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| mhagny, all I ever heard from U of Mo was that organic matter levels took years to raise .1%, but in six years ours went up a full 1% and more. We,ve always used the same labs and always test the same way. This happened in the mid-eighties to early nineties, and soil tests since show the same thing. After the early to mid-nineties we switched to a 50/50 rotation and OM started leveling off. Nutrient levels also started leveling out. The biggest part of our OM increase took place while we were still using some tillage. After milo harvest one pass with a light disc--nothing after soybean harvest. I've been on Francis Childs and Herman Warsaw's farms and they showed you can raise OM with high residue crops. When I was a kid my parents had a garden that was awesome---later I saw a soil test of that garden and the OM was 7%. OM isn't everything, but it's hard to have a biologically "hot" soil without it. I've found it harder in notil to add as much residue and manage it, as when we were still using limited tillage. I think cover crops are helping us overcome that. Like to think of soils as a big compost digester. | |
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Reduced Rates of Fertilizer - In reference to Ron's posts
