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Category: Soil Health
Soil Surface Quality Assessment
The soil surface is the interface between the soil and the atmosphere. Its quality – roughness, porosity, stability – determines the rates of exchange of water and gases. Visual assessment of soil surface quality (SSQ) can give an indication of soil health and soil function. A soil surface that has plenty of residue cover, presence […]
Fall cover crop termination vs. planting green on a clay soil: Trial results
This article shares the findings from a 2021 on-farm trial that compared fall cover crop termination with planting green. It was conducted near Hagersville, Ontario, as part of an Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association Tier Two project. Highlights To watch a short video with in-season footage from the trial, click below: Background Information on […]
Maximizing the Value of Manure on Your Farm
The value from manure comes in the nutrients provided along with other components that benefit soil health. Manure adds a layer of complexity to fertilizer management, but it also provides benefits to crops that commercial fertilizer on its own cannot provide. Research helps with understanding the principles of how nutrients behave in different environments and […]
Do no-till soybeans work after 200+ bu/ac corn? Lessons from five Ontario fields in 2022
Most springs, conversation at some point turns to no-till soybeans and how tough they look compared to their tilled counterparts. 2022 was no exception. With a record corn crop in 2021 and compaction due to a wet fall, there were challenges to contend with in no-till and some fields did get off to a slow […]
Organic No-Till Soybean Production: Making it Work in Ontario
Growing cover crop-based organic no-till soybeans requires a different system approach than for standard organic production. Three years of extensive research trials in Ontario have guided the development of four key best practices for growing no-till organic soybeans following a cereal rye cover crop. This tip sheet is designed to provide practical advice for Ontario […]
Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure
Soil structure is a key indicator of soil health. The Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure (VESS) provides a simple framework for quantitatively scoring soil structure quality. It requires only a shovel for extracting a block of soil and a scoring sheet for evaluating it and can be performed in about 10 minutes with a little […]
New Strip-Till Factsheets for Ontario Farmers
Did you know that there are two new resources on strip-tillage in Ontario? Earlier this year, OMAFRA released two factsheets on strip-till with information specific to Ontario’s climate, soils, and farmer experiences. The first factsheet, called Strip-Tillage in Ontario: The Basics, provides an overview of strip-till, how it works, crops it’s used for, its benefits […]
National Soil Conservation Week, 2022
The week of April 17-23 is National Soil Conservation Week this year. As the Soil Conservation Council of Canada says, soil is a big deal. It’s the foundation of agriculture. It’s a precious resource and, as I’ve written before, can easily be lost and degraded. To mark this week, I wanted to share some resources […]
2022 Ontario BioStrip Till, Strip Till, Green Planting and Notill Tailgate Tour – 2nd Visit September 6-9th
Join us for the 2nd visit to participating farms excited to show you their journeys in BioStrip Till, Strip Till, Green Planting and No Till Cropping systems across the province September 6-9th, 2022. Please read the entire post for more details. […]
What’s Next in The Strategy to Reduce Soil Compaction: Observations on the Value of CTIS
This article was written by Alex Barrie, OMAFRA Soil Management Engineer, and Ian McDonald, OMAFRA Crop Innovations Specialist As discussed in the previous article (available here), as long as we are putting heavy implements on farm fields, soil compaction is a significant possibility. Lots of factors impact the severity of threat, like load, tire configurations […]
Building Resilient Soils
For many Ontario farmers, the 2021 season has been a weather roller coaster. Throughout much of the province, the season started out extremely dry, with some regions receiving less than 20% of normal precipitation for the month of May (Figure 1). Late June brought relief for many parts of Southern Ontario, with regular rainfall […]
What’s Next In The Strategy To Reduce Soil Compaction?
If we are going to put big equipment into farm fields, soil compaction will continue to be a threat. Farm equipment, especially that which carries heavy loads (spreaders, sprayers, planters, grain wagons) needs to be configured to support that maximum load under road conditions. This often requires significantly higher tire pressures than what should […]
Are There Reasonable Alternatives to Fall Tillage for Residue Management?
Big crops mean big residue left behind! One the positives of big residues means lots of organic matter to return to the soil, which supports soil health and return or cycling of various nutrients like P, K and micros. All of this supports microbial life, reduces the potential for soil erosion by helping to […]
Getting to Know Your Knolls Part 2: Understanding and Managing Low pH Knolls
Ben Rosser, Corn Specialist, OMAFRA While high pH knolls tend to be more common in Ontario, often caused by soil erosion leaving higher pH calcareous subsoils, this is not the case for all regions. How do low pH knolls develop? Low pH knolls (Figure 1) can develop on undulating landscapes where surface soils formed from […]
