Soil Health
If soil health is the goal, crop diversity cannot be ignored nor overstated. While they offer a balanced 'diet' for soil biology, balanced and diverse ecosystems are also best for plant resilience and growth.
Soil health increases organic matter and soil fertility while also allowing for supplemental grazing, erosion control, deep root growth, nitrogen cycling, and weed suppression.
The keys to achieving healthy soil include minimizing mechanical disturbance, increasing plant diversity, keeping living roots as long as possible, and properly integrating livestock onto the cropland.
Soil organic matter is the house microbes live in. Water-extractable organic carbon is the food they eat.
Balancing Soil Fertility
Healthy soil is not only fertile but also productive. Weeds, subsoil constraints, diseases, and climates limit plant growth and productivity even when soil is fertile. It is necessary to recognize that the yield of a plant is limited by a deficiency of any one essential element, even if all others are present in adequate amounts.
Our primary objectives in obtaining balance in soil fertility are to ensure nutrient storage capacity is maintained, and soil fertility is adequate for designated land usage.
Understanding Soil Biology
While not readily identified, factors affecting biological activity in soil (moisture, carbon availability, temperature, pH, etc.) are useful when measuring soil health.
A myriad of organisms live in soil, some of which perform beneficial functions such as organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling, while others are associated with plant disease. Some of these organisms are visible to the naked eye (earthworms, mites, insects, etc.), but most are microscopic (fungi, bacteria).