016. Monte & Kim – State of the Union, School of Hard Knocks and all things Soil Health

Join Monte and Kim today with their “State of the Union” as they cover all things soil health from their travels this summer, including the National Strip-Till conference and the Farm Progress Show. One key concept they discuss is how the soil health principles are solid and transfer uniformly across the globe but the practices are always local and can even vary from field to field, depending on soil types, cropping system rotations, irrigations, water availability, etc. They discuss the compounding effects of what our rotational decisions make over time when we look at maximizing diversity. What does that diversity mean for soil health and what are some other benefits that can be gained by implementing that diversity. Monte talks about a little painful learning process this year in soybean intercropping, adjusting their harvesting technology and the great things they discovered through a significant challenge in those beans. They talk about the importance of soil residues, even where we’re producing vegetables. We don’t need to be killing our soil to meet food safety regulations. We need adaptable food safety regulations and residues that are safe for the crop we are growing.