Soil Health

by George P. (Bud) Davis, Conservation Agronomist
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
Salina, Kansas

“I found you naked, hungry, and thirsty, abused for years by the bite of deep steel. Starved, deprived, and abandoned, your very essence had been robbed. Tormented by the elements of rain and wind, your dignity had been stripped away, slowly and methodically. I wept at the sight of your pain and knew that you were not alone. I vow to cover you, nurture you, and protect you so that you can again be what you once were and provide the inhabitants of the world sustenance. Special, unique, and spiritual, you are the earth.” John A. Hassell. This melodious improvisation describes much of the plight of the world’s agricultural lands during the quest for greater commodity production.

Most involved in agricultural production are aware of the effects of erosion and are often offended or sympathetic at the sight of scoured drainageways and silt deposits after a heavy rain. Who can stand on a river bank swollen and rolling with the chocolate brown, frothing waters after a strong thunder storm without feeling there is a great loss occurring. It would be a cold heart that would not be at least a little uneasy when observing the growth of deltas at a river’s mouth or the loss of glistening waters to heavy, mucky mud flats. These are but minor evidences of the real problems.

Hassell’s poem begins “I found you naked” which in terms of cropland production alleviates to the management that has been practiced since the prairie sod was turned for the first time. In an effort to control weeds and diseases, as well as improve planting conditions, clean tillage or fire had to be utilized to compensate for the lack of the technological advantages available today. These management practices lead to the next two conditions identified in the poem “hungry and thirsty.” Clean-tilled cropping practices have been the confirmed cause of erosion and sedimentation since long before the dust bowl days, the most noted and quoted agricultural period in history. However, the obvious was not the problem but rather a symptom of a subtle degradation that has been either ignored or compensated for in most agricultural systems.

A soils health can be evaluated just as the symptoms checked by a physician to determine a patient’s condition. As the doctor checks your heart as one of the primary evaluations for human health, soil organic matter is monitored to determine soil health. It is one of the components most needed to maintain soil productivity. As the heart is degraded by the build up of plaques and fats that slowly clog the arteries and valves, it causes poor circulation and nutrient distribution and also lowers our immunity. This can often be compensated for with drugs and enrichments, but the condition still exists and most often continues to degrade. Loss of soil organic matter also causes poor oxygen and water circulation resulting in poor nutrient distribution and availability. As with any living organism, loss of health lowers the productivity and disease fighting capacity of the system.

World wide our loss of soil productivity is being mitigated through repetitive nutrient applications, plant breeding, chemicals and extreme cultivation, all in the quest of greater yield. We mitigate poor human health management through food additives, vitamin supplements, drugs, and surgery. Managing cropland to increase soil organic matter will not only increase the potential productivity of the soil it will also decrease the need for supplemental or mitigating additives to correct problems chronic to unhealthy soil conditions, such as erosion, compaction, weed infestations, diseases, poor water infiltration, and nutrient availability.

Soil health can be restored just as human health is restored through a proper diets, exercise, and time. A diverse crop rotation, reduction or elimination of tillage, and time are the key components to reviving our soils. Hassle’s reference to being “naked, hungry, and thirsty” is the impact of the loss of soil organic matter to soil health. The glues in the soil organic matter aggregates the soil mineral particles and other organic components serve as food for nutrient processing soil organisms. The loss of aggregation through the degradation of soil organic matter allows the soil particles to crumble or fall apart when they become wet during a rain, which in turn fills open pores and seals the soil surface. Once the soil surface seals the results are poor water movement into the soil and runoff occurs. Nutrients are available to plants only through solution so the lack of moisture penetration into the soil results in poor nutrient availability. The excess runoff dislodges the unaggregated, unprotected soil particles and carries them from the field.

“Abused for years by the bite of deep steel, starved, deprived, and abandoned, your very essence had been robbed.” As with any living thing, soil health can be restored. It takes commitment, crop diversity, restraint from tillage, and time. “I vow to cover you, nurture you and protect you so that you can again be what you once were and provide the inhabitants of the world sustenance. Special, unique, and spiritual, you are the earth.” Manage for soil health.

For more information about soils, please contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service office or conservation district office located at your local county USDA Service Center.

or more information about NRCS programs, visit the Kansas NRCS Web site at www.ks.nrcs.usda.gov.

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Soil Health (DOC; 37 KB)

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Last Modified: 09/04/2008