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No Till Food Plots - So Easy

at1010

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Here I cover a plot where I am adding ash for the micro and macronutrients, as well as pellet lime. This is a field that I will continue to put seed on to establish a constant root and build soil quality over time. Great example making a site-specific plan for your field, plot, garden to work on soil quality.

 

at1010

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Here I take two soil plugs. One is from my garden where tillage has been used for years. The other is from my orchard that has cover crops grown. These areas are 20-25 yards apart from each other. I pour the same amount of water on both of them and let a timer go for a minute, look at the difference!

 

"J"

Git Off My Lawn
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Here I take two soil plugs. One is from my garden where tillage has been used for years. The other is from my orchard that has cover crops grown. These areas are 20-25 yards apart from each other. I pour the same amount of water on both of them and let a timer go for a minute, look at the difference!

Very interesting, I would have thought more water would have gone through the cover crop soil than what actually did...
 
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at1010

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Very interesting, I would have thought more water would have gone through the cover crop soil than what actually did...

I know. I notice the color of water as well. The cover crop retains moisture in the soil and doesn’t allow run off as it infiltrates the soil vs. just blowing through it!

this shows what happens in a hard rain event and how a cover crop helps garner more moisture and hold soil nutrients through the aggregates.

Amazing stuff!!
 
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at1010

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Another amazing webinar from Dr. Christine Jones. I highly suggest listening to this webinar if you are interested in creating better soils, and reducing your need for syntenic inputs. For those who enjoy the cliff notes – please see mine below! Build Better Soils!
  • Phosphorus - highly immobile
  • Abundant in most soils
  • 85-90% of nutrients are microbially mediated
  • Today’s soils aren’t deficient in minerals, they are deficient in microbes that make nutrients available.
  • Plant microbes don’t work well under lab conditions – hence why past research has been misleading. The soil tested had low to no microbial life.
  • Nitrogen has to be biologically fixed for carbon sequestration to occur.
  • Phosphorus soluble bacteria stimulate biological nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
  • If we add water-soluble phosphorus- we add phosphorus - which stops the biological fixing of phosphorus, which in turn stops nitrogen-fixing biology which is needed to create the humic molecule (organic matter).
  • Australian farmers captured 25tons of carbon per hectare - 2/3rds was from root exudates – in 24 months.
  • Only 10-15% of P is taken by plants in the year of application
  • 85-90% is immobilized in soil
  • In soils ph, less than 7 - forms insoluble metals
  • P doesn’t move in soil. 1-2inchs top. Once roots get deep, synthetic applications of P are not available.
  • Available P in soil tests shows 1.4-3% of actual P in the soil. Other 98% is in soil- need microbial activity through symbiotic relationships to develop this availability.
  • Fungi solubilize phosphorus for plants – fungi need root exudates, the importance of constant root growing.
  • As the growing season nears (spring and fall) microbial activity is highest. Available P Will increase during these periods. So taking soil tests early could show inaccurate results.
  • Plant tissue tests will be far more accurate in showing you what is taken up by the plants.
  • Soil is a mix of aerobic and anaerobic biological functions. Nitrogen fixation occurs in an anaerobic environment - cannot fix in aerobic(oxygen) exposed environment (tillage would damage the fungi as well as the nitrogen-fixing ability of the soil, it is exposing it to air).
  • Potassium - might be ok to add, in small doses.
  • The best way to add is foliar - if needed. Much less needed. If a Brix test shows this being lower.
  • 4-6 plant families in cover crop mix.
  • Nitrogen bacteria in soil - takes 3 years in the soil to be adequate. This is why if the goal is to come off a nitrogen fertilization program, it is best to reduce slowly over years, and not stop cold turkey. Think of an antibiotic increase and decrease regiment a human would be on, to not shock the body.
  • Biostimulant - compost extract - on seed -these act as auto-inducers, stimulate soil microbiome vs. just acting as a fertilizer but acting as one in same. These are not fertilizing the roots but actually jump-starting the microbiome of the soil where the seed is planted, so that when the seed breaks open and starts producing exudates, the microbes are awake and ready!
  • Seeds' core microbiome is important - similar to genetics but not genetic, it is microbial but can determine the likelihood of how the plant grows, wants to grow, interacts with microbes, etc. This is developing science.
 

at1010

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Very interesting webinar, mostly on the soil microbiology.

Although much of it was similar to other conversations that I have listened to previously, I always take something away from the experts. I found some major similarities and dissimilarities in both pitches. I also found John's take on the variability in the efficacy of plant photosynthesizing, at a constant, to be highly fascinating. Assuming what he is saying about increasing the photosynthesis efficacy of plants, throughout the year, and keeping a constant root growing - we would be talking about increasing root exudates consistency, which would increase the overall health of the system. Very interesting proposal.

Thank you for following along!

AT

Build Better Soils!

 
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at1010

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Here I cover some of the concerns I have with the constant infighting within the regen ag community. There seems to be an instinct, for some, to put others down - if and when they don't fully agree with the methods being implemented.

We must recognize the complexities of some situations and also not totally negate the simplicities of what makes the overall system work, laid out so well by folks like Gabe Brown.

Let's work together to build better soil and educate each other vs. rushing to the top of the mountain to look down at those below.
Build Better Soil!

DIRT is what we will be buried in, SOIL is what life is built upon!
 
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at1010

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https://fb.watch/4SGvnbMsZU/

Another great webinar from Dr. Christine Jones - below are my notes. I hope some find this useful! Enjoy!
•Nitrogen - highly mobile in soil10-40% is taken up by plants
•60-90% goes elsewhere
•Nitrogen rapidly transformed does not accumulate, like phosphorus – volatilizes
•78% of the atmosphere is N2
•70million lbs per acre in N2 available
•N2 is inert
•Legumes don’t fix nitrogen - they symbiotically work with bacteria to fix nitrogen.
•Nitrogen fixation occurred insides rhizosheaths and water-stable aggregates – need to have functioning soil to make nitrogen available.
•Observation analysis will be far more important to see soil building than sending soil to a lab – this seems to be very consistent with various other soil scientists as well.
•Synthetic fertilizers - inhibit rhizosheaths and water-stable aggregates.
•A little bit can be stimulatory. Over 50lb per acre is too much (urea for example).
•Clean white roots - no rhizosheaths happening no natural nitrogen fixation occur.
•Every green living plant has some possibility to access free-living nitrogen through microbial intermediaries, through the fungal network.
•Fungi are the conduits transport of organic nitrogen to plant roots, as amino acids. Once inside the plant, the plant can assemble the amino acids into proteins. This is important, some syntetics might get taken up by the plant but are not converted to proteins, therefore are consumed as nitrates.
•Huge metabolic cost to plant to convert synthetic nitrogen to usable protein. So it at times doesn’t convert, again leaving the amount a N in the plant vs. a protein, which is not helping the nutrient density of the plant for consumption.
•80-90% of plant nutrient acquisition is microbially mediated.
•Dissimilar microbiomes - growing together- function symbiotically vs. competitively.
•High analysis fertilizers are just substituting for plant diversity.
•800lbs of urea per acre - cannot produce the same biomass as 4+ groups of complimentary plants working together.
•Wean off N if needed - 20%,30%,50% - use an organic form of N fertilizer vs. urea, as an example.
•Can use 5lb per acre of synthetic N - without detrimental impacts.Not sure why this occurs but it does act as a jump start or stimulant for the microbiomes.
•Use plant leaf tests and apply as foliar - only if they needed.
•Funny protein - is if a plant has N in the plant but the protein was never converted, yet the lab tests can be inconsistent. Labs test for N in the plant and then multiply it by a fixed number variable. This test is inconsistent as it assumes all N is converted to a protein. However, this is not the case as many synthetics are never converted and stay as N.
•4 functional groups without a legume will fix as much N - as with a legume. Too many legumes can be detrimental, like synthetics.
•More than half the N in manure is inorganic
•Avoid inorganic N all together
•If you put nitrogen fertilizer on a legume - the bacteria that fix nitrogen will stop.
•Synthetics make plants look good but they are weak below. Not nutrient-dense.
•4 plant functional groups - incredibly healthy microbiome.
 
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at1010

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This is one of my favorite podcasts right now. They are funny, intelligent, and extremely experienced in farming practices in Iowa and Minnesota. Although not all of this relates to deer food plots, there is still a lot we can learn from benefiting both soil and land from these folks. Really good stuff!!

 
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at1010

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Another amazing webinar. John Kempf is an inspiring mind.

As per usual, I have done the notes, for those who want the cliff notes vs. the entire video.

Understanding antagonistic relationships between nutrients and plant uptake- more is not always better, actually, it is much worse.
Rhizophagy Cycle (root feeding cycle) – root types absorb bacteria cells, then how bacteria move from soil to plant, back to soil to communicate the what the plant needs ex. MG, K, P, etc. The plant also sends out root exudates – bacteria and exudates transform all of this information to the entire community fungal and bacterial.
This biology CAN show nutrients that do NOT show up on a normal CEC soil analysis.

Plants “farm” bacteria – in the above cycle.

This is how plants are designed to absorb nutrients for the highest energy, disease resistance, etc. This should be a biological process, not a chemistry-based process. Raises concerns/questions about the current way we look and study chemist-based soil tests.
The most efficient nitrogen – is in Amino sugars (microbially delivered N) vs. as nitrates.

The only reason we need to supply N is that we have destroyed the soil capacity to deliver N to the plants, through natural biological cycles. Remember 36,000 Tons of atmospheric nitrogen-free per acre.

How do we do this?

1.Establish the microbial populations – endophytes, mycorrhizal fungi, bacteria – (not tilling helps this happen).

2.Applying soil inoculants – plenty of biology can fix nitrogen in the soil without legumes being present.

3.Stop damaging what already exists – tilling, adding synthetics in abundance, etc. shut down the rhizophagy process entirely.
Using Haney analysis and tissue analysis allows them to make a better N application – often far less than a standard test would show.

If apply liquid N, we want the soil bacteria population to convert the N to amino acids, so easily digestible and absorbed by plants.
Once it is in the plant’s cells, it is available but no soluble – no leaching! Less is more.

Plants are the FINAL report card.

Thousands of sap analyses – these do not correlate to soil analysis.
CEC is a calculation – soil analysis can be looked at as a grain of salt.

The only nutrients which generally correlate from a sap analysis and soil analysis are sulfur, zinc, and boron.

Read Lab reports and observe the plants, and if the two disagree – it is probably the plants that are correct, find a better lab analysis.

Most nitrogen demand for most crops doesn’t come until the grain-filled period.
 

at1010

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Well, picked up my seed mix at Merit yesterday. As per usual, they do an amazing job of mixing and bagging my custom mix for me. I decided to alter my mix for spring this year. 1. I have a baby on way and didn't want to throw away money 2. @jagermeister was a "karen" early about how it wasn't going to work, so I scaled down - hahahaah JK Jim!

I did want to keep it simple this Spring due to the lack of a drill. So I am going with 2 mixes.
8.5 acres of
spring oats
red clover
buckwheat
sunflowers

1.5 acres
spring oats
red clover
buckwheat

Larger fields will get the top and smaller fields will get the bottom. I will keep you all updates as it gets closer to planting time!!

Thank you for following along.

AT.
 

at1010

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This is a great podcast. The more I listen to John and Dr. Rick Haney and Dr. Christine Jones - I am really questioning the needs for conventional soil tests - I think they have a place for a cheap and fast PH reading and possibly a decent baseline to show macros from one year to the next (measure leakage or lack thereof) but overall I’m not sure they are beneficial otherwise? Often they seem to lend themselves towards far higher fert needs than actually needed.

 

at1010

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The more I learn, the more I want to learn. Sometimes I find myself confusing myself and needing to step back and re-read. This video is a nice, easy-to-understand, visualization of how mycorrhizae functions in the soil microbiome.

 

at1010

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Another great podcast here! Talking about the economic struggles of wide adoption of new methods, not only for farmers but more so for entire subset of the ag economy. Many smart folks coming up with some really great ideas on how to make change easier and more efficient.

 

at1010

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This was truly an amazing webinar series by Green Cover Seed and Ph.D. Christine Jones. This was the final one of four and my notes, for those who don't want to listen to the 2-hour webinar are below.
I hope you enjoy it! Build better soils!
.• Enzymes solubilize p and fix atmospheric nitrogen - these enzymes are produced from bacteria.
• Grapevines are highly mycorrhizal
• Prairies -500/700 flowers naturally. Paintings in the 1800s showed many flowers all over-Ground cover all over.
• Soil is bare equals negative impact on the tree.
• Plant root exudates are starting point to soil carbon.
• Plant diversity increases root exudation
• Microbial community is a key factor in determining if our soil carbon accumulated there due to root exudates. Will it be stored or respired by CO2. Fungal dominated - more carbon sequestration. Bacteria dominated more respiration.
• The key to fungal-dominated communities is diversity.
• More diversity, more fungi, more aggregates.
• Plant diversity also increases resistance to pests and diseases
• There are more microbial cells within plants than plant cells
• Core microbiome - in the seed of the plant
• Endophytes -Free-living microbes can move from the soil into plants - where they may remain for the duration of the plant's life.
• Plant diversity stimulates biological induction- N fixing, P fixing, and biological induction. Plant taking up microbes to protect themselves from pests.
• Plant diversity can replace fertilizer - do leaf tests or tissue tests. Foliar more effective and cheaper
• Restore topsoil
• Insecticides become obsolete
• Fungicide redundant
• Displaces weed
• Improves landscape function - water cycle
• Conventional tests are very misleading - plant tissues are more helpful. Calcium often shows low but it’s just not bioavailable. Similar to P. Soil tests in the past were used as fertilizer recommendation - soil nutrients as available - leads to more fert than needed. Vs. taking soil tests to simply measure the total amount in soil - as a baseline measurement.
• Bare soil will lose moisture
• Cover crops - create a short water cycle. Transpiration but returns back as fog or dew, shortly thereafter.
• Soil aggregates allow water to infiltrates, less evaporates.
 

Stressless

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Keene, OH
Ok @at1010 I had to open earth for this area, about 1/4 acre.

20210430_084425.jpg


20210501_094827.jpg
did this yesterday, 70 y/o strip mine spoil bank, any organic matter got buried.

20210501_093327.jpg


It's 4.5 - 4.8 pH, all the others I've opened up are, put 2 tons/acre AgLime and harrowed it in. This year i want to put (i.e. grow) as much organic matter on it as possible to frost seed early next spring.

What would you recommend I plant, when? Thx for any consideration in this. That plot site on the South facing slope.
 

at1010

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Ok @at1010 I had to open earth for this area, about 1/4 acre.

View attachment 126444

View attachment 126445did this yesterday, 70 y/o strip mine spoil bank, any organic matter got buried.

View attachment 126446

It's 4.5 - 4.8 pH, all the others I've opened up are, put 2 tons/acre AgLime and harrowed it in. This year i want to put (i.e. grow) as much organic matter on it as possible to frost seed early next spring.

What would you recommend I plant, when? Thx for any consideration in this. That plot site on the South facing slope.

Hey buddy! I am sure no expert, but happy to try to assist. A few parameters I'd like to outline, OM can take a long time to increase. As deer hunters and deer land managers, we can benefit by increasing it faster, as we are not removing biomass from the field. However, if the deer eat too much of it, and go poop somewhere else in the woods.....there goes some of our biomass. My favorite way to control this is with a trigger alongside native browse habitat management.

A few others items on OM. Don't get too worried about it. I have been so focused on it but as I learn more the test in and of itself is highly variable - so if you see movement from one year to the next, don't worry, just try to notice a trend over say 5 or 10 years, assuming some variability or margin of error will always be present.

As for building soil, we need to think of it as building from the top. So how do we do this, we want thatch, constant roots growing, diversity!!

My suggestion - if you are wanting to get a seed going now.
Clover - medium red, cheap, and grows fast
buckwheat
spring oats
hairy vetch
rape

You can then follow up in the fall time (spray this off with gly) and seed
turnip
radish
clover
vetch
rye grain
oats

There are probably a thousand other recommendations but I would rather see a focus on diversity and creating a system that lends itself to well-aggregated soil, than all else.

I hope this is helpful! Green Cover Seed, smart mix is a great website where you can play with balancing CtoN ratios with many plants if that is of interest to you.

Thank you for allowing me the chance to give my take. I appreciate it.

AT