A Couple of weeks back, I was invited to attend the +Alltech International Symposium in Lexington, Kentucky. This is the 2nd year I have attended and I can honestly say that I came home with so many ideas and thoughts that it is hard to get through them all. Have you ever thought of what goes on beneath you feet? The following will make you think twice about calling that black stuff dirt.
Photo Credit to Lara of My Other Exciting Self |
Sitting at the 30th Annual Alltech International
Symposium, I felt as if some farmers are looking at the big picture and not the
whole picture. While, yes it is easy and
enjoyable to drive by and show your neighbors your 7 feet tall corn plants, it
is what we can’t see beneath the soil’s surface that is what we should be most
proud of and should be looking to see how we can make it a better environment.
Alltech’s Becky Timmons, global director of applications
research and quality assurance,said in the closing session that without
microbes there would be no plants or animals.
The microbes found in the soil help to make plants hundreds of times
more efficient. The diversity of
microorganisms in the soil beneath our feet is hard to comprehend. Even harder to fathom is the fact that only
1-2% of all microbes in the soil have been identified.
1
teaspoon of soil contains 100 million to 1 billion organisms including,
100,000+
fungi,
100,000+
actinomycetes,
10,000+
algae,
worms,
mesofauna and microfauna.
While not all of these organisms are good, many help the
plants by producing antibiotics, hormones, enzymes, enzyme inhibitors,
vitamins, and immune modulators.
The soil bound to the roots and closest to the plant is call
the Rhizosphere. This area is very high
in microbial activity and is important for the plants efficiency. Rhizobacteria can absorb toxic metals before
they reach the plant. Rhizobacteria also
help break down nutrients so they are more available to the plant and are
essential in the biogeochemical cycles.
The microbial populations of soils are directly related to
the farming practices that are used. No
till soils have a more diverse and more abundant microbial population, because
these ecosystem is more stable. Tilling
the soil causes huge fluctuations in moisture, temperature, residue, and soil
organic matter. All of these are
essential for microbes to live and grow.
Soils also have a long memory, so changing farming practices will not
bring back the microbes over night or even in a year or two.
What if we need to be feeding the soil instead of feeding
the crop? What if feeding the
rhizosphere would benefit the plants
more than just feeding the plants?
“We are not standing on
dirt.
We
are standing on the roof of another world.”
-Keith Davidson
-A Kansas Farm Mom
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