031 Putting it all Together

#RealisticRegenAg | This past season covered a lot of topics that are pertinent to agriculture right now and that have been stewing in my mind for a while. At the end of each season, I like to do a review episode to wrap things up. It’s also a good starting point for anyone coming in later to get up to speed on what I’ve covered each season.

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Plants Dig Soil | Season 4 | Episode 7 | 031 Putting it all Together | September 8, 2022

Hello! This is Scott Gillespie and welcome to the fourth season of Plants Dig Soil. In this podcast, you will learn how to think critically about regenerative agriculture claims so that you can apply proven and profitable practices that benefit your farm now and in the future.

[TRANSITION MUSIC]

Creating this podcast helps me to clarify my thinking. I do a lot of reading, but I find until I get things down in writing it is all just ideas that are floating around in my head. I am often surprised when I come back to older material that I find that I have forgotten about things that I had already discovered.

This past season covered a lot of topics that are pertinent to agriculture right now and that have been stewing in my mind for a while. At the end of each season, I like to do a review episode to wrap things up. It is also a good starting point for anyone coming in later to get up to speed on what I have covered each season.

When this season began, most areas of the Prairies were stuck in a drought. My area, in southern Alberta, Canada, was coming off a multi-year drought and very little winter precipitation. All around us things were changing, but we stayed dry. There were areas that quickly became too wet to seed. Further east, there were areas that had flood waters covering their land. In June we finally started seeing some rain. It was just enough to keep the crop going and then we went right back to hot & dry.

It was in this context that I released the first two episodes on fertilizer planning and cover crops. At the time, fertilizer was at historically high prices and was hard to find. In the podcast I argued that of any time that soil testing would pay off, this was the year. Knowing what you had in the soil could help you allocate the proper resources to the proper field.

A key concept in this episode was to look at nutrient flows in historical contexts to aid your decision. Phosphorus gets rapidly tied up in the soil and slowly releases over the years. What the plant takes up this year is usually only a 1/5 to 1/3 of what you apply. The rest is made up of a combination of what you have applied over the past 5-10 years. This is known as the legacy phosphorus.

If you have been building your soil over time, you had the option this year of mining the soil. A small amount down with the crop to help with early season growth would likely be enough if your test was in the low to medium range. You can do this for a year or two but eventually you need to over apply, preferably when fertilizer prices are low, to build up the levels again.

In the second episode I talked about cover crops and how they fit into a drought cycle. The key concept that I was going for in this episode is that you need to look at your overall water cycle to decide. If you just barely have enough water to make a cash crop, do not go trying to grow a cover crop. If you do not think you have enough water to grow a cash crop, considering taking a fallow year.

Fallow has got a bad rap in the past few decades because, done poorly, it can leave the soil in worse shape. Too much tillage to control the weeds can lead to erosion. Herbicides used too much lead to resistant weeds. The evaporation of soil moisture can wick salts up to the surface. And, worst of all, the microbes are starved and burn up organic matter for energy. In the short term this will leave nutrients for the following cash crop, but it slowly degrades the nutrient and water holding capacity of the soil.

In this episode, I argue that a well timed, short term, cover crop, can make this fallow period pay more than just leaving the ground bare, or trying and failing to grow a cash crop. The cover crop can suppress weeds, limit the salts from rising (by running the water through the plant), and it can feed the microbes to prevent the loss of organic matter. As long as the amount of water used is less than what is normally evaporated, and the costs of the seed is no less than the normal tillage or herbicides, it’s a win.

[TRANSITION MUSIC]

If you are in the province of Alberta, you’ve probably heard about new funding that can help pay for cover crops, soil testing, manure, compost & digestate hauling and application, split applied nitrogen, nitrogen inhibitors, and getting set up for rotational grazing. As you can tell from these episodes, and the many seasons of this podcast, I am well qualified to help you this.

This funding is a part of the national On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF). You need a P.Ag (Professional Agrologist) or a CCA (Certified Crop Advisor) on the application and I have both designations! The funding covers my fees for helping you make and implement the plans, so if you have been on the fence about engaging me in consulting services there is no better time to start.

If we make the application before November of 2022, we can get anything you did this year on the application. For 2023, we can make the plans over the winter and get the application in as soon as they open the portal in February. Get a hold of me today by checking the episode description or listening to the end for ways to contact me.

[TRANSITION MUSIC]

Shifting now to the middle of the podcast season, I tackled intercropping. This is the practice where you grow two or more crops at the same time. The idea is that a monoculture will always leave some resources behind and so by adding diversity you should get more total bushels off the land than if you just planted one crop on half the field and one crop on the other half.

Where I see this working is where there are obvious advantages. For example, in a pea and mustard intercrop the mustard can give the peas a trellis to climb up to stay off the ground. The mustard may also help to induce more nitrogen fixation in the peas by quickly taking up all that is there and freely available.

Something interesting that I learned after the podcast on Twitter is that some studies are showing that the non-legume plant may be taking advantage of the legume. I learned that nodules are leaky and let some of the nitrogen go before the legume can take it up. When grown as a monoculture the legume roots are there to pick up the losses. In an intercrop the non-legume has the possibility of being quicker to grab it.

There is new evidence that the non-legume may be releasing signalling molecules to upregulate the legume to make more nitrogen than it normally would. If this is a symbiotic relationship, it may be paying the legume carbon through mycorrhizal networks. If it is tricking the legume and stealing the nitrogen by having its roots ready to capture the leaky nitrogen before the legume can, it sounds more sinister. It was not clear what the mechanism was, just that it was doing this.

Over the course of the two episodes, I argued that it might be better to think of intercrop cover crops rather than intercrop cash crops. By focusing on cover crops you do not need to worry about getting the right mix at seeding time, you do not need to worry about mis-matched maturities, and you don’t need to separate seeds at harvest.

I also talked about an often-overlooked component of intercropping cash crops. The lure of it is that you get more off the land than growing single crops. If you are over yielding, that is getting more total bushels off the land in a mix rather than separate monocultures, you are exporting more nutrients off the land. By intercropping cover crops you still get your cash crop, but you also work at building the soil.

In a drought year you may not plant another crop. In a wet year you may interseed a cover crop once the cash crop is well established. If the summer turns hot and dry, the cash crop wins. If it is a wet summer, you get a soil building crop that continues well into the fall after the harvest of the cash crop.

This practice is not new. It has been used by the Indigenous for centuries in what is known as the three sisters: corn, beans, and squash. Where it differs from our modern system is that it is all done by hand and cannot be easily mechanized. Each crop has different harvest times.

What was new to me as I learned about this system is that it was not just fields of these crops growing together. It was the food crops, but it was also medicinal plants and what were called mother plants. We would call them cover crops. They were the plants that were observed to help the food & medicinal crops to grow better, and so were left in place.

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Often overlooked in Indigenous practices is that fields were not what we imagine fields to be. There were always natural areas nearby. These areas supported the insects, birds, and animals that provided pest control and what we might call ecosystem services. I explored this more in the fifth episode where I looked beyond the field.

Natural areas are being discussed more in the public domain now, but they are not a new idea. Some research shows we need about 30% of our land in natural areas to get the best pest protection for our crops. Since predators only move 100m or so we would need strips through our fields for the best benefit. I know this is not going to happen, as we are setup for large fields and, unless society pays for it, we cannot take that amount of land out of production.

However, we can look to converting the marginal areas natural areas. It does not even have to be non-agricultural. Forages can be established that will better grow on the land than our annual crops. You may not have use for it, and that is fine. It is still better than putting money into annual crops and not getting more than put into it. Or worse yet, putting more in than you get out. In drought years you may find neighbours willing to pay for the forages there. In wet years, you may find these areas can more readily take up the excess rains and make the rest of the field more productive.

In the final episode I covered the “bio’s”: Biochar, biologicals, and biomass.

Many people see biochar as new thing, but it is, in fact, an ancient Indigenous product. It originates in the Amazon where soils were found to be much more productive around villages compared to the surrounding forest. Human waste, food scraps, and the biochar from cooking all contributed to this. When wood or any organic substance is burned in the near or complete absence of oxygen, it makes a substance that can help the soil. This substance raises the pH, unlocking some tied up nutrients. It is also covered in exchange sites, allowing for more nutrient holding capacity.

When you have geologically old soils that have turned acidic, this can make a big difference. In the geologically young soils, that I work with, and have high pH’s, it may not do much. In some cases, it can make the soil less productive by tying up nutrients.

It is very resistant to decomposition, so it can stick around for centuries. The modern interest is mostly in this aspect of it: It could be a useful product for carbon sequestration.

Some studies have even shown that it primes the system to store more carbon than it normally would. However, there are other studies that show it helping to rev up the underground microbes and let go of more carbon than if it were not applied. This is good for the farmer as there will be more nutrients released but it is not so good if you want carbon credits.

Biologicals are products that add a microbe that is beneficial to the system, add a product of a microbe for stimulating plants to do more than they normally would, or help to slow down pests that hurt your crop. There is huge promise for this, but so far, I have not seen anything that consistently works.

Product webpages and social media accounts will usually show convincing pictures, testimonials, or trials where they clearly won. When put through third party trials, I often see them doing nothing much most of the time and only occasionally giving a big win.

For biochar and biologicals, the real test to me is biomass. If they help to make more biomass of cash crop or cover crop, or if they help to prevent its loss, they may have a place in your system. In the end it is all about biomass. The more you have in your cash crop, the more crop you have to harvest. The more you have in your cover crop, the more good it does for the soil.

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Over the fall & wintertime I will be taking time off making new episodes for the podcast to work on some new projects. You may recall that last winter I released an online course on cover crops. I would like to work on some new courses. If you have some ideas on what you would like me to work on, please send them my way.

The online course has proven to be a great way for farmers from any region to learn something new and end up with an actionable plan at the end. If you like DIY (Do-It-Yourself) learning, like I do, this is an easy way to learn on your own. The office hours and the extra help sessions are there for anyone that wants some time with me to fine tune the plans. However, many people found that it was nice to be able to work on it from the office or from home when it suited them and not have to travel to spend a day, or days, at a conference.

Another project I want to work on is putting all the content of this podcast into a book form. As I have made this over the years, I have just written what made sense at the time. As I have looked back, I think there is a natural grouping of episodes that could form a book.

Now you might say, why would I buy a book when I can get the podcast for free? It is a good question and I think the answer is:  If this is good for you, do not worry about the book. I love podcasts and listen to many of them without buying their books, supporting them on Patreon, or buying their programs. That is the deal with podcasts: We put the information out there for free and listeners decide if that is good enough or they want more. It’s only expected that a small segment of the audience will go to the next level, and I have did that on podcasts that I love.

To me, putting the podcast into a book is not just sending all the transcripts to company and having them put it out there as is. With the eye of an editor, doing some updating, and adding some new content, I think it can all come together in a cohesive package. Stay tuned.

[TRANSITION MUSIC]

Thanks for listening. While you have your podcast app open can you do me a favour? Ratings and reviews really help podcasts to reach new audiences. I have decided to keep my podcast free so if you want to help me, there is no better way. While you are there, make sure you are subscribed so you see new episodes when they come out.

If you prefer email, consider going to my website, www.plantsdigsoil.com and click on the newsletter option (https://mailchi.mp/plantsdigsoil/newsletter). It comes out once a month with new episode listings, events that I will be at, and carefully curated content with commentary so you can keep up on the essential news in regenerative agriculture.

If you do not like email newsletters and are on Twitter or LinkedIn, consider checking out the newsletter options there. As opposed to posts, you will always be notified of new ones, and I promise to only send something out once a month.

I always like to know how people that give out information for free actually make money. The podcast is free so that you can learn something new and get to know how I work through issues.

If you need a little more help than the podcast can provide, I am developing self-directed, online courses to help you dive a deeper into issues. Included in the courses are office hours that let you have time with me to fine tune your plans. Details are at my website (https://plantsdigsoil.thinkific.com/courses/cover-crops-prairies?coupon=newsletter) and if you use the coupon code “podcast” (no quotes) at checkout you’ll get $20 off.

When you need more than that, I provide consulting packages that can be used in person, online, or a combination of the two (https://www.plantsdigsoil.com/pricing). Most people start with a Q&A session where I answer your top questions and we both get to know each other. Beyond that we can move to Farm Planning or an Annual Retainer.

If you live in Southern Alberta, Canada, I can provide scouting services throughout the summer with weekly field checks for crop staging, pest presence, and, under irrigated fields, soil moisture and weekly irrigation plans. I go beyond the standard crops of wheat, barley, canola, and peas to include things like potatoes, quinoa, and hemp. And of course, I love taking on cover crops.

My expertise is centred around the Canadian Prairies. I have a B.Sc. (Agr.) with an agronomy focus and a M.Sc. with a focus on Plant Science. Beyond my formal education, I have attained, and maintained, my Certified Crop Advisor designation and am a member in good standing with the Alberta Institute of Agrologists.

I use Anchor (from Spotify) to send this podcast out to the world across many platforms and it tells me I have listeners from every continent. Oddly, it even says I have listeners from Antarctica. If that is you, I would love to hear from you, or wherever you are in the world. Send me an email or connect on Twitter or LinkedIn. If you use Anchor or Spotify, you can leave me a voice message. See you next time.