Fighting a Losing Proposition
Re-learning the lessons of the soil
Those darn activists are at it again! Just get a load of this hyperbole:
"Years of sordid tillage of our soils has so exhausted their fertility that vast areas no longer produce paying crops. . . Lands that once produced big crops are year by year losing their crop-producing powers. . .
"This agricultural condition of worn-out soils has been brought about by a conscienceless and robbing system of farming so long practiced in this country. . . in the effort to make it produce all it will without putting anything back into it to maintain its fertility."
Sounds downright apocalyptic, doesn't it?
But the article, "Restoring Worn Out Soils," written by Wm. C. Smith of Indiana, appeared in the April 1911 issue of Successful Farming magazine.
Smith argued that crop rotation alone wouldn't replenish the soils. "It is useless to attempt to build up worn-out soils by putting in them minerals or commercial fertilizers, as these are but stimulants, and while they may be beneficial as assistants, worn-out soils cannot be built up with them alone."
He added, "The legumes. like clover, alfalfa, peas, vetches, sweet clover, etc. make the most valuable green manures because the root tubercles or nodules found on the roots of legumes are the homes of the bacteria that draw nitrogen from the air and store it in the soil and because they furnish large quantities of organic matter."
"Our fertile soils will never be conserved, and our worn-out soils will never be restored until the lesson of getting every particle of organic matter possible into these soils has been learned by him who tills the soil."
Editors note: "This is the third time Mr. Smith of Indiana has told our readers about soil conservation. Never have we printed anything that has aroused so much interest. This isn't theory with Mr. Smith, it is practice. Don't ask us to furnish the back issues containing his articles. We haven't them to spare. The next best thing you can do is to get his book, "How to Grow 100 Bushels of Corn to the Acre on Worn-Out Soils," which we can get for you at $1. . ." ––Editor.
Lessons Unlearned?
Apparently William C. Smith didn't sell enough $1 books. Twenty years later, farmers and much of this country suffered through almost a decade-long Great Dust Bowl. The impact of "Rain follows the plow," the bogus theory advancing settlement of a region previously known as the "Great American Desert," was exacerbated by prolonged drought.
However, Smith likely was "a voice of one calling out in the wilderness". The same magazine issue featured the prominent headline, "To Plow, or Not to Plow, and Why." The writer, J. H. Brown concluded, "I found that the more I plowed, harrowed and rolled the seed-bed, and followed thorough after with cultivation of the growing plants, the better the growth and yield."
Brown included a photo from his Calhoun County, Michigan, farm, adding, "It shows how the furrows slightly overlap when turned over and that every portion of the furrow slice is thoroughly broken up and pulverized. There is not a bit of trash in sight between the furrows and the seed-bed for corn was easily and quickly prepared." (Trash refers to the unused stalks or crop residue left after harvest.)
Roosevelt's 1932 election led to the launch of the New Deal, including the creation of the Soil Erosion Service (now the NRCS) and the planting of windbreaks and trees through the new Prairie States Forestry Project in 1935. Gradually the dust settled, and agriculture recovered.
But it begs the question: If some farmers and surely agricultural land grant universities knew the value of organic matter and green manure in 1911, and many more handed down the hard lessons of the Dust Bowl two decades later, why do William C. Smith's warning words still echo into 2024?
"In the Midwest, we're losing soil at 10 to 1,000 times the rate it's formed, "says Dr. Jodi Enos Berlage, Luther College professor of biology, Decorah. "Climate change is making it much worse. We've been taking and taking, but we haven't been giving. Remember, the life below makes the life above possible, and we're losing it at alarming rates. One third of our topsoil in the Cornbelt already has been lost."
Technology, the great disrupter, no doubt dislodged some common-sense soil practices. After World War II, ammonia plants built to manufacture explosives began making fertilizers, leading to a decline in fertilizer prices and expanding its use. Tractor sales peaked in the early 1950s, and farm machinery horsepower ramped up, fueling the growth of farm size.
The export boom in the 1970s enabled farmers to profit from global sales of grain without the drudgery of daily livestock chores. As livestock enterprises declined, so did the need (and markets) for hay, oats, and other legume crops. Farm kids left home, often encouraged to achieve a higher standard of living, but shrinking the labor pool. Leasing from distant owners increased; 40% of U.S. farmland is rented, and landowners must be onboard with conservation.
After all, agriculture is a complex mash-up of the sciences: biology, agronomy, horticulture, chemistry, nutrition – and more. During his ill-fated run for president in 2016, billionaire Michael Bloomberg told an audience at the Oxford Union: “I could teach anybody, even people in this room, no offense intended, to be a farmer. It’s a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, you add water, up comes the corn. You could learn that.”
Over time, the voices of forward-thinking farmers like William C. Smith often have been drowned out by a tsunami of powerful vested interests focused on planting the seeds of corporate priorities in U.S. farm legislation.
Soil Structure is Water's Retaining Wall
On a flight home from a business trip years ago, I was seated next to a man from Pittsburgh. After some conversation, he asked me about my job. When I said I wrote for a farm magazine, he exclaimed, "You write about dirt?"
He seemed incredulous. I suspect he would have been amazed to learn that the development of agriculture is considered the foundation of modern civilization, too.
It shouldn't have been surprising that an urban Easterner several generations removed from farming would look at soil and simply see dirt. Today the crucial role of managing soil health to protect our water often is lost in the big picture.
But I know many farmers who have not lost sight of the gifts of the soil.
Steve Berger, Wellman, Iowa, has 40 years of no-till and almost 20 years of cover crop under his belt. When I interviewed him several years ago, he told me, "It's a different management system. We want roots in the ground through the winter. The root system changes as fungi attach to it and aerate soil structure over time. They increase soil porosity and water infiltration, decreasing compaction and reducing runoff erosion. There are no quick fixes. It's a slow process with the soil."
I'm also encouraged by the growing advocacy of women: they own 47% of farmland. Ruth Rabinowitz spent most of her life in Arizona and California until she inherited Iowa farms. Rabinowitz, who considers the topsoil to be the skin of the earth, now lives here part-time. In addition to adding cover crops and no-till, she's implemented grassed waterways to capture and move rainwater across a field to reduce erosion and keep sediment from lakes, streams, or rivers. Her habitat and wildlife projects include ponds, conservation buffers, and forested areas. Working closely with tenants, she's enrolled in 18 different Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts.
Jodi Enos-Berlage, who grew up on an Illinois farm, and lives with her family on a small farm near Decorah, collaborated with Luther College dance professor Jane Hawley on an event in May called Soul of Soil, an immersive dance and field experiment "elevating soil as the life source, the world’s largest water purifier, and agent for climate reform". "We examined the microbial tapestry through layers of art and science to showcase the reciprocal relationship of how the life below makes the life above possible," she told me. Enos-Berlage is the keynote speaker at the Iowa Women in Agriculture Conference on August 1 in Ankeny.
In June, Women & Soil, an event at the Field of Dreams near Dyersville, was organized by Women, Land and Legacy, together with Practical Farmers of Iowa, Iowa State University and Dr.Elaine's Soil Food Web School.
This unique outreach, as well as on-farm efforts, demonstrate that the lone voice of soil health in the wilderness is becoming a chorus.
In Pursuit of the Bright and Shiny
As I placed my breakfast bowl on the kitchen table earlier this week, I saw that my farmer husband had left the latest issue of Progressive Farmer open to a story titled, "Keep Soils Covered up."
Today, you can leaf through any farm magazine to read about tools to shrink soil loss:
· Reduced tillage (no-till and strip--till)
· Cover crops
· Diverse crop rotations
· Livestock grazing (spring rye cover)
In the same issue, however, I might read about the emerging use of micronutrients to compensate for the impact of: 1) Soil erosion and long-term cropping; 2) Boosting crop yields; and 3) Widespread replacement of micronutrient-rich manures by mineral fertilizers. Are micronutrients the new silver bullet aimed at distracting us from retaining organic matter and keeping soil covered?
Agriculture always will be caught in a tug of war between competing interests, and opposing schools of thought regarding the best science-based methods of growing crops–all filtered through the lens of a farmer's financial bottom line. No-till requires machinery investment. Yield losses are real, especially in the transition from tillage to no-till. But no-till also can cut costs.
Anecdotally, I've noticed more acres planted to cover crops this spring in our Boone County neighborhood. Brown, wilting cover crops stand in stark contrast ahead of the emergence of a new soybean crop. This view requires a 360 degree shift in farmer mindsets.
Are these soil-saving efforts happening quickly enough? Of course not.
Nitrogen management is only the tip of the spear when it comes to improving water quality. No till alone isn't enough, either. Building a groundswell of support for the crucial connection between soil health and groundwater quality is the linchpin to Iowa's farming future.
As William C. Smith stated in the preface of his 1910 book, "The modern scientific farmer is touching worn-out soil with the wand of his knowledge and it is becoming rich in the elements that produce a hundred-fold."
We're not there yet. But when it comes to soil, unlike reality TV, the biggest losers won't come out on top.
Special thanks to Bruce Hanson, Wesley, Iowa: college classmate, subscriber, and poet extraordinaire!
I’m delighted to be a member
IOWA WRITERS’ COLLABORATIVE
Crucial reminders, Cheryl. Thank you. I venture to say that most Iowans, not simply urban coastal folks, have no idea that our soil is so much more than dirt. We take it all for granted. We know so little about all the microbes in it. Yet it and our water are truly our lifeblood.
Fungi, microbes, the billions of organisms that grow our crops, are being destroyed by the chemical approach to industrial agriculture. Thanks, Cheryl!