Soil health, fertility matters: Cover crops improve soil resiliency

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Soil health is the foundation of every successful farm.

Soil health is the continued capacity of a soil to function as a vital, living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals and humans, said Eileen Kladivko, agronomy professor at Purdue University.

Kladivko discussed soil fertility during a webinar hosted by Lawrence County Extension.

“There are many different practices that can be used to improve soil health,” she said. “But what we want to do is look at the principles behind them. Then you can judge, based on those principles, whether a practice you’re thinking about implementing might help improve soil health or not.”

The four principles of soil health are:

1. Minimize disturbance.

2. Maximize soil cover.

3. Maximize biodiversity.

4. Provide continuous living roots.

Characteristics of healthy soil include good water infiltration, adequate water retention, resistance to erosion and crusting, filtering capacity, good rooting depth, traffic-ability, adequate aeration and nutrient availability.

Cover crops address three of the four soil health principles.

“The rationale (of cover crops) is to have something living and growing at times of the year that we typically don’t have something living and growing,” Kladivko said.

“Why does that matter? We want to capture sunlight and feed soil organisms, sequester carbon, trap and recycle nutrients and improve soil quality. Basically by making better use of the time and resources that we have available.”

Tips for starting a cover crop system:

• Take a long-term approach.

• Do your homework and start slowly.

• Adjust your planter and practices.

• Scout for insects.

• Be timely.

• Use good quality seeds.

A cover crop selection tool, cover crop recipes and other resources are available on the Midwest Cover Crops Council website, www.mccc.msu.edu.

For more information on cover crops and soil health, visit the Indiana Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative website at www.ccsin.org.