Hardin County SCD

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Hardin Co. Soil & Water Conservation District

"Why explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden"

Robert Baull

Did You Know? (part 1)

There are so many interesting facts about soil – it truly is one of the most underrated ecological systems on earth!

1. Soil is Not Dirt

One of the most fundamental things to know about soil is that it is not dirt.

Dirt is an inorganic material made from broken-down rocks that primarily consists of minerals like iron, calcium and magnesium.

So, what is soil made of?

Soil, on the other hand, is dirt + water, air and organic material. It is the living layer between the atmosphere and bedrock.

2. Soil Consists of Many Layers

Soil is a really complex material. Let’s look again at what soil is made of: soil is composed of about 45% minerals and broken rock (the dirt mentioned above), 25% water, 25% air and up to 5% organic matter (decaying plant matter and living things like fungi, bacteria, worms and other insects).

Soil is also usually described as having 5 or 6 layers: an organic layer (filled with decaying plant matter); topsoil (where we find plant roots and living organisms); subsoil; parent material (your basic dirt layer); and finally, bedrock (the floor of the world).

Topsoil is where the action happens. It is the most critical layer of soil, where we grow our food, and where worms and other critters feed on organic matter, turning it into food for plants. Topsoil is vulnerable to erosion, though, and can be lost when soils are degraded.

Together with the subsoil and parent material, topsoil forms part of the rhizosphere where plants communicate with each other! Isn’t that an interesting fact about soil?

3. There are 70,000 Different Types of Soil in the US Alone

That’s right, there is not just one type of soil! Soil type and quality varies a lot based on where you are and what the climate is like. Soil types are generally classified based on how much sand, silt and clay can be found in them. Different types of soil, including garden soil, differ in colour, texture and productivity.

soil-facts-handful-of-dirtsoil-facts-handful-of-dirt

There are more organisms in a handful of soil than there are people on Earth. How amazing is that soil fact?

4. Soil is Alive

Soil seems like it is inert, but it is actually teeming with life. In fact, healthy soil is considered a living system!

5. There are More Living Organisms in 1 Tbsp of Soil Than There Are People on Earth

Is your mind blown?

This is definitely one of the most interesting facts about soil.

That’s in terms of the number of individual organisms, but there is also a staggering amount of biodiversity in the soil. In fact, soils are one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet!

Here are just a few fun facts about the number and variety of organisms living in soil according to the USDA and other sources:

1 tsp of soil contains between 100 million to 1 billion bacteria

1 g of soil can contain as much as 75,000 species of bacteria, 25,000 species of fungi, 1000 species of protozoa and several hundred species of nematodes.

The top 6 inches of one acre of soil contains as much as 20,000 lbs of total living matter.

1,400,000 earthworms can be found in just one acre of farmland.

6. Earthworms “Eat” 15 Tons of Soil Per Acre Per Year

Along with other soil organisms, earthworms feed on organic material in soil, converting it into nutrients that plants need to grow. They also have a physical effect on the soil: as they wriggle and move through the ground, their motion breaks up the clumps, keeping the soil well aerated and better able to absorb water.

7. Amazing Facts About Soil: Soil is Essential to Life

Despite being at the very bottom of the food chain, soil is the cornerstone of all life. Soil is responsible for providing plants with everything they need to grow: food, air, water and a “home” for their roots. And we and other animals ultimately rely on plants for our own health and wellbeing.

Soils support 95% of all food production, and agriculture is the only industry considered “essential”. Is that news to you?

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Earthworms are just one of the many millions of organisms found in living soils. Photo by: Natfot (Pixabay)

8. Soil Can Die

Living soils exist in a precarious balance and can “die” like any other living system. Many conventional agricultural practices – like the overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides – disrupt this balance and create unhealthy soil. In addition to being less productive – thus requiring ever more fertilizers – degraded soils are vulnerable to erosion which wipes away the productive topsoil layer.

This is what happened during the 1930s Dust Bowl in the United States. Decades of poor land management practices killed the living networks that had kept the soil alive and productive, so that when severe droughts hit, strong winds blew away as much as 75% of the topsoil, leaving nothing but parched earth behind.

9. Soil Facts: It Takes At Least 500 Years to Form One Inch of Topsoil

Soil is considered a non-renewable resource, making it even more precious – and something we ought to take care of!

Soil is formed through a geological process that slowly transforms bedrock into the living matrix we know as soil. The whole physical, biological and chemical process can take tens of thousands of years – way beyond our human timescale.

Unfortunately, erosion can wipe away a full centimetre of precious topsoil in just one year.

10. We Need Soil for Clean Drinking Water

Soil is Earth’s natural water filtration system. Surface water trickles down through the various soil layers where it is filtered of chemicals, dust and other contaminants in the process. In this way, by the time it reaches and collects in underground aquifers, the water is pure.

Soil’s natural water filtration is also great from an economic standpoint. What costs about $1-1.5 billion for the Catskill Watershed to provide clean water to New York through natural soil filtration processes would cost as much as $6-8 billion to build a water filtration plant, plus another $300 million in annual operation and maintenance costs. That’s an astounding savings (and a really fascinating fact about soil)!

Hardin County's NRCS/SCD Office is open and ready to assist you. Acting Dictrict Conservationist is Martha Griffin, she is familiar with Hardin County and has an interest in "helping people help the land" and improving our natural resources through education and conservation activities.

Office Hours are 8am - 3pm M-F

731-412-3106

NRCS/ Hardin County S&WCD

1035 C Wayne Road

Savannah, TN. 38372

Alternative Forages: Specialist looks at different options

By Kylene Scott

Kansas State University’s Beef Systems Specialist Jaymelynn Farney is investigating how cattle choose what to eat.

Farney, who is at the Southeast Research and Extension Center in Columbus, Kansas, has been performing studies on what forages cattle prefer. She’s using summer cover crops, or annual forages, in re-purposed protein tubs. They’re then offered to cattle to determine preference.

“I have grown eight plant species in each growing period and offered the plants to the cows in two 24-hour sessions,” she said. “We recorded their behavior for the first hour after introduction to the plants and they were video recorded through the remainder of the time to see which plants they completely consumed and in which order.”

The study wants to help producers make decisions about which cover crops to plant when incorporating grazing.

“There is a laundry list of plants that contain useful cover crop benefits and it becomes daunting to select the species that will meet your operation’s objectives,” Farney said.

When deciding what plant species to sow, Farney said there are two trains of thought.

Purposefully plant only those species that cattle will consume to maximize land usage or gains along with capturing some cover crop benefits; or

Strategically plant species that cattle are averse to in order to leave appreciable biomass in the field for soil health objectives.

“With these two things in mind I was interested in seeing how cattle that were completely naive to cover crops consumed these plants,” Farney said.

Initially, Farney has found the most preferred plants include: Barley, Austrian winter pea and Graza forage radish (tie), mustard, Impact collard, Trophy rape, and purple top turnip (all fairly the same in preference). Last was Bayou kale. Her preference information was collected prior to a freeze.

“Stay tuned to next year to find out what their preference to these same species are when grazing after a killing freeze,” Farney said.

For summer grazing, in order from most preferred to least includes: Brown mid-rib forage sorghum and sorghum-Sudan (tied for first), pearl millet, Black oil sunflower and sun hemp (tied for third). Least favorite with little to no difference (strongly objected) were mungbean, okra and safflower.

Farney said there is some learning in both the cattle and the researchers associated with these summer grazing plants.

“The first day exposed nearly all the cows did not even try the okra, but the second day they consumed them before mungbean and safflower,” Farney said. “Another interesting comment about the summers, all grazing occurred when the sorghums were 2 feet tall to minimize prussic acid issues.”

For the sorghums, grazing occurred 35 days after planting. The sunflowers in that time frame were very small and immature (6 to 8 inches tall at the most) while the mungbean and okra had leaves that were over 7 inches in diameter.

“Preference studies become difficult to quantify as cattle do learn and modify grazing behavior especially after that first introduction to new plants,” she said.

When in drought

Farney suggests spending some time to determine the plant species with more drought tolerance.

“I would stay away from really expensive components of mixtures because there is a greater chance of crop failure with no moisture,” she said. “There is some literature that shows that a few different plant species as a cover crop have some environmental lee-way.”

For stocker cattle

Farney leans heavily on the grass component of a stocker cover crops plan.

She limits brassicas to a 1 pound per acre with maximum of 1.5 pounds of brassica seed per acre. Amounts over this can cause the brassicas to outcompete the grass species and reduce grass tonnage. For fall forages, the grass and brassica species offer enough protein to the animal.

“Younger calves have a stronger aversion to the broadleaves and brassicas than cows do and this can potentially hamper gains for a short duration until they begin to consume these plants,” Farney said

“In Kansas, from my research and measuring producers fields, we rarely get any fall growth of legumes,” she said. “This is an expensive component of the mixture and with the combination of low to no-growth and no need for additional protein to meet calf requirements, I do not include legumes in fall covers.”

Farney suggests oats and barley—both spring and winter varieties—to those looking to graze something other than native grass as they offer the earliest, quickest growth. Triticale is intermediate and wheat and rye will have the majority of their growth late winter and early spring. Turnips and radishes have a very rapid growth rate, but once a freeze happens, they don’t generate any more dry matter. Grass species continue to have some growth as the season goes on.

Managing the meat

During and through a drought, the reduced availability of forages hurts stocker producers the most.

“If forage is severely limiting, alternative methods of growing these calves need to be implemented,” Farney said.

She said Dale Blasi at the K-State Stocker unit has been doing interesting research that shows that limit feeding stocker calves can be a viable management strategy.

“These calves gain as well as contemporaries on less feed,” Farney said. “This allows us to stretch our forage and feed base.”

With the option of several high energy feedstuffs, when limit fed and balanced in the ration become an economical option to forage only, especially at elevated prices due to low supply and high demand.

“Substitution is another thing to consider with stockers,” Farney said. “We are essentially wanting to feed more of something else so they eat less grass or hay.”

Corn has commonly been identified as the culprit of reducing free-choice hay and grass consumption, according to Farney. A general rule of thumb for supplementing corn is 0.3 percent of the animal’s body weight or less will not reduce forage consumption. A level above that can reduce it. At 0.75 percent of body weight, for each pound of corn they will consume one pound less forage on a dry matter basis.

“It is still important to make sure to meet protein requirements,” Farney said.

Kylene Scott can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 620-227-1804

How Farmers are Saving the Soil in Tennessee

Tennessee's farmers care for the landscape with no-till farming

By Brittany Stovall

Tennessee farmers have been transforming the landscape for decades with no-till farming methods, helping to restore the state’s soils. In fact, the University of Tennessee’s Research and Education Center at Milan has been a leader in this effort since 1981. The research conducted by UT AgResearch at Milan is known worldwide.

While no-till farming is the norm in Tennessee today, it hasn’t always been the case. “About four decades ago, West Tennessee was ranked as one of the top areas in the U.S. for the highest soil erosion rate,” says Don Tyler, retired professor for the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture. The average soil erosion rate for Tennessee at that time was 40 tons of soil per acre per year.

Unlike tillage, commonly known as plowing, no-till methods leave soils undisturbed, allowing crop residue to remain on the surface, protecting the topsoil from runoff. Seeds are planted in rows in the soil. In contrast, tillage leaves soil “bare” and highly susceptible to erosion.

Some soils across Tennessee are considered fragile, Tyler says, but West Tennessee’s are especially susceptible.

“The soils in West Tennessee are especially erodible because they are very silty soils,” Tyler says. “They are almost like talcum powder – very silty and easily moved by water if they’re exposed and tilled.”

As an example of how easily soil can erode with tilling versus no-till, Tyler says, “We have data that shows in till systems, one storm can result in the loss of more than 10 tons of soil per acre, whereas a no-till system right beside it with the same measurements may result in 1/10 of a ton loss. It’s a huge difference.”Today, Tennessee is a shining example of the no-till success, with up to 90 percent of the state’s farms using no-till practices, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. This change was possible thanks to the assistance and innovation of the University of Tennessee Extension and UT AgResearch, within the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, and Tennessee’s row crop farmers who saw the benefits and invested in the technology to make no-till a reality.

Tyler was one of the many team members enlisted to research and help Tennessee adapt its tilling ways that were having a negative impact on the land.

“With no-till, we’ve dramatically reduced the manmade accelerated soil erosion,” Tyler says. “A lot of the soil that we have now in the state would not be here if we did not go no-till. The soil was eroding at such a high rate, and there would be fields today that would have been abandoned if we did not make the change. We have many farmers now who have been completely no-till for 30 years,” he adds.

Huge Benefits

Farming in Dyer and Lauderdale counties, along the Mississippi River, Jimmy Moody experienced firsthand the positive changes that no-till methods brought to his West Tennessee farm.

Moody, who is in his mid-60s, farms on his own family operation and at Cold Creek Farms with a business partner, growing soybeans and cotton. Back when he used to till all of his land, he would need to burn crop residue, till soil and plow weeds. But since he took up no-till, he directly plants crops and controls weeds with advanced herbicides that were unavailable several decades back.

“When I was young, using no-till was unheard of,” Moody says.

No-till is good for the soil, reducing soil erosion and increasing organic matter in the surface soil. Plus, it encourages flourishing earthworm populations – which are a great indicator of soil health and create channels to flow water into soil and reduce runoff. No-till farming has economic benefits, too. “Farmers using no-till are minimizing their labor needs, the time it takes to actually farm, reducing fuel costs dramatically, and a lot of them can farm on a much larger scale than they would be able to otherwise, which has almost become necessary to survive,” Tyler says.

Moody agrees. “There’s no way that I could be farming on the scale that I am today without no-till farming,” he says.

There are various State and Federal Programs available to landowners through the USDA-NRCS and Hardin County SCD. Some of the practices these programs assist with are cross fencing, pipeline, watering tanks, erosion, wildlife habitat, and water quality.

The Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP)

The ACEP provides financial and technical assistance to help conserve agricultural lands and wetlands and their related benefits.Under the Agricultural Land Easements component, NRCS helps Indian tribes, state and local governments and non- governmental organizations protect working agricultural lands and limit non-agricultural uses of the land.Under the Wetlands Reserve Easements component, NRCS helps to restore, protect and enhance enrolled wetlands.Agricultural Land Easements protect the long-term viability of the nation’s food supply by preventing conversion of productive working lands to non-agricultural uses. Land protected by agricultural land easements provides additional public benefits, including environmental quality, historic preservation, wildlife habitat and protection of open space.Wetland Reserve Easements provide habitat for fish and wildlife, including threatened and endangered species, improve water quality by filtering sediments and chemicals, reduce flooding, recharge groundwater, protect biological diversity and provide opportunities for educational, scientific and limited recreational activities.

Agricultural Land Easements NRCS provides financial assistance to eligible partners for purchasing Agricultural Land Easements that protect the agricultural use and conservation values of eligible land. In the case of working farms, the program helps farmers and ranchers keep their land in agriculture. The program also protects grazing uses and related conservation values by conserving grassland, including rangeland, pastureland and shrubland. Eligible partners include Indian tribes, state and local governments and non-governmental organizations that have farmland or grassland protection programs.Under the Agricultural Land component, NRCS may contribute up to 50 percent of the fair market value of the agricultural land easement. Where NRCS determines that grasslands of special environmental significance will be protected, NRCS may contribute up to 75 percent of the fair market value of the agricultural land easement.

Wetland Reserve Easements NRCS also provides technical and financial assistance directly to private landowners and Indian tribes to restore, protect, and enhance wetlands through the purchase of a wetland reserve easement. For acreage owned by an Indian tribe, there is an additional enrollment option of a 30-year contract.Through the wetland reserve enrollment options, NRCS may enroll eligible land through:

Permanent Easements are conservation easements in perpetuity. NRCS pays 100 percent of the easement value for the purchase of the easement, and between 75 to 100 percent of the restoration costs.

30-Year Easements expire after 30 years. Under 30-year easements,NRCS pays 50 to 75 percent of the easement value for the purchase of the easement, and between 50 to 75 percent of the restoration costs.

Term Easements are easements that are for the maximum duration allowed under applicable state laws. NRCS pays 50 to 75 percent of the easement value for the purchase of the term easement and between 50 to 75 percent of the restoration costs.

30-year Contracts are only available to enroll acreage owned by Indian tribes. Program payment rates are commensurate with 30-year easements.

For wetland reserve easements, NRCS pays all costs associated with recording the easement in the local land records office, including recording fees, charges for abstracts, survey and appraisal fees, and title insurance.

	Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is a continuous USDA sign-up program that offers financial and technical assistance to eligible participants to install and maintain conservation practices, including those related to organic production, on agricultural land or private nonindustrial forestland. Traditionally all funds have been allocated to applications taken during the first signup period running from October 1 to December 20th, with applications carried over from the prior year included in the first funding period. In Giles County most funds utilized in this program have addressed water quality issues associated with animal agriculture. Conservation practices installed most often increase the ability of the landowner to manage land more profitably and provide positive impacts to the local economy. Cross fencing and access control fencing, alternative water systems such as frost proof water troughs for cattle, and pipeline have proved to be the most feasible and popular practices we use. Managed grazing allows a landowner to reduce the time that livestock have access to streams which goes to our local water intake. Managed grazing can also significantly increase forage yields, reduce health problems for cattle and improve wildlife habitat. We also offer several options on seeding cropland or poor pastureland, including establishing native grasses. EQIP offers assistance to address cropland, energy conservation, animal waste management, organic farming, and other resource concerns identified locally. It offers a great tool for good land managers to improve their farmland. The application, ranking and contracting period usually runs from Fall to Spring with practices being completed during the first 12 months after contracting.
	Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP) The Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP) is a USDA-NRCS program aimed at working with landowners to create viable habitat for wildlife through improved management of natural resources.
	Agricultural Resource Conservation Fund (ARCF) The Agricultural Resource Conservation Fund is a program provided by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) to help agricultural producers implement Best Management Practices (BMP’s) that will help improve water quality.

Please contact 731-412-3106 or 731-412-3104 if you are interested in any offered programs

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or a part of an individual's income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA's TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination write to USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272 (voice) or (202) 720-6382 (TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.