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Planning your soil improvement progress
Although the NOP Standards don't spell out the particulars, your certifier is going to have questions if your fertility management plan simply substitutes expensive bags of organic fertilizers for chemical fertilizers. Your certifier will ask you to demonstrate how you're improving your soil. The building blocks of your fertility program should be crop variety, cultural practices, composting, cover crop/green manure management, and manure management (whether you have animals on your farm or are importing manure from a trustworthy source nearby).
A soil fertility plan has several key ingredients to help you fine-tune or verify target nutrients for each field. Let's begin with nutrient goals:
• Set nutrient goals for each field.
• Create a cropping system that provides the soil nutrients you need for successful crop production while protecting the environment. (Don't forget to consider crops in your rotation that have the ability to tie up any excess nutrients.)
• Monitor and record soil nutritional deficiencies or excesses.
• Look at the entire rotation to balance what crops use with what comes back by way of amendments and soil-building practices.
• Verify or adjust soil nutrient target levels based on crop responses and yields.
You will need to track your soil improvement and explain the monitoring tools you are using. Methods might include traditional chemical soil testing, microbiological testing, plant tissue testing and crop health observations.
Managing your soils is a critical requirement of your farm plan. The NOP Standards reference soil erosion at §205.203a and require a formal soil conservation plan adapted to your farm. Testing and amending your soil is a waste of time if your topsoil is eroding into the nearest stream.
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New Farm ProfileThe more you know about soil, the better you can care for it. Beyond stopping erosion, you can significantly boost the productivity and quality of soil by improving its health. In the panel discussion at the link below, four soil scientists share what they've learned about the links between soil life and regenerative farming.
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