Soil Health Management Systems on cropland can lead to increased organic matter, more diverse soil organisms, reduced compaction, and improved nutrient storage and cycling. Healthy soils retain more water and are less susceptible to runoff and erosion, meaning more water will be available for crops.
Soil Health for Healthy Ecosystems on Cropland
Intensive agricultural practices, including tillage, monoculture, and the excessive use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, can negatively impact soil health. These methods deplete organic matter and reduce biodiversity, leading to soil erosion and loss of nutrients and other chemicals from the croplands. However, by adopting practices that prioritize soil health—such as reduced tillage or no-tillage, increased soil cover, and enhanced biodiversity, we can significantly improve and sustain healthy soils in agriculture. Together, we can create a thriving ecosystem that benefits both our crops and the environment!
As world population and food production demands rise, keeping our soil healthy and productive is of paramount importance. By farming using soil health principles and systems that include no-till, cover cropping, and diverse rotations, more and more farmers are increasing their soil’s organic matter and improving microbial activity. As a result, farmers are sequestering more carbon, increasing water infiltration, improving wildlife and pollinator habitat—all while harvesting better profits and often better yields.
For more in-depth guidance and best practices, explore Soil Health Technical Resources for Cropland.
Soil health research has determined how to manage soil in a way that improves soil function. Soil health on cropland is maintained or achieved through application of four principles:
- Minimize Disturbance
- Maximize Soil Cover
- Maximize Biodiversity
- Maximize Continuous Living Roots
Implementing Soil Health Management Systems can lead to increased organic matter, more diverse soil organisms, reduced soil compaction and improved nutrient storage and cycling. As a bonus, fully functioning, healthy soils absorb and retain more water, making them less susceptible to runoff and erosion. This means more water will be available for crops when they need it.
Soil Health Management Systems allow farmers to enjoy profits over time because they spend less on fuel and energy while benefiting from less variable crop yields resulting from improved soil conditions. Healthy soil also provides a buffer for precipitation extremes (too wet or too dry).
Tillage can destroy soil organic matter and structure along with the habitat that soil organisms need. Tillage, especially during warmer months, reduces water infiltration, increases runoff and can make the soil less productive. Tillage disrupts the soil’s natural biological cycles, damages the structure of the soil, and makes soil more susceptible to erosion.
The benefits of reduced till/no-till include:
- Aiding in Plant Growth – Soils managed with reduced/no-till for several years contain more organic matter and moisture for plant use. Healthy soils cycle crop nutrients, support root growth, absorb water and sequester carbon more efficiently.
- Reducing Soil Erosion – Soil that is covered year-round is much less susceptible to erosion from wind and water. For cropping systems, practices like no-till keep soil undisturbed from harvest to planting.
- Saving Money – Farmers can save money on fuel and labor by decreasing tillage. Improving nutrient cycling allows farmers to potentially reduce the amount of supplemental nutrients required to maintain yields, further reducing input costs.
- Providing Wildlife Habitat – Crop residue, grass and cover crops provide food and escape for wildlife.
Soil can also be disturbed through production inputs or improperly managed grazing practices. If inputs are not applied properly, they could potentially disrupt the delicate relationship between plants and soil organisms. Soil Health Management Systems help minimize potential disturbance, while maximizing nutrient cycling, which can lead to greater profitability for producers.
Improperly managed grazing can also harm the soil health system. There are several ways to graze livestock to reduce environmental impacts. For example, implementing a rotational grazing system instead of allowing livestock to continuously graze pasture allows pasture plants to rest and regrow.
Soil cover can be maximized by planting cover crops, annual crops, and perennial crops and leaving crop residues and living mulches on the ground. Soil health practices that maintain cover year-round improve soil health and protect soil from wind and water erosion.
Cover crops can be an integral part of a cropping system and provide soil cover during fallow seasons. Cover crops can be managed to improve soil health, as they help to develop an environment that sustains and nourishes plants, soil microbes and beneficial insects. The introduction of cover crops into your crop rotation can benefit any sized farm from a corn/soybean farm encompassing thousands of acres to a small urban farm.
Cover crops are typically planted in late summer or fall around harvest and before spring planting of the following year’s crops. Examples of cover crops include rye, wheat, oats, clovers and other legumes, turnips, radishes, and triticale. Planting several cover crop species together in a mixture can increase their impact on soil health. Each cover crop provides its own set of benefits, so it’s important to choose the right cover crop mixture to meet management goals.
The benefits of planting cover crops in between cash crop season include:
- Restoring Soil Health – Cover crops help increase organic matter in the soil and improve overall soil health by adding living roots to the soil during more months of the year. Cover crops can improve water infiltration into the soil. Deep rooted crops like forage radishes create natural water passages. Legume cover crops serve as natural fertilizers while grasses scavenge nutrients that are often lost after harvest or during winter.
- Natural Resource Protection – Along with crop residue above ground, cover crops protect the soil against erosive heavy rains and strong winds. Cover crops trap excess nitrogen, keeping it from leaching into groundwater or running off into surface water – releasing it later to feed growing crops.
- Livestock Feed – Cover crops can provide livestock producers with additional grazing or haying opportunities.
- Wildlife Habitat – Cover crops provide winter food and cover for birds and other wildlife. During the growing season, they can provide food for pollinators.
NRCS can help support you through the process of adding cover crops to your rotation by providing guidance for what cover crops to seed as well as how and when to seed with our guidance documents and site-specific planning worksheets. Financial assistance to help you start using cover crops is also available through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP).
Biodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem or field. The different life forms include all of the plants, animals and microorganisms. Increasing the diversity of a crop rotation and cover crops increases soil health and soil function, reduces input costs, and increases profitability.
For Soil Health Management Systems, biodiversity can be increased through a variety of approaches including: plant diversity through the use of diversified crop rotations, cover crop mixes, proper integration of grazing animals (e.g. livestock) into the system, and encouraging diversity in organisms within the soils or microbial diversity, as well as direct additions with biological amendments. All four soil health management principles contribute to biodiversity.
Biodiversity helps to prevent disease and pest problems associated with monocultures. Using cover crops and increasing diversity within crop rotations improves soil health and soil function, reduces costs, and increases profitability. Diversity above ground improves diversity below ground, which helps create healthy productive soils.
Lack of biodiversity severely limits the potential of any cropping system and increases disease and pest problems. Biodiversity is ultimately the key to the success of any agricultural system. A diverse and fully functioning soil food web provides for nutrient, energy, and water cycling that allows a soil to express its full potential.
Living plants maintain a rhizosphere, an area of concentrated microbial activity close to the root. The rhizosphere is the most active part of the soil ecosystem because it is where the most readily available food is, and where peak nutrient and water cycling occurs. Microbial food is exuded by plant roots to attract and feed microbes that provide nutrients (and other compounds) to the plant at the root-soil interface where the plants can take them up. Since living roots provide the easiest source of food for soil microbes, growing long-season crops or a cover crop following a short-season crop, feeds the foundation species of the soil food web as much as possible during the growing season.
Healthy soil is dependent upon how well the soil food web is fed. Providing plenty of easily accessible food to soil microbes helps them cycle nutrients that plants need to grow. Sugars from living plant roots, recently dead plant roots, crop residues, and soil organic matter all feed the many and varied members of the soil food web.