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Lesson 2: MonitoringOverview
In the last lesson, we looked at some basics of soil health and soil biology. Now, let's look into transitioning to healthy soil. We'll discuss soil testing, building healthy soil and monitoring changes that may occur as you improve your soil.
On any given day, you make many decisions that could influence outcomes on your farm. Soil testing and observation are goals that you need to include in your farm plan. If you don't know where you're going, how will you know if you've arrived at the right place? These goals can help you establish where you're going and how you'll get there, and help you determine if you have arrived at your ideal soil goals. In addition, your Organic System Plan requires you "to monitor the effectiveness of your fertility management program."
Soil texture, water movement, crop response and earthworm populations are key indicators of soil health. You will need additional information from formal soil tests to help you set soil-improvement benchmarks and track changes over time.
By the end of this section, you will see how to create your soil fertility plan. To help you do that, we'll lay out the highlights of how to build and measure soil health, control erosion and test your soil.
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