It’s been quite a summer so far. Heat waves in the South and West, drought in half the country, and thousand-year-floods in the Northeast. The planet saw it’s hottest days on record last week and Earth is at it’s hottest in thousands of years.
But, while most people can’t do anything at all to change the weather, you’re in a unique position. As a farmer/rancher/grazier, you can actually do something about it!
Rancher, and my good friend, John Wick has been working on climate beneficial agriculture since the mid-2000s and he’s come up with a simple solution: Compost.
A dusting of compost on his pastures improved soil structure and it’s water-holding capacity, and doubled forage production. It was also climate beneficial, pulling a ton of carbon per acre from the atmosphere that year and every year since. In fact, researchers have found with one treatment, the same amount of carbon will be sequestered in the soil every year for two decades or more. Further studies demonstrate that this is an effective way to reduce carbon in the atmosphere and return our climate to a cooler, more stable weather pattern.
This two-article series gives more information how compost can increase forage and soil carbon sequestration. Or check out the link below for the “Lunch With Forages” presentation I did with John last December, and additional resources to get you on your way.
Thanks for reading AND for doing something about the crazy weather!
Kathy
P.S. That saying up at the top? Well, it’s normally attributed to Mark Twain. But being the good fact checker I am, today I learned that it was actually his close friend, Charles Dudley Warner. How about that?!
