Solomon Hutchins

Soil health paper and farm check and tour

By. Solomon Hutchins

Mon , July 8, 2024

Today I continued working on an information project on soil health importance and of “keeping our soil healthy is what keeps the foundation of productivity and sustainability to help farmers work with the land rather than against it reducing erosion maximizing water infiltration”.

Also covering the principles of soil health and why they are so important to incorporate when farming.

Soil armor is one of the principles its importance includes providing a proper habitat for organisms in the soil which is needed for soil health. Soil cover protects soil from wind and water erosion, preventing the loss of valuable soil organic matter and nutrients.

The importance of Minimizing soil disturbance of factor is improper grazing which can lower the biomass, lower the photosynthetic capacity are well as reducing the net productivity. Being cautious of over use of chemicals can damage the soil, environment and even crops the chemicals in question fall under “fertilizers and pesticides, disrupting soil food webs, including microorganisms necessary for soil health.”

Using Livestock integration into cropping systems increases biodiversity as well as balancing carbon and nitrogen ratios. After doing research we went and visited a farm where we saw a few crops. A few were watermelon, peppers, corn, squash, tomatoes, ocra, peaches and others

Watermelon:

The farmer decided to not use too many weed killers to protect his watermelon all in all their striving though there was quite a bit of grass.

Mr. Nathen and I also checked the corn field for insects and potential damage. We saw that the corn was doing well overall thanks to sprayed pesticides but there were still a few pests and deer damage but the crop was doing well overall.

Corn deer damage: