Author: Taylor V. BushPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cover crops
Languages : en
Pages : 70
Book Description
Producers in irrigated river valleys of the semiarid western US are realizing the need to manage soil health in order to have more resilient ag enterprises. This is especially challenging in cold, short season areas of northern intermountain valleys. Research was undertaken in Northwest Wyoming and Southwest Montana in 2018-2019. Producers are adopting management practices that can have a positive impact on the soil health of the systems. Two different studies were executed with one focusing on the long-term effects of soil health management and the other focusing on short-term effects of cover crops and livestock in irrigated cropping systems. The long-term study was examined between paired sites with a conventional management field and a field that had been utilizing soil health management practices for 5+ years. The short-term study examined different types of cover crops and grazing practices on soil health in fields managed with soil health practices. The long-term study showed that soils under soil health management had higher soil organic carbon compared to those under conventional management. Surface (0 to 15 cm) soils at the Ralston soil health management field contained 0.93% SOC amounting to 10.8 Mg ha−1, with the conventional management field having 0.74% SOC, which amounted to 7.70 Mg ha−1 (p = 0.02). Conversely, surface soils at the Fromberg soil health management field contained less SOC as those of the paired conventional field (17.1 Mg ha−1 (SOC%=0.74) vs. 19.0 Mg ha-1 (SOC%=0.93), respectively; p = 0.42), although not significantly. Overall SOC levels in soil profiles to 60 cm where much higher under soil health management at both sites. The short-term study showed that with more species variety in the cover crops higher forage quality is achieved. The results showed that soil health management can have a positive effect on soil quality in the systems.