It has long been believed that plants get nutrients from the soil microbes but how the transfer of nutrients from microbes to the plant occurs has not been understood. That changed in recent years when a team of researchers from Rutgers University discovered one of the ways that plants harness microbes in the soil toContinue reading “How Plants Farm Microbes to Get Nutrients”
Category Archives: Soil Health
Bale Grazing – The Next Year
Article by: Karl Hoppe, Ph. D. NDSU Extension Livestock Specialist Aug 22, 2022 Bale grazing is an alternative method for feeding the cow herd in the winter, when snow is too deep for cows to graze grass, cover crops, or crop residue, or additional or replacement feed is required. Traditionally, a tractor/loader, feed wagon, andContinue reading “Bale Grazing – The Next Year”
August 2nd Soil Health/ Crop Tour
More and more farmers and ranchers are becoming interested in practices that can improve the health of their soil as a means of improving productivity, profitability and/or resiliency to weather extremes. If you would like to learn more about what some producers in the area have been doing to improve their soil health, make plansContinue reading “August 2nd Soil Health/ Crop Tour”
COVER CROP OPTIONS FOR PREVENTED PLANT ACRES
Although producers are tried their hardest to get as much planted as possible this spring, there are fields and especially areas of many fields that were simply too wet to get seeded this spring that will fall under the classification of prevented planting acres. The question is what to do with these acres. The bestContinue reading “COVER CROP OPTIONS FOR PREVENTED PLANT ACRES”
Consider Options for Prevented Planting
There is an old saying that if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes. While it took more than five minutes, this spring has certainly been an example of how quickly conditions can change. Up until about mid-April the outlook for this year’s growing season was pretty dismal as indications were that the dryContinue reading “Consider Options for Prevented Planting”
Living Roots as Often as Possible
There are five basic principles to building soil health: soil armor or keeping the soil covered, minimizing soil disturbance, plant diversity, keeping a living root in the soil for as much of the growing season as possible, and livestock integration, when possible. As living roots were mentioned in the previous article, the following is aContinue reading “Living Roots as Often as Possible”
Healthy Soil, Healthy Food, Healthy People
Studies have found that over the last 70 years, the level of nutrients in many foods has fallen between 10 and 100 percent. Based on that, there are some estimates that an individual today would need to consume twice as much meat, three times as much fruit, and four to five times as many vegetablesContinue reading “Healthy Soil, Healthy Food, Healthy People”
Partner Agency Updates
FSA Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) The recent snow storms certainly brought some much needed moisture to the area but did catch many livestock producers at an inopportune time with calving and lambing underway. If anyone did lose livestock during these storms, there is a program through FSA called the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) that mayContinue reading “Partner Agency Updates”
Intercropping Workshop Videos
If you were unable to attend the January 26th workshop at the Williston Research Extension Center on “Introduction to Intercropping” or if you did attend, but would like to review any of the presentations, the workshop was recorded. Recordings of the entire workshop can be found here: If you haven’t already filled out their surveys, AudreyContinue reading “Intercropping Workshop Videos”
Soil Health Resources and Hard Spring Wheat Show
Soil Health Resources – Agricultural producers who were able to participate in the Soil Health Workshop conducted on January 20th at the Williston Research Extension Center by the Williams County Soil Conservation District and NDSU Extension had an opportunity to hear Keith Berns with Green Cover Seed talk about carbon and the importance of carbonContinue reading “Soil Health Resources and Hard Spring Wheat Show”
Williams County Soil Conservation District 