Minimizing Environmental Impacts of Farming with Healthy Soils

“A highly functional soil will reduce the negative impacts of our agricultural practices…Runoff and soil erosion are major contributors to degrading water quality…and as we discuss soil health, we are simply promoting the practices that by default will address both of those right off the bat…” – Bill Stangel, independent agriculture consultant, Madison, Wis. Healthy soils are key to productive and profitable farm operations as they can increase nutrient availability, improve water infiltration, reduce soil erosion and much more. But they can also lessen the negative affects some farming practices have on the environment. For this episode of the No-Till Farmer podcast, we chat with independent agriculture consultant Bill Stangel of Madison, Wis., who joins us to discuss some of the ways farmers can minimize environmental impacts by focusing on developing healthy soils. Listen in to hear about how different cropping systems are able to store carbon below ground, how soil type affects nutrient and water management plans, lessons learned from installing on-farm phosphorus reduction systems, the challenges of dialing ion nitrogen use efficiency, why matching the crop to the soil matters and much more.