Sustainable Soil: Four Rules for Controlling Organic Inputs

Sustainable Soil: Four Rules for Controlling Organic Inputs

By John B. Marler Sustainable soil requires profitability. No matter how desirable a sustainable program might be, it must be tempered by the realities of making a total commercial agriculture program work economically. Growers attempting to deal with this reality...
Soil Testing Based on Mehlich III Extraction Methods

Soil Testing Based on Mehlich III Extraction Methods

Soil testing, wrote Jerry Brunetti in 2009, is the foundation for the actions you take to add fertility to your soil: I’ve always been a fan of foliar nutrition, especially on forages. However, I don’t advocate the application of foliar fertilizers as a replacement...
High-Quality, High-Yielding Crops: Measure to Manage

High-Quality, High-Yielding Crops: Measure to Manage

By Neal KinseyFrom the October 2013 issue of Acres U.S.A. magazine High-quality, high-yielding crops are the goal for most farmers. But where do you begin? Some even insist that to have both is simply impossible to accomplish. For those who think that way, it will...
Soil Testing: The Need for Total Testing

Soil Testing: The Need for Total Testing

By Hugh Lovel What many farmers probably don’t know about soil testing is that most soil tests only tell us what is soluble in the soil. They do not tell us what is actually there in the soil, no matter what fertilizer salesmen might like to imply. To find out what is...
Phosphorus: A Limited Resource

Phosphorus: A Limited Resource

By Wendy Taheri, Ph.D. Soil is a living, breathing ecosystem. Just as you and I breathe, soil too re­spires, and we measure that respiration rate as an indicator of microbial activity in soil. While there are large, non-mi­croscopic organisms living in soil such as...