Soil Sense

Latest Episodes:

Soil Health Assessment with Jordon Wade, Ph.D. May 31, 2023

Show notes

Dr. Jordon Wade is an assistant professor of soil health and soil fertility at the University of Missouri. Wade is also the director of the Soil Health Assessment Center, which is one of the few places in the US that offers the full gamut of soil health measurements. The USDA and Soil Health Institute have both put together lists of relevant soil health measurements. And these empirical ways of measuring soil health is what this episode explores from aggregate stability to organic matter to microbial biomass and beyond.

“We really want to be able to get that holistic picture from around the state, you know, all of our ag producing regions...You know it gives us a lot more insight into that context specificity than if we were to be referencing a national database or something like that. We just have so much information, so much granularity from those samples that are coming in.” - Dr. Jordon Wade

Wade explains the wealth of data the Soil Health Assessment Center is acquiring and how they are enriching it with surveys, trials and collaborations. The results are “truly decision support tools.” Measurements help producers pivot and track their efforts to improve their soil health. Wade shares that one of the measurements he finds most impactful is aggregate stability which “integrates the chemical and physical components” of the soil leading to benefits like less erosion potential.

“We're really at a crossroads here in Missouri in terms of climate and soil types. I always say that farming in Missouri is playing the farming game on hard mode because shallow soils and drought prone weather is tough.” - Dr. Jordon Wade

This Week on Soil Sense:

Meet Dr. Jordon Wade, an assistant professor of soil health and soil fertility at the University of Missouri as well as the director of the Soil Health Assessment Center
Explore the significance and value in the operation of the Soil Health Assessment Center for the state of Missouri

Soil Health Challenges in Long Term No Till with Josh Hammond May 16, 2023

Show notes

In this episode we are joined by Josh Hammond who owns FarmAssist Consulting where he works with farmers mostly around the Beach, North Dakota area. Josh talks about some of the challenges his farmers face in that area including pH challenges, residue management, strip till, livestock and compost. Josh is also a member of the Trusted Advisor Partnership that you’ve heard about in earlier episodes of this season.

“I grew up in an area that was one of the pioneers of no-till, so a lot of those farms started back in the eighties. I was just a young kid when that got started, but everything was changing from a lot of wind and water erosion every spring and full tillage to switching over to managing for erosion and conserving moisture. So I just grew up with that being normal.” - Josh Hammond

Josh shares the common conversations he has with his clients and how he approaches some of these challenges including cover crops, no-till and livestock. As with anything, no-till has its advantages and consequences. Josh shares some of the issues his no-till producers are facing including stratification of soil nutrients and managing soil pH. One unexpected mitigation for these issues is permitting some weed growth to simulate a cover crop in saline stressed areas.

“For so many years guys have thought we just keep working up the saline seep areas and it'll get better. Well, it never does. That's what grandpa did, that's what dad did. And the areas never improve. And once guys have turned into, whether it's mowing the kosha, let it regrow, something like that, then we start shrinking it down and we keep getting a little smaller each year. And then we control the weeds.” - Josh Hammond

This Week on Soil Sense:

Meet Josh Hammond who owns FarmAssist Consulting where he works with farmers mostly around the Beach, North Dakota area
Understand his background and how it influences the advice he offers his producer clients
Discover some of the challenges no-till producers face that were previously not a concern

Practical Soil Science Research with Brady Goettl May 02, 2023

Show notes

In this episode we revisit Agronomy on Ice for another great conversation this time with NDSU extension soil health research technician Brady Goettl. If you’ve benefited at all from extension soil health work in recent years, you’ve probably been the beneficiary of Brady’s work in some form or another. Brady discusses his research, what led him into the soil science field, his extension work which includes direct interactions with farmers regarding soil health, and his quest to better understand soil fertility and nitrogen management.

“In order to get a full picture of what's happening when you plant that cover crop, you have to do a really intensive sampling and through a ton of different avenues. So what I'm doing with my research is more of a traditional approach where we're looking at nitrate, ammonium and non-exchangeable ammonium in the soil.” Brady Goettl

Brady hopes to “develop some sort of either nitrogen credit or recommendation” for producers based on the cover crop biomass produced. The research is ongoing but could lead to less input needs based on “credits” attributed to different practices after determining how they all interact with each other.

“We know that there's a lot of these microbes that can fix nitrogen and do it symbiotically. So we don't necessarily need a legume, for example, to fix that nitrogen… If we can harness the power of those guys to help us fix nitrogen, that's gonna be a game changer if we don't have to rely on synthetic nitrogen anymore.” - Brady Goettl

This Week on Soil Sense:

Meet NDSU extension soil health research technician Brady Goettl
Explore his research interests and the benefits and insight he hopes to be able to provide producers in their nitrogen needs
Understand the focus Brady has taken in his approach to address the problems producers are most concerned about

Salinity Management with Darren Dunham Apr 11, 2023

Show notes

In this episode, crop consultant Darren Dunham shares about some of the soil related challenges farmers are facing in his area of North Central North Dakota. Darren lives in Maxbass, and has worked there for Centrol Crop Consulting for the past ten years. He grew up on a farm in the eastern part of the state and those early experiences have stuck with Darren and informed how he gives advice to the farmers he works with. Unfortunately soil blowing away is still an issue in many areas. Where Darren is now, north of Minot, minimum till and no-till have been really common pretty much since the advent of the Concord Air Seeder. That’s not the case in the Red River Valley, where Darren grew up.

“As they were pulling these fence posts out of the ground, they realized that they were on top of an old fence. That the old fence had been covered by soil from wind erosion…That's four feet of soil that had drifted in there…..but that was back in the day of plows and pony drills. Everything was tilled black and lost a lot of soil. It's heartbreaking to think about it. Just the massive amount of soil, nutrients, organic matter that is rearranged for one, but gone, period.” Darren Dunham

Darren finds himself addressing a different issue with a lot of his clients. Salinity issues have become a significant problem for North Dakota producers. The right answer for how to handle salinity is not always straightforward or quick. Moisture management and getting saline-tolerant crops established in some of these spots is easier said than done. All of this salinity management gets back to a fundamental principle of soil health of keeping a living root in the soil as much as possible.

“Salinity is a water issue. You have to manage the water. So other than putting tile into the field, we're gonna suck the water through plants and alfalfa is the number one water user crop that we have in North Dakota…. So the alfalfa is hopefully intercepting that water that is moving by capillary pressure to that salient spot, intercepting it before it has a chance to percolate to the top of the soil, evaporate and leave its salt as precipitate on top of the soil.” - Darren Dunham

This Week on Soil Sense:

Meet crop consultant Darren Dunham from north central North Dakota who works with Centrol Crop Consulting
Explore his personal history with wind erosion and adjusting tillage practices
Discover his process for addressing and managing salinity issues that are faced by the majority of producers in North Dakota

Talking Tillage at Agronomy on Ice Mar 28, 2023

Show notes

In this episode you’ll hear from four different farmers and one crop consultant about their individual perspectives and experience with tillage. To use tillage or go no-till is sometimes controversial and often treated as a form of identity. This discussion explores a more practical approach from people trying to reduce the harmful effects of tillage, but still keeping the necessary tools in their toolbox that their operation needs.

In order of appearance, you’ll hear from:

Greg Amundson, farmer in Gilby, North Dakota
Dr. Lee Briese, crop consultant with Centrol Inc.
John Aamodt, farmer in Arvilla, North Dakota
Matthew Krueger, farmer in East Grand Forks, Minnesota
George Herman, farmer in Brinsmade, North Dakota

“One thing I've really struggled with lately is labels…You know we try a no-till, and that's our philosophy but I'm not afraid to run our vertical till out there if we have to.…I'm a conservation minded farmer…. I will do what I have to do to get a crop. You know, the labels be damned pretty much.” - Greg Amundson

Agronomy on Ice was a great place to capture different perspectives on soil health. Every one of these farmers and consultants in Lee’s case is finding the tillage practice that optimizes soil health and productivity for each individual field and each individual circumstance. It’s not helpful to apply labels or identities around these practices. Rather, producers should find the best approach for their situation with soil health in mind as a consideration for the overall system.

“That's what Greg's doing. He's doing something that doesn't fit the quote unquote no-till marker, but it's getting his soil health journey because now he's fixed that field, let it repair, rebuilt it again in that spot, which is a little frustrating, but it's better than leaving that wound wide open… I support diagnosing the challenge, finding the right solutions, putting them in the practice at the right timing, whatever they may be. That to me is more of a soil health thing.” -Dr. Lee Briese

This Week on Soil Sense:

Listen in on a discussion of real world tillage experience with four farmers and a crop consultant as they navigate how to prioritize soil health in a practical approach to field management
Explore the limitations created by labeling practices and operations as no-till or reduced tillage

Soil to Cereal with Dr. Steve Rosenzweig of General Mills Mar 07, 2023

Show notes

Dr. Steve Rosenzweig is a soil scientist and the agriculture science lead at General Mills. General Mills is a leading American producer of consumer foods, especially flour, breakfast cereals, snacks, prepared mixes, and similar products. Along with co-host Dr. Abbey Wick, we discuss how General Mills is looking at soil health and regenerative agriculture, how they view their role in agricultural sustainability, and what insights they’ve learned from being involved in soil health initiatives for several years.

“We wanted to be out there helping to figure out how do we conduct on-farm research with farmers to really understand what they're learning and what they're seeing on their farms. So that's kind of where we started, was really on that research side. And then it's really just been about forming partnerships with folks that are in the communities that we are sourcing these ingredients from and really understand that local context.” - Dr. Steve Rosenzweig

Steve joined the company in 2017,after earning his Ph.D. in soil science at Colorado State University. He says his role is to help find scientifically-driven ways to increase adoption of soil health principles in the areas where they source key ingredients for their products. He also works on the science side to see how to measure things like soil health, biodiversity, water, and farm economics at scale.

“Our entire business is resting on the resilience and ability of farmers to keep farming essentially. So increasingly our leadership investors really want to make sure that we are investing to make sure that General Mills is going to be around for another 150 years… And really forming these kinds of partnerships and really helping to support farmers and increase their viability, longevity, and resilience is what we've realized is a business imperative. Their business is our business essentially.” - Dr. Steve Rosenzweig

This Week on Soil Sense:

Continue the discussion and explore some of the support behind the Trusted Advisor Partnership program
Meet Dr. Steve Rosenzweig, a soil scientist and the agriculture science lead at General Mills and learn about the purpose behind their involvement in the TAP program
Explore the role General Mills will play and the initiatives they are taking to promote soil health
Visit Trusted Advisor Partnership to learn more and sign up for more information

Trusted Advisor Partnership with Abbey Wick, Ph.D. Feb 27, 2023

Show notes

Many food companies have become increasingly more interested in what part they can play in building healthier soils. If they’re in it for the long haul and truly want to develop partnerships with farmers, it will take an intentional and dedicated approach to collaborating with growers and their trusted advisors to figure out what might be right in each individual situation.

“What if we all just worked on this together and used this great organization out of Vermont called the Sustainable Food Lab that works with all these companies regularly? How about we bring all these ideas together and come up with one program for the entire state of North Dakota? And let's not base it on these ideas of just paying farmers to adopt practices, but let's actually make those practices stick.” - Dr. Abbey Wick

That’s exactly what the Trusted Advisor Partnership is seeking to do. In this episode you’ll hear about how a group of food and beverage companies is working together with the mission of introducing new soil health building practices on 500,000 acres in North Dakota in the next five years. To make that happen, they have enlisted the help of Dr. Abbey Wick, the Sustainable Food Lab and crop consultants like Dr. Lee Briese and Jason Hanson, to lead certified crop advisors through the process of trying these practices. This is a great episode for understanding how food companies can work together with farmers to create lasting change.

“I think if we can get these companies to work together like they are, the CCA has the knowledge of all those programs and can pick the best one for the grower, take it to them, then the grower signs up for it and then the company now can say we've influenced “X” acres in North Dakota.” - Dr. Abbey Wick

This Week on Soil Sense:

Discover the Trusted Advisor Partnership program and how this may impact soil health in North Dakota over the next five years and the benefits it offers producers beyond improved soil health
Learn how the program hopes to gain traction over time towards its initial goal of influencing soil health practices over 500,000 acres in North Dakota
Explore the roles crop advisors Dr. Lee Briese and Jason Hanson will play in creating content to deliver to participating CCAs
Visit Trusted Advisor Partnership to learn more and sign up for more information

Field Check Season Finale: No Such Thing as a One-Size-Fits-All Oct 25, 2022

Show notes

In this episode we revisit some highlights of the most useful and important information shared through the first fourteen Field Check segments. You’re going to hear from experts like Dr. Abbey Wick, Dr. Lee Briese, Mark Huso, Jason Hanson, and Angie Johnson. These highlights cover topics ranging from cover crops, moisture management, crop rotation, salinity, farm safety and more. The overall message throughout is that there is no one right way to build healthier soils. It’s all about finding out what each individual field needs, and having the tools and expertise to execute on that.

“Tons of ways to get cover crops in the system, whether you have the equipment to broadcast and that seems like the best fit for you time wise and logistics wise. Or if you have the time to put somebody into a tractor with a drill and seed the cover crop after harvest… I think they're gonna improve the soil in many ways. Not only trafficability at harvest, but managing moisture at harvest and also again in the springtime at planting.” - Dr. Abbey Wick

Crop consultant Lee Briese says it’s all about assessing each individual field and designing the right system on a field-by-field basis. “You make sure you’ve got the right tool for what you’re doing.” It’s this field by field approach that has led Mark Huso down the road of using the term “field health” to reference not just soil health. He chooses to focus on overall long term productivity of a particular field. “A healthy field raises a good crop and there’s different ways to get there.” Mark and his farmer customers are finding success in diversifying crop rotations to manage issues such as saline areas. Jason Hanson also shares some of his thoughts on approaching the issue of salinity and consulting with peers to tackle similar obstacles.

You're gonna have to use the weapons you have in your arsenal, and that is going to be if you can get any surface drainage, any internal tiling done…. No one likes to split up fields and do that type of thing. I think more people are listening to that because other people are doing it. The best peers out there are other consultants, other farmers in particular that are actually doing these things. They just said, “This isn't working. We gotta try something else.” And that's what you do. - Jason Hanson

Follow the linkwww.NDFieldCheck.com to participate in our next question and answer segment to share your questions and get them answered by the experts!

Connect with Soil Sense at Soil Sense Initiative

Soil Sense Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Field Check: Systems Thinking Oct 19, 2022

Show notes

In this episode you’ll hear from a number of farmers and consultants about their systems-based approach to farming and soil health. Starting with Ontario farmers Woody Van Arkle who recalls the first time he heard Dr. Lee Briese speak to a group of farmers. His practical approach is the result of looking at a field as a system. Lee, who is a crop consultant for Centrol Ag Consulting, stresses this systems-based thinking approach to farming and soil health.

“What are you gonna do? Where's your next crop? Where are you going? How's this gonna be? So I can't just stand in front of a room of 300 people and say, there you go. You start here and then you go here and you go here and you go here. You simply can't do that…. There is no prescription, but you're trying to teach people to be an ecosystem's manager. To do that, you have to be observing what's happening.” - Dr. Lee Briese

North Dakota farmer Mark Olson found out that strip tillage was the right approach for his system. He’s seen the results in both his soil and his yields, and he even says the approach saved his crop a couple of years ago. He tells other farmers to “keep learning, never quit and keep trying.” Mark’s crop consultant, Matt Olson (no relation), said he had a few concerns when Mark wanted to dive headfirst into cover crops and strip tillage but said the results have been undeniable.

“All of a sudden we started going from 40 bushel soybeans to 60 bushel soybeans by implementing strip till and cover crops. Also seeing that we probably weren't introducing any new weeds. We were actually getting better weed control by having the ground covered which is huge for us in our water hemp neck of the woods and kosha neck of the woods and stuff like that.” - Matt Olson

Follow the linkwww.NDFieldCheck.com to participate in our next question and answer segment to share your questions and get them answered by the experts!

Connect with Soil Sense at Soil Sense Initiative

Soil Sense Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Field Check: Residue Management Oct 11, 2022

Show notes

In this episode we talk about a problem that many farmers run into on their soil health journeys: residue management. But rather than just focus on one field, we’ve collected a handful of different perspectives and experiences for you. You’ll hear from two farmers and two researchers about this challenge and how they’re finding ways to maximize the benefits of residue while managing the challenges that can come with it. Farmer Sam Landman describes the problems that residue has caused on his farm in the past, and how he’s tried to address them. He is in the process of trying different seeding equipment and timing to better manage his residue issue.

“We're wrestling with high moisture in our soils, being able to get into it, and then also high residue. We have hair pinning problems with our no-till equipment, like our single disc drills and disc planters and stuff. If the residue isn't quite dry or if it's too thick it'll hair pin and then the seed won't have any soil contact and it won't come up…. so we're having residue management challenges and moisture challenges and that's the biggest thing.” - Sam Landman

Soil Scientist Dr. Caley Gasch addressed this challenge at a previous DIRT workshop. Caley has since moved from NDSU up to Alaska, but she is included in this episode to help explain how a more biologically active soil can eventually help reduce some of these residue issues. Caley’s colleague Dr. Aaron Daigh, who is now at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln speaks to the challenge of getting soil with residue to heat up in the spring. He says shallow vertical tillage might be a good option for many farmers.

“You kind of have to get a little creative by incorporating some cover crops to change those carbon-nitrogen ratios so that that residue starts to decompose. Or maybe you try strip till as sort of your transition tool to migrate into a reduced till system. But as that soil begins to recover, as those microbes and fungi and, and earthworms and insects return to that soil and boost their numbers in response to the lack of disturbance, they're gonna take care of that residue over time.” - Dr. Caley Gasch

Follow the linkwww.NDFieldCheck.com to participate in our next question and answer segment to share your questions and get them answered by the experts!

Connect with Soil Sense at Soil Sense Initiative

Soil Sense Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

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