From Our Experts
Diversity matters! We say this all the time. It is emphasized twice in Understanding Ag’s 6-3-4TM Framework. One of the six soil health principles is adding diversity. Our cropping and grazing systems have simplified nature incredibly. If we want to fix our degraded soil, we need to make changes in how we farm. You never […]
A Season to Recharge Don’t let solar energy go to waste this fall By Brian Dougherty Everyone has probably dealt with a dead car battery at some point. It doesn’t matter how big the battery is; eventually it will go dead if the alternator doesn’t recharge it. Soil works the same way. It is the […]
6-3-4™ Changes Explained By Kyle Richardville, Understanding Ag, LLC If you’ve spent any time in an Understanding Ag workshop, webinar, or consultation, you’ve heard us talk about the 6-3-4™: the Six Principles of Soil Health, the Three Rules of Adaptive Stewardship, and the Four Ecosystem Processes. It’s the framework that informs every recommendation, and it […]
What We Learned in Part 5 In Part 5 of this series, we introduced the biological cast of characters that make nutrient cycling actually happen: the Soil Food Web. We drew the line between abiotic nutrient release (slow, rock-and-weather-driven processes) and biotic cycling (fast, life-driven processes measured in minutes and days), and walked through the […]
What is Soil Aggregation? Ask a farmer what healthy soil is and you’ll get all kinds of answers. Dark color. Lots of earthworms. A pleasant earthy smell. Those are all good indicators, but if I had to pick one thing that tells you whether soil is healthy or not, it would be aggregation. Soil aggregates […]
Soil Biology- The Living Engine Behind Nutrient Cycling What We Learned in Part 4 In Part 4 of this series, we pulled back the curtain on how nutrients actually move through an ecosystem. We distinguished organic nutrients from inorganic ones and showed how they constantly shift between the two. We explored immobilization (nutrients getting locked […]
If you’re like most farmers and ranchers, your goal isn’t simply to produce more-it’s to build a more profitable, resilient operation that can thrive for generations. Yet many producers continue doing what they’ve always done, hoping for better results, even as today’s economic realities make that approach increasingly difficult. Most of my writings and speaking […]
What is Regenerative Agriculture? Regenerative agriculture is a farming and ranching approach focused on improving soil health, restoring ecosystem function, increasing biodiversity, and strengthening the natural cycles that support life. Rather than simply sustaining current conditions, regenerative agriculture seeks to improve the land over time, making farms and ranches more resilient, productive, and profitable for […]
Bringing it Together In the first three parts of this series, we explored what nutrients plants need, where they come from, and how living organisms use them. In Part 4, we’ll examine how those nutrients move through the ecosystem. Nutrient cycling is the continuous exchange of elements between soil, plants, microbes, animals, and the environment. […]
Are You Mining Your Soil or Managing Sustainably? By Brian Dougherty, Understanding Ag Consultant In my Fertilizer Fallacy article, I made the case that conventional fertility recommendations often drain farmer bank accounts without a reliable yield response to show for it. However, a common concern with reducing nutrient applications is a fear of “mining” your […]