Think you have too much crop residue after harvest? Think again. Crop residue provides numerous benefits to your soil health and crop yields. It’s a matter of using farming practices that take advantage of natural processes.
No-Till and Crop Residues
Organic matter in your soil is critical for soil health. The nutrients you applied all year are tied up in the crop residues on your fields. The easiest way to keep those nutrients in your field is to leave as much organic material (aka crop residue) on the surface as possible.
Crop residue also acts as a break for wind and water erosion that can destroy a bare field. Those winter winds can take the topsoil off your land onto your neighbor’s or a nearby waterway. Keeping the soil covered is good farm management.
But how do you plant in the spring? And are there issues with too much crop residue?
Why Doesn’t Your Crop Residue Break Down?
All organic materials break down given enough time. Moisture and temperature also play big roles in decomposition. But the major players in decomposing crop residue and cycling nutrients are the microbial allies in the soil.
Organic matter in the form of crop residues is food for the diversity of soil microbes. If you don’t have enough microbes or the right kind, your residues will take longer to break down.
If you’ve been using pesticides and fungicides, there’s a good chance that you have very little microbial activity in your soil. These products kill pathogens, but they also kill beneficial microorganisms that would be decomposing the residue.
How Do You Get the Right Microorganisms in Your Soil?
It starts by knowing what microbes are indigenous to your fields. Have your soil tested for biologicals (see our Haney test blog for more information on soil testing). After you know what’s in your soil, you can add the microbial communities that are missing. We recommend using LiquiLife+ from Purple Cow Organics for an increased rate of residue decomposition. Field research shows crop residue that just sits on your field will be sturdy, moist, and flexible, which is difficult to plant through.
Crop residue treated with a liquid biological is brittle and easily shatters, which makes no-till or minimum-till planting in the spring easier. The nutrients trapped in the crop residue are released into the soil through the actions of the microbial community. That makes them available for plant nutrient uptake.
Beneficial bacteria and fungi live in your soil all winter and continue to decompose organic material. They’re storing carbon in your soil and in their bodies. When they die or are eaten by larger microorganisms, those nutrients are released in the plant root zone.
Synthetic Fertilizers and Soil Microorganisms
Plants are lazy. If they’re spoon-fed nutrients by way of synthetic fertilizers, they don’t create relationships with the microbiology in the soil. The microbes starve to death, and your crops are less adaptive to temperature and moisture extremes. Using a conventional farming system with tillage and synthetic fertilizers requires more inputs and therefore less profit from each harvest.
Productivity may be high, but the profit-loss balance sheet may paint a different picture. When you incorporate biologicals into a no-till or low-till farming operation your profits are higher because the microbiology is scavenging nutrients in the soil and giving them to your crops.
Your plants feed the beneficial microbiology so there’s little real estate available for pathogens. Disease and insect issues decrease when your crop residues serve as a food source for a diverse microbial population. Purple Cow Organics LiquiLife+ has over two thousand species each of beneficial bacteria and beneficial fungi to help make your plants more resilient.
Is this the year you increase farm profits? Contact our team at ST Biologicals. We’re here to help you succeed.
