticity

· Root hair density

· Compaction tolerance

what are the risks of variability in water availability?

degrading soil structure and hastening soil erosion (long periods of drought, flooding, runoff, leaching)

nitrate vulnerability

· 55% of land in England at risk of nitrate pollution

· Review 2020 found no substantial changes in patterns of nitrate pollution

· Application date restrictions

· N max limit for each crop (average amount of manufactured fertiliser and available N from organic manure)

· Field and farm limits for organic manures

· Must plan all applications of nitrogen and keep a record

stabilised amine nitrogen (SAN)

· Stabilised urea

· Improved nitrogen use efficiency

· Takes much less energy than nitrate to convert to protein

cover and catch crops: yield dynamics and tillage regime

· Utilisation of cover cropping under Conventional till systems resulted in the best overall yield increases

· However, when analyses are constrained to Northern Europe only, the best increases are obtained under No-till systems

· Yield effects of cover cropping depends on climate

· In cooler climates, benefits are driven by soil structural improvement, N retention and reduced leaching

impact on yield of cover cropping

Gradient of yield increase (penalty to yield increase) from heavy to lighter soils when using cover crops:

disease carry over

- Pest and disease pressure in cash crops can be changed by preceding cover crops

- Cover crops and their residues can harbour disease passed directly to the cash crop or increase residual pressure for the following crop.

soil health assessments - measurements taken:

· pH and nutrients

· organic matter

· texture

· CO2 burst test

· Soil structure and water relations

soil health policy - SFI26 - soil health

paid initiatives to encourage sustainable farming whilst mitigating financial risk. for things like no-till, cover cropping, legume fallows etc.