Eco-Agriculture Archives -

Deliberate Disturbance

The health and productivity of soils, livestock, plants, landscapes, ecology, and people is guided and shaped by deliberate disturbance — deliberate in the sense that the choice to implement a specific disturbance is a considered, conscious and intentional one. A choice that gets made as a subconscious pattern of habit, indoctrination, or dogma is not a deliberate choice. To be good stewards of the landscape, we need to make mindful choices of the disturbances we impose.

All active management decisions and actions result in imposing a disturbance, whether that be grazing livestock, pruning a tree, moving a fence, locating a water trough, adding a soil amendment, using a wormer, adding fertilizer, spraying a pesticide, or tilling the soil.

Disturbance is a reset action that can lead to greater soil and ecosystem health and productivity when used wisely. And disturbance can also reset soil and ecosystem health backward when not used wisely.

Moving Out of Equilibrium to Improve the Ecosystem

Reset actions and wise disturbance are a foundational requirement to trigger optimal health and performance outcomes and are inherent in natural ecosystem function. When a thermodynamic system remains in equilibrium, there is no output of energy or growth. If we desire for an ecosystem to evolve, to grow, to expand its carrying capacity and its biological diversity, then there is a requirement for stewardship decisions to move things temporarily out of equilibrium.

Deliberate disturbance in an ecosystem is the equivalent of pushing a pendulum. Without a push, eventually a pendulum stops moving and there is no further energy output. A slight touch to reset it will get it moving again, and the energy released from the back-and-forth oscillation is cumulative and much greater than the energy applied to get it restarted. A pendulum with no movement is a pendulum at equilibrium. A natural ecosystem at equilibrium, with no disturbances to reset it, is static and begins to decline.

Any specific disturbance is not inherently good or bad. The question to be determined is if the particular disturbance serves as a beneficial reset action in a particular context. When a reset action is applied, does it lead to greater ecosystem health and function in a reasonable timeline? A reset action that is very valuable in one context may be detrimental in another. A reset action that is needed only once in one context might be needed routinely in another.

A volcano is a reset action that can produce very positive ecosystem outcomes over a decades-long time period. A large bison herd eating every green leaf to the ground for weeks at a time is a reset action that appears to have negative consequences in the short term but is a long-term net positive. Pruning a vine or tree of a large percentage of its total biomass might appear to some as a major short-term negative, but we know that the disequilibrium this creates leads to much greater productivity.

Thinking about deliberately creating productive disequilibrium and deliberate reset actions that fit our particular context provides us with a first-principles framework such that we can lose all manner of dogma and indoctrination in our thinking. This approach is invaluable, for we have a lot of dogma to overcome around the use and value of some types of disturbance.

Click here, to read more.

U.S. Soybean Planting Pulls 7 Points Ahead of Average, Says USDA in First Report of May

https://www.agriculture.com/usda-crop-progress-report-may-5-2025-11728402#toc-corn-crop-progress

Emerging soybeans — Photo: Courtesy of FMC

Key Points

Soybean planting progressing rapidly: Farmers have planted 30% of the U.S. soybean crop, a strong pace across key growing states.
Corn planting slightly ahead of average: Corn planting is 40% complete nationwide, just ahead of the five-year average.
Winter wheat condition peaks: The share of winter wheat rated good to excellent is at its highest level so far this season.

Today, USDA published the fifth Crop Progress report of the 2025 growing season. Here’s a look at the latest corn, soybean, wheat, and oat numbers.

Corn Crop Progress

As of May 4, 40% of the corn crop across the country’s top 18 corn-growing states had been planted. That’s ahead of the five-year average of 39%.

Eleven percent of the corn crop had emerged across 16 of the top corn-growing states as of May 4. That’s ahead of the five-year average by 2 percentage points. Only Colorado and Wisconsin had no corn emergence reported. The five-year average for both states is 1%.

Soybean Crop Progress

The USDA said that as of May 4, 30% of the soybean crop across all top 18 states had been planted. That’s notably ahead of the five-year average of 23%.

This is the first week this season that USDA reported soybean emergence for top-growing states. As of May 4, 7% of the soybean crop had emerged across 15 of the 18 top-growing states, compared to the five-year average of 5%.

Only Michigan, North Dakota, and South Dakota had no soybean emergence reported. That’s consistent with the five-year trend for the Dakotas, but Michigan’s five-year average for soybean emergence at this time is 1%.

Are all bales harvested from a single hayfield created equal?

https://www.agproud.com/articles/60320-are-all-bales-harvested-from-a-single-hayfield-created-equal

Photo by Mike Dixon.

Are all bales harvested from a single hayfield created equal?

Michael Reuter September 18, 2024

Improper samples contribute to the biggest error in the forage analysis process and result in over- or underfeeding nutrients and prove costly to the animal’s nutrition and health and to your pocketbook.

As the calendar has turned to autumn and the hay harvest season continues in full swing across the country, forage analysis labs expect to be hit by a tidal wave of samples from clients. These customers are looking to gauge the quality and nutritional proﬁle of the product they have produced fo r on-farm use or for resale, while others may be using the data to make a purchasing decision based upon the nutritional needs of their livestock.

To obtain the best nutritional proﬁle of your hay, one of the most important points to remember is that the forage analysis process begins on the farm and not the moment the sample arrives at the lab.

Where does the analysis process begin on the farm? With sampling! It’s a step many (or even most) times we all take for granted, but it is the most critical part of the process and the one that is the main driver of the results returned to the customer. Always remember the golden rule: “An analysis is only as good as the sample submitted.”

How do you collect a “good” sample? The key to submitting a good sample is to collect several subsamples to form a composite. Remember, the 1-pound sample you submit for analysis is going to potentially represent several tons of forage. Thus, you want to be sure the sample represents a good cross-section of the forage, not just one bale. For example, if you sampled the worst bale in the lot, feeding recommendations based on this information would result in overfeeding and increased feed costs. A composite sample properly collected will always be more representative of your forage source.

Now that we’ve established that sampling is a vital driver in the forage analysis process, how is it performed properly? Let’s keep our focus on hay but realize that proper sampling is essential to all sample types submitted for analysis.

Hays of different types, cuttings or lots should be sampled separately. Using a Penn State Forage Sampler (or other suitable hay probe), core 12 to 20 bales selected at random. For square bales, sample through the center of the small square end (perpendicular to the slices). For round bales, sample on the curved side with a core perpendicular to the side. Combine all core samples and submit in a clean quart or liter-sized zip-close-style plastic bag.

So how does all this information relate to the title of this article? Well, the questions we receive at the lab quite often are as follows: Can bales from the same ﬁeld really vary that much in composition? Isn’t it all the same exact hay since we took all the bales from the same place? The answer to the ﬁrst question is a resounding yes and to the second, no. Let’s look at some data from a small internal study conducted at Equi-Analytical with the help of a customer who supports these answers.

To set the stage, here are some background details connected to this study.

~~Click the link above, to read more.

No-Till Highlights: Aug. 1, 2024

August 1, 2024

No-Till Farmer editors encounter a variety of articles, social media posts, podcasts and videos that offer a unique look at the grower’s world from the lofty digital realm. Here is our favorite content from the past week from across the web:

No-Till Saved Their Farm

Frustrated by back-to-back years of drought, South Dakota farmer Alan Johnson bucked a trend 40 years ago and tried his hand at no-till. It made all the difference — as now his son Brian continues the no-till tradition along with cover crops and livestock on the farm today. In 2019, the Johnsons were named South Dakota Leopold Conservation Award winners — a prestigious award that recognizes excellence in land stewardship and conservation ethics.

No-Till is a Perfect Tool for Reversing Soil Depletion

According to Dwayne Beck, retired director of Dakota Lakes Research Farm, before no-till, crop farmers worked their soils until they depleted them. Then they moved on and looked for more land to exploit. Read more about why Beck says no-till is a good tool for reversing soil depletion here.

Dwayne Beck, the research manager at Dakota Lakes Research Farm in South Dakota, speaks at a Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance field day on July 25, 2024, in Willow Street, Pa. Photo: Philip Gruber | Staff

The 7 Freebies for All Farmers

In this presentation, Green Cover Seed co-founder Keith Berns discusses the benefits of cover crops, no-till and other regenerative farming practices as well as what he calls the “seven freebies for all farmers.” Berns says “When you buy a piece of land, you are buying all the minerals and nutrients that are in that soil.”

How Many Days Does it Take to Cut Hay on a No-Till Farm?

In this video from Farming With Kels, take a look into the process for summer hay crops in central Minnesota on a no-till/strip-till farm operation.

Why One Farmer Chooses No-Till Over Everything Else

In this YouTube Short from Farm Talk Channel, this farmer explains why he would prefer to use no-till on his farm over any other type of system. He uses a visual example of moisture in his soils to illustrate the benefits of no-till.

Does it work to plant green into cover crops for corn? Five unique Ontario fields in 2023.

www.fieldcropnews.com/2024/03/does-it-work-to-plant-green-into-cover-crops-for-corn-five-unique-ontario-fields-in-2023/

Posted on March 15, 2024 (March 15, 2024) by Jake Munroe in Corn&Cover Crops&Soil Health

Planting corn directly into a living cover crop before it is killed by herbicide or tillage is not something that would have been considered 30 years ago. However, with advances in planter technology, herbicide options, and a greater awareness of cover crop benefits to soil health, more growers are doing it. According to the 2022-2023 US National Cover Crop Survey, the practice of “planting green” has grown in popularity, with a 22% increase compared to 2016-2017. Over 38% of respondents in 2022-2023 who grew a cover crop before corn reported terminating it at or shortly after seeding. In Ontario, while planting green for corn is not mainstream, it has also increased in popularity.

Most research trials have focused on the impact of termination timing of a cereal rye cover crop ahead of corn planting. In Ontario, corn is often planted following winter wheat, after which several different overwintering species, such as crimson clover, hairy vetch, and brassicas, can be seeded. The impact of planting corn green into such mixtures is not well known.

For those looking over the fence at these systems, the key question is: does it work? To help provide an answer, I followed five Ontario corn fields during the 2023 season that were planted green into cover crop mixtures. The objective was to identify common challenges, highlight differences across soil types, and define key elements to success.

Average corn yield across the five fields was 193.7 bu/ac, which surpassed county average values by nearly 30 bu/ac. The main learnings were:

Target modest spring cover crop growth to reduce planting challenges.
Modify planter with appropriate downforce and closing wheels.
Apply a higher-than-standard upfront nitrogen rate.
And match burndown herbicides to control all cover crop species and avoid escapes.

Read on to learn more.

Continued at the link above…

Inflation Reduction Act in Action: Bell Rock Livestock Association Partners with USDA to Keep Traditions Alive

https://www.farmers.gov/blog/inflation-reduction-act-in-action-bell-rock-livestock-association-partners-with-usda-keep

Apr 22, 2024
By Leonard Luna, NRCS, New Mexico

Just west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, lies what many describe as an enchanting landscape of mesas, foothills and mountains. Spanning four counties of this vast western landscape is the 500,000-acre territory of the Pueblo of Laguna – a federally recognized Native American people.

This landscape also offers some of the state’s most interesting rock formations. In fact, one distinctive bell-shaped rock formation atop the Mesa Gigante cliffs inspired the name of one of the Laguna Pueblo’s livestock associations – the Bell Rock Livestock Association.

Over the years, members of the Bell Rock Livestock Association, alongside USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), have implemented significant conservation practices and enhancements across the landscape. Through Farm Bill programs such as the agency’s Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), these practices improved water source locations for livestock and wildlife as well as grazing lands.

In 2023, the association once again consulted with NRCS on incorporating stewardship goals specifically focused on livestock and wildlife climate-smart agriculture practices. This time, funds from the Inflation Reduction Act are helping achieve these goals.

Utilizing Inflation Reduction Act funds through CSP, the association will incorporate forage sampling throughout its vast livestock working lands. Forage sampling is collecting a representative sample of grazing material across a field to represent what the livestock are grazing in that field. Forage sampling is part of CSP enhancement – E528A (Maintaining quantity and quality of forage for animal health and productivity). Forage samples are submitted to New Mexico State University, and the association uses the results to help maintain forage quality and quantity to improve animal health and productivity, while enhancing soil carbon stocks through more precise forage management. Forage samples taken from the rangeland help increase understanding plant quantity, along with nutritional values, and aid in identifying the most nutritionally valuable grazing areas for cattle during breeding and weaning seasons.

Continue reading at link above~~

ORGANIC NO-TILL

What is tillage?

Tillage is the practice of digging up, turning over, or otherwise agitating the soil with mechanical tools—typically a plow or disc. Tilling breaks up soil compaction, helps eliminate weeds, and incorporates cover crops for boosted soil fertility. These are important benefits, but tillage also leaves soil vulnerable to erosion and destroys important fungal networks underground. Tillage is also fuel- and labor-intensive. Some farmers, both conventional and organic, practice reduced tillage or try to eliminate it altogether.

Conventional vs. organic no-till

In conventional systems, farmers can practice no-till by using chemical herbicides to kill cover crops before the next planting. Organic no-till, on the other hand, uses no synthetic inputs. Instead, small-scale organic no-till farmers use hand tools, like hoes and rakes. Large-scale organic no-till farmers can utilize a special tractor implement called the roller crimper (left), invented here at Rodale Institute.

roller crimper rolling down a cover crop

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The roller crimper is a water-filled drum with chevron-patterned blades that attaches to the front of a tractor. As the farmer drives over the cover crop, the roller crimper mows the plants down, cutting the stems every seven inches. The cover crop, now terminated, remains on the ground where it forms a thick mulch that suffocates weeds. Implements on the rear of the tractor then part the cover crop mat, drop in seeds—soybeans, for example—and cover them up to ensure soil contact. It happens in a single pass, saving vital time and energy for farmers. The cash crop then grows straight up through the cover crop mulch.

Watch the roller crimper in action:

no-till corn — Organic corn grows through a mat of vetch cover crop that was terminated using the roller crimper

THE BENEFITS OF ROLLER CRIMPING

REDUCES EROSION

IMPROVES SOIL HEALTH

ADDS ORGANIC MATTER

REDUCES COST

REDUCES LABOR

SAVES TIME

INCREASES BIODIVERSITY

REDUCES WEED PRESSURE

Choosing a crop

Not all cover crops are created equal when it comes to organic no-till. We have found the most success with annual crops including crimson clover, winter rye, winter barley, spring barley, spring oats, buckwheat, foxtail millet, pearl millet, fava bean, sunn hemp, black oats, hairy vetch, field peas, and winter wheat. The roller crimper won’t kill cover crops like red clover, which is a biennial; alfalfa, which is a perennial; or ‘Marshall’ rye, a kind of annual ryegrass.

KEY CONCERNS

Timing is everything—cover crops must be terminated at just the right time at the end of their life cycle. This prevents them from a) continuing to grow after being rolled or b) going to seed and spreading. This is why, unfortunately, one can’t use the roller crimper to simply mow down a field of unruly weeds mid-summer—they’ll just spring back to life. You want to roll when the cover crop reaches anthesis—when it switches from being vegetative to reproductive. In a rye or small grain, this will occur almost uniformly through the field and you’ll notice pollen shed. In vetch or legumes, which flower at different times, the rule of thumb is to roll when between 50% and 100% of the crop is flowering. In general, best results from organic no-till are achieved in hot, dry weather conditions.

Profiles in Passion: No-Till’s Proven Template for Changing Ag

https://www.no-tillfarmer.com/blogs/1-covering-no-till/post/12105-profiles-in-passion-no-tills-proven-template-for-changing-ag

By Mike Lessiter posted on Dec. 19, 2022 | Posted in No-Till Farming 101

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been deep into a “Your No-Till History” article that focused on 60 years of continuous no-till research at Ohio State University (OSU) and the famed Triplett-Van Doren No-Till Experimental Plots (see February 2023 edition of No-Till Farmer’s Conservation Tillage Guide). My research put me on the phone with the 92-year-old Glover Triplett, Ohio farmer and former NRCS Chief Bill Richards, retired OSU ag engineer Randall Reeder, retired Chevron rep Bill Haddad and then exhaustive requests of Dr. Warren Dick, the retired OSU professor who oversaw the plots from 1980-2016.

Almost every discussion came back to the necessary lining of the planets to make a revolution like no-till happen. More important than the new herbicides and a no-till-ready planter, I’d say, were the individuals who relentlessly believed in the practice, encouraged farmers to stay the course and tirelessly evangelized on the practice to numerous camps.

For more on this topic, see “YOUR NO-TILL HISTORY: World’s Longest Continuing No-Till Plots at Ohio State Hit 60 Years”

Last summer, Forbes writer Dr. Steve Savage wrote another fine piece on no-tillage. He joined us for podcast a few weeks later and stressed that all of agriculture — if not the world — needs to learn no-till’s history to understand how change can still occur, even in well-entrenched traditions like farming.

Here’s what we wrote in his July 2022 report, in a section of his work called, “Is This Kind of Change Even Possible?”

“Yes, there is reason to believe that this is possible based on a historical precedent for a huge farming system paradigm shift that happened in mainstream agriculture: “no-till farming.” That change was also a response to a climate crisis of human origin – the Dust Bowl phenomenon of the 1930s, and it demonstrates the fact that farmers can make changes when they need to. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the first “no-till” field grown in Kentucky in 1962. Growing crops without plowing or tillage was such a radical idea that early adopters had to avoid social gathering spots like coffee shops to avoid getting harassed about their “trashy fields.” Fast forward to 2017 and 104.5 million US acres were farmed using a no-till approach. No-till or the related strip-till farming methods are the ideal foundation for the full suite of climate ready systems, and so it is important to consider what enabled that kind of large-scale change. The key elements were applied public research, the development of specialized machinery, and the availability of key technologies such as herbicides and biotech crops.

But perhaps most importantly, the change was pioneered by a distinct and innovative subset of the farming population that banded together as a community. Today there are still self-identified “no-tillers” and “strip-tillers,” and they are at the adoption forefront for other climate-resilience enhancing farming methods. Grower oriented publications like No-Till Farmer or Progressive Farmer are filled with narratives about farmers that are working out the practical details of adding things like cover crops or unusual rotations or livestock integration. The key is not to tell growers how to farm, but rather to ask these leaders what works and what would help them and others to move in the right direction in terms of a climate change response.”

Great context on the story you’re continuing to write each day.

No-Till Champions

The OSU story I’m writing now spurred a memory from interviewing No-Till Innovator Dr. John Bradley last summer, when he filled me in how the University of Tennessee was not at all supportive of what Dr. Tom McCutchen was trying to do with no-tillage research in the early days, long before he made a name for the university with its Milan No-Till Field Day. McCutchen had to locate the plots on the back of the station to stay out of the sight and complaints of the critical administrators who thought no-till was embarrassing, fool’s farming.

Bradley and I went over some observations about no-till adoption he’d shared with my dad, Frank, in a No-Till Farmer Innovators & Influencers podcast in 2019.

“No-till worked best where you had leadership in an individual or individuals that led the cause,” he said, naming the late George McKibben and Jim Kinsella in Illinois; Randall Reeder in Ohio and pointing to our No-Till Farmer Innovators roster. There are far more omissions than identifications in the sentence above, but hopefully you get the point.

“Every place there was a good, local extension agent or farmer leader behind no-till, it stuck,” continues Bradley. “Every place where no-till grew, there was a leader behind it without fail.”

Where we’re losing no-till acres, he says, are areas where the leaders have gotten old, retired and are absent of a new champion to cheer farmers on and help them find the answers to the challenges. He also noted that the younger generation appears to be having a love affair with big equipment and they’re wearing down their dads who know better.

“I still work with some farmers that say to their sons, ‘Call John Bradley and see what he thinks about this,’” says Bradley.

But many of those guys like Bradley are getting up there in age, and those next-generation folks may not have them in their smartphones.

–Click on the link above to read the full article.

Carbon Ranching: A Win For Your Pasture and Your Pockets

https://www.agproud.com/articles/58175-carbon-ranching-a-win-for-your-pasture-and-your-pockets

September 1, 2023

Capturing Carbon Across US Range & Pasturelands

Undoubtedly, ranching demands immense effort and sacrifices. The increasing pressure to adopt environmentally friendly practices can sometimes feel at odds with producer interests. However, carbon ranching presents an opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate farmer and ranchers’ contributions in more ways than one. By partnering with the right experts, carbon ranching or “carbon cropping” offers long-lasting benefits that extend beyond today’s generation. These practices not only benefit the planet but provide advantages, like enhanced soil quality, improved resilience to changing weather patterns, and, notably, financial rewards through carbon credit generation, to hardworking agriculture operations.

Which practices generate carbon credits for range and pastureland in the United States?

Agoro Carbon Alliance offers three practices for range and pasture lands participants, enabling ranchers nation-wide to generate carbon credits and get paid for doing so:

Improved grazing: This practice involves various options based on your operation and current grazing program. The goal is to provide timely rest for the grass and promote efficient forage utilization, leaving enough biomass for critical regrowth.
Seeding: This practice requires introducing at least one new species to your land, to enhance biodiversity and increase biomass. There are multiple options available within this program.
Fertilization: This practice involves fertilizing historically unfertilized ground. Fertilizer, particularly nitrogen, is often lacking in range and pasture areas, and this practice addresses that deficiency.

What can an ag carbon program look like?

Improved grazing offers numerous possibilities. Common tactics include dividing pastures into smaller sections, or paddocks, and implementing rotational grazing by moving animals between these smaller areas. Water and mineral sources are also relocated to encourage animals to utilize different parts of the pasture. Another effective strategy is to increase the frequency of moving animals between existing pastures.

Seeding can often involve alternative methods to traditional range drill seeding. Broadcast seeding has shown positive results, utilizing ground rigs or airplanes in late fall, preferably around a snow event to facilitate seed penetration. Local seed companies and extension agents can assist in determining the most suitable species to add, which helps diversify existing vegetation and addresses pasture maturity and nutritional value.

Fertilizer can be applied simultaneously with seeding, especially with broadcast methods. The effects of water movement and freeze/thaw cycles aid in the incorporation of fertilizer into the soil. Fertilization primarily boosts forage production but can also enhance plant vigor and increase crude protein levels. Care should be taken to ensure the desired plants are benefiting from fertilization, as undesired plants may thrive at their expense. Seeding and fertilization complement each other, providing mutual benefits.

~~ read more at link above…