This week is all about a throwdown between Amendments Vs. Fertilizers...
Read moreAg 101 Week 4
Size Vs. Scale
I have great news, for once size doesn’t matter!
Far too often I talk with farmer/growers, and they're concerned with how many acres they are farming and at what point they consider themselves an actual farmer. Get over it. What matters is that you can manage the scale at which you are operating and is it profitable for you.
When I got back into consulting, I was intimidated by your average corn/soybean/alfalfa farm. Every time I looked at a soil test for a cornfield I panicked. I thought how can I make recommendations for a cornfield when I have only gardened for the past 15 years. Then it dawned on me; it was nothing more than a large garden. I had to get over it! Just like our daughter's horse needed to get over his fear of helicopters, lawn chairs, and ponies!
My scale of growing had changed, but the basic principles I used to help my dad on the farm were the same I used in my backyard garden. In the case of liquid fertilizers instead of measuring in quarts or gallons per acre, I used ounces per 1000 sq. ft. The same is true for dry fertilizers, instead of 1 cup, a larger scale grower uses pounds per acre. It is all based on the scale, not the size. Yes, size is something that needs consideration when planning, however, you measure your amendments and fertilizers based on scale.
Size matters when you need to ask yourself are you willing to take on more or less work, the financial aspect, or management that will be involved.
Here are two resources I use the most for common conversions
http://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=B931
As always you should read the label of any product you are using first.
AG 101 Week 3
He's NOT My Type!
It takes a special guy to put up with me!
That’s what I said about my husband the first time we meant during the summer of 1990. Fast forward 28 years, we’ve been married 21 of them, we have two great kids, and I can’t imagine being with anyone else. He’s still the same guy I meant all those years ago, but obviously, my opinion changed drastically. Along the way, there have been some compromises and adjusting expectations, but it has had huge payoffs. If I hadn’t been willing to look at things differently, it might not have worked out the way it did.
Far too often I hear people say something similar about the soil they are farming. I hear the statement “My soil is terrible, and I can’t get anything to grow. I don’t think anything will grow in this type of soil.” I also come across farmers who want to grow blueberries where crops like asparagus, leeks, or Chard would be better suited. Some crops like strawberries and peppers will even tolerate a sandier soil as opposed to crops like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage that can handle more clay. Knowing the type of soil ahead of time can help you adjust and plan crop rotations more effectively leading to a successful season. It can also play a role in determining a fertility program that takes into account the unique makeup of the soil you're growing in.
I realize that this is somewhat different than my relationship with my husband. However, there are some similarities. I also realize I could have walked away and found another guy; you can’t always look for another farm or different land. But, you can do what I did and take a different look at what you already have. There was something that attracted me to him or else I would have found someone else “my type,” just like there was something that attracted you to where you are farming. There are inherent qualities about the land you farm. It is your job as a farmer to learn what they are and use them to your benefit. Just like I have to occasionally compromise and adjust, you as a farmer will need to take the unique qualities of the land your working into consideration and plan accordingly.
Let’s look at what soil type is. It is based on various factors like parent material, topography, and climate, making it unique to a specific location. The ratio of different size particles called sand, silt, and clay are one factor used to determine the soil type, for example, whether a soil is a loam, clay-loam, silt-loam, etc. Each size of particle plays an important role in the fertility of the soil. Large particles like sand determine aeration and drainage characteristics. Clay particles become critical in plant nutrition due to their role in soil chemistry and a soils cation exchange.
There are a couple of ways one can go about figuring out what soil type you have. Back in college, we were sent out to the field to do “ribbon tests.” This method is also called the feel method. At the time I was convinced I would never do it again, boy was I wrong. It is instinctually the first thing I do in a field during a farm visit. There is no better way to get to know the ground your working with than to “feel it.” A ribbon test is a field representation of what agronomist refer to as the “texture triangle” which is used to help categorize soils based on the proportion of each particle, assigning a soil textural class. However, it is only an estimation. Here is a link to one of several online resources for doing a ribbon test.
To go one step further, I use the Web Soil Survey.
https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm
This is an online tool that takes the place of the volumes of Soil Survey Maps I had to use back in the day. I have to be frank; I feel it is often one of the most overlooked resources a farmer has available to them and its free. It goes well beyond soil type and is worth the time spent to use it.
Ag 101 Week 2
Soil Health Vs. Soil Fertility
I spoke at a conference in front of 200 farmers and used the term, custom soil fertility programs. At the time I was working as a sales agronomist for a fertilizer company that offered custom fertilizer recommendations based on a farmer’s soil tests. As far as I knew this was pretty standard for the industry. Not a big deal if you asked me.
After my talk, I headed back to my table to see a line of guys with soil tests in their hands. Jokingly I made a comment how funny it was the line was so long and wondered what all the fuss was. Someone in line commented “As soon as you said the word fertility everyone woke up and started looking at you. You smiled and started to blush. You made fertilizer sound sexy.” Not the intention behind my talk but, I took it as a positive and was excited about the opportunities that it had lead too for the company. Plus, I got to look at a lot of soil tests, and I geek out over that.
However, when I told the story to the non-agronomists in the office, they didn’t see it that way. They explained to me that that was not the image they wanted to convey to the public. I was to use the term soil health, not fertility. I thought to myself, aren’t you a fertilizer company? I talk like that when I’m around all my agronomist friends, and they don’t get upset. It seemed to make perfect sense to me. Then It dawned on me, every occupation has a certain language, and it can get confusing to someone who doesn’t always use it on a regular basis. I have to be honest; I don’t always use the two terms correctly either. Soil health and soil fertility are two separate topics and I have found can get overused, used in the wrong context, miss-used, and obviously misunderstood.
In my agronomy mind….
Soil health refers more to an overall concept regarding the qualities of soil to function as part of a system successfully. It's a measure of the overall ability to support what is growing in it continually while balancing the biological, chemical, and physical attributes of the soil. Notice, I said balancing. As a grower, you need to realize that the chemical attributes of the soil are a by-product of the physical and biological. You need to maintain the balance of all three to have a healthy, resilient, and efficient system. You have some tests done; you tweak a few things, you grow a good crop. Everything is running smoothly. Similar to me whereas overall I’m healthy. I get regular check-ups, the doctor says I could stand to lose a few pounds, but my bloodwork and tests come back good.
Soil fertility is what you are doing to achieve healthy soil and its ability to sustain the crop you are growing. It is the reality of it, not just the concept. Here is where the rubber meets the road. You use management practices, inputs, and choose crops that are realistic given the inherent abilities of the soil type you are working with. Some factors that influence soil fertility are soil structure, drainage and water holding capacity, soil biology, organic matter, pH, cation exchange capacity, and parent material. In the case of my health; it is me setting realist goals, eating healthy, and exercising regularly.
I’m not saying that the two ideas never intersect and are separate from each other. You need to consider the health of soil to manage the fertility and vice versa.
Ag 101 Week 1
Agronomy, What?
Almost a year ago I officially started working as an independent agronomist. March 20th, I launched a new website and spoke at a conference for the first time as The Accidental Agronomist. I’ve come along way from wondering if this crazy idea I had to go out on my own was going to work. I'm not saying there hasn’t been challenges and times I have wanted to quit. I still face that, however as I keep at it, there is one thing that has been a recurring theme: more growers than what I would have guessed don’t have a basic understanding of agronomic concepts and principles.
Farmers, that’s right – the very people that are putting into practice the science of agronomy, or at least should be, don’t even know what agronomy is or why they should have some basic understanding of it. I’m not saying everyone that is farming falls into this category, nor am I saying that everyone needs a degree in it to farm or grow. What I’m suggesting is that if more farmers/growers understood some basic concepts, you would be equipped to make better decisions about every facet of your farm. Everything from the inputs necessary to grow a crop, irrigation, seed selection, soil fertility, soil health, disease and pest management, yield goals, and way more than I care to type out are dependant on just a few simple concepts that are universal no matter what type of system you use to grow.
Let’s start with what agronomy is. The most basic definition is the scientific management of land. It is the practice of using science and applying those concepts in practical ways to efficiently and successfully achieve the growers intended goal for the land.
If you want to grow kumquats and be the best kumquat grower in the world, you manage your land and resources to achieve that goal. How you want to manage, but more importantly are you willing to do what it takes to be successful are the most critical issues you should tackle first. If being the worlds best kumquat growers means you have to find land that can support that crop but means you move halfway around the world to do so, are you willing to make that commitment? If it means you farm 24 hours a day only taking the third Tuesday of every other month off, are you willing to do it? Is the management strategies required to be successful at growing kumquats what you want to take on something you see yourself doing?
Obviously this is an extreme example, but hopefully, you get the point I’m making. Shifting your thinking to terms of land and crop management can help you to start and develop achievable strategies.