The Six Soil Health Principles

by Dan Allgyer, Amish farmer

I would like to share the six principles of soil health taught by Understanding Ag [the regenerative agricultural consulting company]. These principles apply no matter what kind of farming you are doing. Understanding Ag works with a wide variety of farmers from conventional dairies, to 10,000 acre dry land grazing, to small acreage market gardening - and they always use these six principles. I would like to address them all, and explain how we use them in our grazing operation.

Principle # 1 — Know Your Context

Our soil health is a reflection of our stewardship of the land. A lot of land in the U.S. which once was thriving grasslands, and was alive with animals, is now a brown, dead desert with no life - because of poor management. When he started farming, Gabe Brown’s farm in North Dakota had very poor soils, and nothing grew without lots of fertilizer and water. His farm is now a thriving ecosystem full of life and healthy soils, and it will grow all kinds of crops - even in a drought, with no added fertilizer. This is a reflection of the stewardship he used on his land. The same things are happening on our farms. What we do is never neutral; we either make it better or we make it worse. A lot of destructive practices destroy the soil slowly, and on a year-to-year basis it will not be noticed, but long-term it is very destructive. For a farmer to know his context, he needs to constantly be observing what the soil is telling him. For example, if a lot of chicory is growing, that means there is a calcium deficiency. The farmer needs to then determine why there is a calcium deficiency, and find a regenerative practice to correct it. Nature is always trying to tell us something. If we stop to notice and work with nature and understand why, this is implementing the first principle of soil health. Every farm is different, and that is why it is so important for every farmer to know his or her specific context. What a neighbor or what Gabe Brown is doing might not be what is correct for your farm. This is also where the goal and the mission statement come in. Know your context. Know what you really want for your farm and your life. A farm with healthy soils, but a neglected family life, or a bank statement that is negative every month, is not regenerative.

On our farm, we have implemented perennial grasses and grazing animals on every acre except for a small garden. We figured the native stage of our soils were grassland, so we decided to work with nature and grow what it wants to grow. We also figured our farm used to have lots of trees (Planting more trees is more of a long term plan and we have not implemented this change yet). We also wanted a relaxed environment that was safe, and where we could work with our children, so grasslands and grazing was a perfect fit - with no big equipment or stressful crops to plant or harvest. Additionally, we wanted our farm to be profitable, so we could afford to pay off or purchase the farm, and so create a future for the next generation. So that is where direct marketing came in. It is a lot of work, but is also very rewarding. We believe this is the best way to collect all the profits from our hard work. This is not right for every farm, but if you know your context you can create what you want.

Principle #2 — Do Not Disturb

In nature, there is no mechanical or chemical disturbance. Now we realize to get the desired results we want, that at times, it may be necessary to use one of these methods of disturbance - but we need to do it with a purpose, and not just because that is how we were taught to farm in the past. We have discussed the pros and cons of plowing or spraying in past articles, and I will not go into detail here. Just be mindful that both of these practices are destructive to soil health and need to be guarded with respect. Nature would never use either of these, and they are not what the soil wants.

This was another reason for us to switch to all grassland, as in this system, we never need to terminate or plant crops, so we never need to use either of them. There are a lot of people growing crops and vegetables without plowing or spraying. We have not done a lot of crop or vegetable growth, so I'm not the expert in this realm - I just want to say that it has been proven that it can be done without plowing or spraying.

Principle # 3 - Armor the Soil

This means the soil should stay covered and should very rarely be seen. Anytime the soil can be seen it is loosing CO2 into the air and the organic matter is decreasing. A lot of regenerative farmers are now planting crops into cover crops, and they wait to terminate the cover crop until the next crop is growing. This way, the soil will not be bare by the time the cover crop has died; the next crop will already be covering the soil. The cover crop will also create a brown layer of material on top of the soil, helping to keep it covered. Some regenerative farmers are plowing tall cover crops under, although this will create bare soil, and the next crop needs to be planted immediately. The tall cover crop will release a lot of feed to the microbes, helping the soil recover. It is best, however, if this practice can be avoided, as it goes directly against the principle of armoring the soil. In a cropping system, cover crops are the key to implementing this practice of armoring the soil. As soon as one crop is removed, a cover crop can be planted, which then minimizes the amount of time the soil is bare.

A grazing system is a little easier to implement, but it does not just happen on its own. Animals can be very destructive to soil by grazing the grass too short. This is just as destructive to soil as plowing or spraying it. That is why we put in so much effort to move our animals multiple times a day as we only want to graze the tops of the grass. We also want to trample some grass to cover any bare spots that might not have any grass yet. Every time we come around with the animals, we try to put another layer of grass on the soil, as this helps armor the soil. In the fall, we try to always leave a lot of grass so the soil has armor all winter; if we can see our soil in the spring after the snow melts and before the fresh grass is growing, this means that we didn't leave enough in the fall. We have started to feed our cows some hay earlier in the fall. Then, by mid-March, as soon as the first green grass starts to show, we start grazing. Usually we go over the pasture with the animals very fast at first, then we start to slow down as the grass get taller. This means we loose a month of grazing in the fall, but we make up for it in the spring, and the soil stays covered all winter. The brown grass that is left over from the winter will also be eaten by the cows as they eat the first green grass, helping the cow balance her ration, and keeping the lush green grass from squirting right through the cow. Of all the things we have done on our farm to improve soil and animal performance, this is probably the best thing we do.

Principle #4 - Biodiversity

Nature does not grow monocultures, so why should we? Mix it up with a diversity of plants, microbes, insects, wildlife, and livestock. Forest or native grassland will have lots of different species of plants growing in the same spot. We can mimic this natural or forest grassland by planting a multi-species cover crop mixture as soon as the cash crop is off. Plants feed microbes, and the more plant species we have, the more microbes are fed. Imagine if we only had potatoes to eat; this is what happens to the microbes in a corn field. Some regenerative farmers are planting cover crops between the corn rows to help overcome this problem. This was yet another reason we choose to grow all grass. I spent a little time one day last summer looking how many different species of plants I could find growing in one of my fields. In a small area and in a short amount of time, I found 24 different plants, most of which I had not planted myself. If grassland gets grazed correctly, it will start to grow many different species of grasses and forbes, and the cows will love all of them. Animals like to select from 50 different species of plants in a day. They are no different from us. They do not like to stand at a bunk and eat TMR with 5 or 6 different kinds of feed. A cow can tell what her body needs, and she loves to go scrounging for it.

Although we have not implemented this fully yet, different species of livestock should also be grazed. Pigs, sheep, chickens, and cows will each have a different positive effect on a farm. We also constantly alter stock density and grazing heights. Sometimes we pack the cows in a tight group, and move them every 5 minutes. The next time we might relax it and give them enough space for a day. We may put them in a tight group and leave them there for a few hours at a time, in order that they may eat and smash everything completely flat - and the next time around we might only nip off the top. We will also park the cows on old mature brown grass for a while to mash it down and disrupt it. Then we will put the cows on good young grass the rest of the day, to balance out their diet. This method has proven to be a very effective way to alter rest periods without making the cows suffer from eating old mature grass. The recovery period also is constantly getting changed - anytime between 20 to 100 days. The key is to mix it up. Similarly as we would mix up crop rotation and cover crop species in a cropping system, we also need to mix up our grazing system. If the things we do are done the same way every time, it becomes ineffective and with time will create a negative effect. Think of it like an athlete at practice - if he were to do the same amount of practice every day, his body would never get better. The only way to get stronger or better is to constantly keep maxing out and pushing to new limits.

Principle # 5 — Keep Living Roots in the Soil

Roots feed soil microorganisms, which in turn feed our plants. Plants can actually live without soil, but soil can't live without plants. Without a living plant, the soil microorganisms are not getting fed. There are more microorganisms in a teaspoon of healthy soil than there are people on this planet. This is yet another reason to grow cover crops. We grow only grass - this one is easy for us to do. This is yet another reason we believe that, whenever possible, animals should be fed grass, and this is also one of the reasons we switched to all grass.

Principle # 6— Livestock Integration

Livestock are a very important key to keep soil healthy. They are part of the natural way which God created the earth to function well. Whenever possible, get livestock out on the land, and even in the garden at times. Many regenerative dairy farmers are starting to graze heifers (young females who are not yet mothers) and dry cows (cows dried up and in their last months of pregnancy) on cover crops. This is a great way to save time and money, and to build soil. Although it is possible to build soil without livestock, a big part of building this soil is missing, and it will be worth the extra effort it takes to employ livestock. This is one more reason we choose to grow all grass, and to graze livestock. There really isn't an easier way to build soil than with the combination of grass and livestock. We also need other kinds of food, but if all our beef and other foods (meat, eggs, dairy, etc) were grown with grass, we could take millions of acres of crops out of production, and restore grasslands. This would help save our planet, and keep the next generation healthier.