[Jacob-list] soil

[Neal and Louise Grose]

Hey Betty,

I think we have had your winter. 34 degrees and snow yesterday. We have been well below normal in temp and WET. Yuck.

What we have found is that tillage destroys soil. Period. They used to say that NC soils could not be more than 1% organic matter. Since we switched to 100% no-till, we have fields that are over 3%. More importantly, good soil structure depends on a build-up of microfilaments of fungus and air spaces that are wiped out by tillage.  Our row crop land now has better water absorption capacity than pastures.

Neal
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Betty Berlenbach 
  To: jacob-list at jacobsheep.com 
  Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2010 7:19 AM
  Subject: [Jacob-list] soil


  Sounds to me, Neil, like we threw the baby out with the bathwater; that is, using organic matter to improve the soil, sounds a good thing; I agree that tilling is not good.  But "modern" farming gave up the organic matter in favor of chemical fertilizers.  Now, we want to make sure we stop the tilling, but keep the organic matter!  At least, that's the way we've decided is best up here in Vermont, which is NOT frigid this year, which worries me a great deal. To have temps of 48 in early March is unheard of; we've only had about 10 days below 20 degrees this year, I think...instead of six to eight weeks of it.  It means I might even have to worm the sheep this Spring!  Generally, since the ground is frozen all winter, and right up to the time they go out on pasture, I don't much worry about such things...It is seldom needed...
   Betty, in Vermont,who now has a blog, thanks to help from Walter and Linda.  See Betty's blog at http://sheepwoman.wordpress.com.


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