Soil Health

Today we attended an NRCS forum on soil health.  The forum was a web cast from the National Conference on Cover Crops and Soil Health in Omaha, Nebraska that was underway.  NRCS has a big push underway to market cover crops and no-till farming for soil improvement and conservation.  This can sometime be a hard sell in areas like Illinois where we have productive and resilient soils. In the past economic data has been sketchy and there has been definitive test for soil health.  As cover crops work toward mainstream, research is being done on economics.  We heard from some speakers last month who mentioned a net gain of $30 to $200 from cover crops.  A soil test has also been developed called the Solvita soil quality test than can be used to look at soil quality based on biology of the soil.  We are associated with Brookside Laboratories in New Bremen, OH and they are one of three laboratories who current are capable of running the test.  We plan on running the test on selected samples in the coming season and learning how to use and interpret it.  After the presentations in Nebraska, we had a discussion of the issue with the local people in attendance.  In a meeting of about 25 we were among 5 who were non-government people.  For more information on Soil Health, click on the  link for NRCS material.