I Heart Soil

SSSA

I really do love soil and the folks that I work with in agriculture and conservation do too.  We love it because we have the opportunity to see everyday what a precious resource that it is.    We get to see the passion for conservation, productive lands, clean waters, wildlife, the Aldo Leopold "Land Ethic" in full swing!  In fact, everyone experiences the impact that soil has on our lives everyday through the food we eat, water we drink, home where we live, etc.  It is an awesome thing!

Another awesome thing.......the Soil Science Society of America has made these really cool, simple videos about the importance of healthy soil and the connection to clean water and food.  You can learn more at iheartsoil.org  .
Check out these cool videos by clicking the links below....I Heart Soil


Healthy Soil = Healthy Water
Healthy Soil = Healthy Food


Yet another awesome thing.......Our 2011 Indiana Tillage Transect results tell us that approximately 180,000 acres of Hoosier farmland is planted  to Cover Crops this year.  So, we have several farmers out there around Indiana working to build their soil quality, trying to hang on to their precious nutrients and topsoil, and keeping that beneficial soil biological activity humming all year long.  Good chance that if paired with no-till, they could be rewarded in any or all of the following....yield gains, better drought tolerance, minimized ponding, fuel savings, and on and on and on. 

Cover Crops, Airplanes, and Indiana Conservation Districts!



I am holding a big tillage radish planted this fall in Gibson County.

Indiana Agriculture Director, Joe Kelsay, and I, along with our conservation partners recently had the opportunity to visit with the Warrick, Posey, Vanderburgh, and Gibson County Soil and Water Conservation Districts to learn about a successful project they have worked on for the past 3 years.  This projects' objectives center around increasing the amount of cover crops utilized in these 4 counties.  They do this by coordinating aerial seeding application with local farmers and they provide cost-share for them to participate.  Here is an article written in the local paper explaining this project and for more information on cover crops visit Midwest Cover Crops Council....

  

Soil, water conservation partnership spotlighted
By JANICE BARNIAK
janice@pdclarion.com


PRINCETON — Four local soil and water conservation districts were recognized Thursday for a joint partnership that they say has made southern Indiana water cleaner, soil healthier for crops, and created habitats for local wildlife through the winter.
    The initiative began when Gibson, Posey, Vanderburgh and Warrick Counties banded together to apply for a grant to support a cover crop program, said Travis Gogal NRCS District Conservationist for Gibson County.
    Cover crops are important to soil health, Gogal said, because planting a cover crop feeds microbes that keep the soil alive and make nutrients readily available for crops. Better soil means better, cleaner water, and the crops help local animals have a habitat throughout the winter.
    According to Gary Seibert, of Fort Branch, who works with the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, it’s also important at a global level.
    Farmers in Indiana spray their crops with nitrogen to help them grow, but if something happens to the crop, and it doesn’t use all the nitrogen, the nitrates go down into the soil, then down to the water, and eventually washes out to sea, contributing to the Gulf Stream Dead Zone, killing fish and plant life.
    But Seibert believes that the same processes that the planet uses to grow forests and natural wilderness can work for farmers thanks to nutrient recycling. “There are more plants available we weren’t aware of before,” he said. “There’s a learning curve.We’re learning to grow cover crops to create our own nitrogen. We’re thinking like nature.”
    In the woods, he said, even in the winter, roots are growing, winter species of plants grow, and it keeps the soil healthy. Radishes, for example, can soak up the extra nitrogen, and then make it organically available to the spring crops. With the right cover crops Seibert says farmers can replace between half and three quarters of their nitrogen by planting crops like Australian winter peas, radishes, crimson clover, and annual rye grass for the winter to store the leftovers and even create nitrogen.
    “No one fertilizes the woods, tills the soil. One plant supports another, and we’re trying to do that too.”
It takes a change in mindset for a monocultural agricultural society to pick up the trend, he said.
    The practice is good news for the economy, too, said Seibert, because nitrogen is getting more expensive, and the United States is competing with countries like India and China in food production.
     The difficulty for the farmers was that the time you plant a cover crop is critical, and sometimes must be done before a main crop is harvested—to do that required aerial seeding, so the separate districts applied for a grant that they won to help cover those costs together. Farmers interested in planting cover crops would come in and apply.
    “Crop rotation is kind of an art,” said Gogel. Cover crops are just one aspect of that art. Most of the time, he said, the individual farmer talks to people in his local co-op to decide what kind of cover crop will best support his primary crop. In this area corn, soybeans and wheat are the common primary crops.
    Farmers applied for the aerial seeding of the cover crops across the four counties in the last two years. Over 1500 acres were aerially seeded with an additional 800 acres conventionally seeded.
    According to Jennifer Boyle Warner, of the IASWCD,part of being chosen for a showcase is that other districts across Indiana will see the projects that are working successfully in the showcases.
    Videos of the winners are shown to an audience of 400 people associated with the districts so that ideas can spread. The idea has also spread among farmers, who most of the time already know what they want.
    “It’s important to come down and recognize the local leaders, because they’re the ones doing all the work, said Roger Kult, who came from Indianapolis to represent the Indiana Conservation Partnership. “We can talk at the state level but doing it at the grass roots level makes it happen.” He said farmers see how well it works, see the success of the program, and choose to seed on their own for the good of their land.
    Already the grant for 2012 has already been approved, meaning that the program will enter its third year, and Pike County plans to join the initiative next year.
    “This is the first year they’ve recognized the districts in this way,” said Gogel. Four out of 10 projects that applied for the showcase were chosen. “It shows our ability to work with surrounding counties.”
    Liz Rice, of the Indiana Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts, agreed. “What I’ve heard is that our partnerships are really strong in Indiana. It’s something we can be proud of as a state. We’ve done a lot of really good work over here.”

Root penetration in the soil is an important factor associated with the benefits of growing cover crops.  Here is Gary Seibert looking for nitrogen fixing nodules on the roots of crimson clover cover crop.  We get excited about agronomy and soil health, he has quite an audience!!!  Thanks Gary!



No-till, Mulch-till, or Conventional-till Corn?

It may seem like a strange title, but this is the type of question that is being asked thousands of times all around our state in various counties right now. Conservation and agricultural professionals are asking specific questions, about very specific fields, which have had this type of information collected from them for over 20 years. We call it the Indiana Tillage Transect.

The Tillage Transect is a mechanism for tracking trends in conservation and cropland trends. The information collected can help us determine whether important soil quality building conservation activities, such as No-till, are being more heavily adopted or not. We can also take the collected data and estimate the average annual soil loss from Indiana’s agricultural lands. All of this information can help us to determine how to focus conservation efforts and resources in the future.

Very simply, every county has a designated route where information is visually captured from the road and recorded for later analysis. The routes generally travel throughout the main ag areas of the county. There are designated points, at regular intervals along the route where information is observed (typically this can be done from the road) and recorded. Information such as: current planted crop, previous crop, type of tillage used prior to planting-if any, and an estimated amount of residue (plant matter) remaining on the soil from the previously harvested crop (this is an indicator of soil erosion potential as bare soil can erode rapidly).

I know that this project may sound a little less than exciting, but the information is quite valuable. In fact, the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) regularly requests this data to aggregate with other states’ data for tracking national cropland trends. In fact, the true value of this project may lie in the opportunity the transect presents for the key, local conservation experts to tour their county/area of responsibility together, discussing conservation planning solutions for observed environmental concerns (i.e. severe soil erosion, instances of impaired water resources) .

See our Conservation Tillage Program web page for more information and to see past Tillage Transect results!  To learn more about ways to improve soil health, improve profitability, and enhance your environmental stewardship....go to the Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative site.

What's ISDA Staff Been Up to This Month?

June has brought opportunities to ISDA staff and partners to get hands on with conservation.


On June 1, ISDA, along with our USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service and Soil and Water Conservation District partners,demonstrated conservation activities in the field. This tour was organized to help our new staff, support staff, and other important contacts view and participate in the activities that are associated with conserving our soil and water resources.  The tour group visited area farms to learn about the efforts invested by both our technical staff, the farmer, and contractors to implement conservation on the Indiana landscape and the intended conservation benefits (water quality, soil conservation, increased productivity, wildlife habitat, etc.). 





The State Soil Conservation Board met in Linton, Indiana for the June 2011 meeting. Following the meeting, board members and attendees toured Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area. The tour was led by Brad Feaster, DNR, Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area Property Manager and the USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service. On the tour, staff and partners got a chance to observe native Indiana wildlife in their wetland habitat, as well as learn about how the property is maintained by conservation staff.




For more information on ISDA's conservation efforts, please visit our website.

Celebrate Earth Day, COME ON, Let's Celebrate!

Thank you Kool & The Gang for inspiration for this title....."Ya Hoo! There's a party going on right here!"
Isn't that introduction to this entry just a clinic in professionalism!  Ha!

Well, it is that time of year to celebrate!  We have Earth Day, Easter, Arbor Day, and Soil and Water Stewardship Week and a bonus....... it's Springtime!  What an awesome time of year.  All of these occasions give us the opportunity to celebrate nature, the planet, life and our precious natural resources which are essential to our quality of life.

Let's don't forget ...... the May Apples are up, Trilliums and Redbuds are blooming, we have plenty of rain, so what am I getting at?????? MUSHROOMS!  Oh yeah!

Now I am an avid hiker and I know my way around a woods, but I am lousy at spotting these little buggers or as I tell my kids, "The mushrooms are too fast and sneaky for us."  The problem is that I love those little fungi and my friends keep sending Facebook pictures of these gi-normous delectables just to rub it in!

A picture of my boys coming to grips with the reality that,
"Dad can't find mushrooms!"

Okay, okay, enough about mushrooms, but more about the woods and in particular trees and tree planting.  Sidenote: It just so happens that this year's theme for Soil and Water Stewardship Week is "Forests".


So why do I bring this up when I usually talk agriculture?  A couple of reasons, but I'll focus more on the 2nd.
#1 - The hardwood industry is huge in Indiana, I won't dig into the details now, but supporting this industry in Indiana is a major component of our Economic Development focus within the Indiana State Department of Agriculture.
#2 - In Indiana, some of the land utilized currently for row crop agriculture is better suited and more sustainable both economically and environmentally as forest or woodland.

Regarding the second point, especially the floodplain fields where in certain seasons farmers are forced to replant repeatedly due to flooding, perform continual clearing of floodwater debris, and regularly repair fields due to the erosive nature of floodwaters.  All of these factors can lead to economic losses and plainly they can can be more headaches than they are worth to some folks.  An option to row crop farming is planting trees.

A new planting just this spring in Western Indiana.

Commonly referred to as a Bottomland Hardwood Tree Planting, this practice can be cost-shared and the landowner can receive incentives through various programs such as the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP).  Someday these areas become forests and are extremely valuable habitats along rivers and streams serving as homes to many wildlife species such as: Bald Eagles, Herons, River Otters, Leopard Frogs, and various salamanders.

Young bald cypress in a recently planted floodplain shortly after a flood event.

So, this year let's celebrate forests and trees and the value that they can bring to agriculture and the environment.  Enough of these ramblings, you should stop reading now and get yourself outside and soak up a little Springtime and have a very happy EARTH DAY, April 22, 2011.

A young Bottomland Tree Planting in North-central Indiana.

Mature Floodplain Forest

How Do I Help The Environment?

I think deep down that most of us have that desire to leave this Earth a little better, ideally a lot better than we found it.  There are bunches of quotes out there that illustrate this desire and some can really connect with us in a deep way such as:

"We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children."

Well, if you feel compelled or pulled to pitch in and leave a lasting legacy to the betterment of our planet, I have the perfect idea.  Get involved with your local Soil and Water Conservation District.  It is so simple and it can really fulfill that little part of you that tugs and pulls for you to take some action.  That's what Soil and Water Conservation Districts are all about.......getting conservation practices that improve water quality, control soil erosion, and enhance wildlife habitat on the ground; it's their speciality. 

Each county in Indiana has a Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) that is lead by a board of supervisors.  They hold monthly public meetings and anyone can attend.  Individuals within the community serve as supervisors and they are elected or appointed, but there is plenty room for associate supervisors or volunteers to get involved.  SWCDs work with many conservation partners to hold demonstration field days, provide cost-share and incentives for conservation measures, perform education and outreach, and generally provide conservation assistance and advice to those looking to do right by the land.

This is an excellent time of year to check out your local SWCD at their Annual Meeting!  There is sure to be good food, educational/entertaining guests, and lots of information about the many programs and accomplishments of the district.

I know that time is limited, but serving on the Soil and Water Conservation District is absolutely the best way to make a positive impact on the environment in your local community!

Find contact information for your Soil and Water Conservation District at http://www.in.gov/isda/2408.htm  or you can look for the districts' individual websites at http://nacdnet.org/about/districts/directory/in.phtml#inweb