Microbes Can Unlock Soil Phosphorus to Enhance Plant Growth
Phosphorus is a critical plant nutrient. It stimulates root growth, is part of photosynthesis and transferring nutrients through the plant, and without, maturity is delayed and fruits and seeds are few and poorly formed. The good news is that there is lots of phosphorous in the soil, with concentrations ranging from 200 to 6,000 pounds […]
Read More →Hungry Plants Order Up Iron From Soil Microbes
Continuing with our Thanksgiving theme, here’s how plants harvest some nutrition for their own dinner. Thanks to the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research for their work on this article. In nature, healthy plants are awash with bacteria and other microbes, mostly deriving from the soil they grow in. This community of microbes, […]
Read More →What are your grasses doing? What’s the result of your management?
Today we’re taking a field trip to visit the Gilbert family on their ranch in Buffalo, South Dakota. The Gilbert family has been ranching here on the shortgrass prairie since 1894, starting with sheep and then converting to Angus cattle. They graze rotationally, constantly tweaking and adjusting their management and monitoring to make sure the […]
Read More →Farmer Manages Variety and Builds Resilience Through Soil Health
Thanks to the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition for this article! South Dakota is known for its variety, and Don Nickelson’s operation in Frederick is no exception. With the help of his wife, Trista, and sons Aiden, Gavin, and Ian, Nickelson raises cattle and grows corn, soybeans, oats, triticale, alfalfa and cover crops. His farm […]
Read More →Twice as Many Cows, Twice as Easy
This piece comes to us from Clarence Kelly,* work unit conservationist for the Soil Conservation Service (now known as the Natural Resources Conservation Service). It was first published in September of 1962 in the Soil Conservation magazine. This rancher faced a lot of the same challenges many of us face today. His solution was to […]
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