Dave Brandt was probably the longest running no-till farmer in the state; he’d been running his land no-till since 1971. He experimented with fertilizers, cover crops, and different irrigation techniques and he’d been doing all of that for a very long time.
The guy was an institution all on his own; look at this.
The “A” profile in his soil is now 47 inches deep compared to less than 6 inches in 1971 and acts like a giant sponge for water infiltration and retention.
From 1971 through 1989 David used an average of 150-250 pounds of nitrogen fertilizer per acre to grow his corn crops. After adding peas and radishes as a cover crop mix, he cut his nitrogen needs in half and was able to get it down to 125 pounds per acre.
When he added multiple species and became more aggressive with his cover crop mixes, he was able to achieve an additional drop in applied fertility. His starter fertilizer is now just 2 lbs of N, 4 lbs of P, and 5 lbs of K. His corn crop now only requires 20-30 lbs of N throughout the entire growing season. He requires no fertility for his soybeans, relying on fertility gained solely through his cover crops. He uses only 40 lbs of 10 N – 10 P – 10 K for his small grains.
Ten years ago (source study published 2019) David stopped using any fungicides and insecticides. This occurred at a time when fungicide and insecticide use has increased significantly with the average commodity farmer.
Four years ago he stopped using any seed treatment, including neonicotinoids.
His cash crop yields have been increasing by an average of 5% annually for the past 5-6 years, with far less fertilizer and no fungicides, insecticides or seed treatment.
What started as a basic heavy clay soils when David purchased the farm in 1971 have been officially re-classified by Ohio State University soil scientists as a highly fertile silty loam soil.
I know I’ve said it before, but–that first point, there, about the “A” profile of his soil? Every time I think of it, I am taken aback with genuine awe.
So this is a picture of the soil horizons. The O profile/O horizon is stuff like fallen leaves, sticks, and so on, which are biodegrading into the A profile. A fair amount of soils might have no O profile at all.
If you are a gardener, the A profile is what you’re concerned with most of the time; it’s what we also call “topsoil.” Your seeds germinate into it, and shallower plants might root into it alone without ever reaching the B profile. Worms and other small delvers live in it. It’s what you’re amending, what you’re testing, what you’re tilling, what you’re trying to fill up with good microorganisms to work with your plants and provide you with food or flowers or cover.
I see this quote around sometimes, attributed to radioman Paul Harvey:
Man — despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments — owes his existence to a six inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.
Without the topsoil, bluntly, we starve. And there are other problems, in places with a lack of it; without the topsoil, when the rains come, the water strikes hard soil. Hard soil doesn’t accept water easily, so instead it pools and runs downhill. That action makes flooding, makes flash floods, makes standing water that carries disease, it contaminates the water table. Cholera is a huge problem in places with a low A profile that receive too much water at once.
We are seeing topsoil depletion across the US. I can’t speak for other countries, but the heavy-tilling agricultural habits we’ve adopted here have obliterated inch after inch of our topsoil; in the 1800s the average depth was fourteen inches! Today it is six. Many suburban lawns have even less. This has knock-on effects we don’t even consider on the day-to-day (for instance, there’s some suggestion that the lower amounts of various minerals in vegetables and fruits today in comparison with earlier decades might be because of the lower amount of minerals in the soil for the plants to take up into themselves).
And this gentleman took soil that had been that abused and not only returned it to what it had been before the aggressive, destructive European agricultural policy had its way, but trebled that earlier depth.
His land protects the land around it from flooding. His land grows plants less susceptible to disease, because of all the various stressors and pressures those plants aren’t confronted with. His land almost certainly has a considerably higher concentration of microorganisms and it would follow that we’d also see greater diversity of macroorganisms thereby.
Dave Brandt was probably the longest running no-till farmer in the state; he’d been running his land no-till since 1971. He experimented with fertilizers, cover crops, and different irrigation techniques and he’d been doing all of that for a very long time.
The guy was an institution all on his own; look at this.
The “A” profile in his soil is now 47 inches deep compared to less than 6 inches in 1971 and acts like a giant sponge for water infiltration and retention.
From 1971 through 1989 David used an average of 150-250 pounds of nitrogen fertilizer per acre to grow his corn crops. After adding peas and radishes as a cover crop mix, he cut his nitrogen needs in half and was able to get it down to 125 pounds per acre.
When he added multiple species and became more aggressive with his cover crop mixes, he was able to achieve an additional drop in applied fertility. His starter fertilizer is now just 2 lbs of N, 4 lbs of P, and 5 lbs of K. His corn crop now only requires 20-30 lbs of N throughout the entire growing season. He requires no fertility for his soybeans, relying on fertility gained solely through his cover crops. He uses only 40 lbs of 10 N – 10 P – 10 K for his small grains.
Ten years ago (source study published 2019) David stopped using any fungicides and insecticides. This occurred at a time when fungicide and insecticide use has increased significantly with the average commodity farmer.
Four years ago he stopped using any seed treatment, including neonicotinoids.
His cash crop yields have been increasing by an average of 5% annually for the past 5-6 years, with far less fertilizer and no fungicides, insecticides or seed treatment.
What started as a basic heavy clay soils when David purchased the farm in 1971 have been officially re-classified by Ohio State University soil scientists as a highly fertile silty loam soil.
I know I’ve said it before, but–that first point, there, about the “A” profile of his soil? Every time I think of it, I am taken aback with genuine awe.
So this is a picture of the soil horizons. The O profile/O horizon is stuff like fallen leaves, sticks, and so on, which are biodegrading into the A profile. A fair amount of soils might have no O profile at all.
If you are a gardener, the A profile is what you’re concerned with most of the time; it’s what we also call “topsoil.” Your seeds germinate into it, and shallower plants might root into it alone without ever reaching the B profile. Worms and other small delvers live in it. It’s what you’re amending, what you’re testing, what you’re tilling, what you’re trying to fill up with good microorganisms to work with your plants and provide you with food or flowers or cover.
I see this quote around sometimes, attributed to radioman Paul Harvey:
Man — despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments — owes his existence to a six inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.
Without the topsoil, bluntly, we starve. And there are other problems, in places with a lack of it; without the topsoil, when the rains come, the water strikes hard soil. Hard soil doesn’t accept water easily, so instead it pools and runs downhill. That action makes flooding, makes flash floods, makes standing water that carries disease, it contaminates the water table. Cholera is a huge problem in places with a low A profile that receive too much water at once.
We are seeing topsoil depletion across the US. I can’t speak for other countries, but the heavy-tilling agricultural habits we’ve adopted here have obliterated inch after inch of our topsoil; in the 1800s the average depth was fourteen inches! Today it is six. Many suburban lawns have even less. This has knock-on effects we don’t even consider on the day-to-day (for instance, there’s some suggestion that the lower amounts of various minerals in vegetables and fruits today in comparison with earlier decades might be because of the lower amount of minerals in the soil for the plants to take up into themselves).
And this gentleman took soil that had been that abused and not only returned it to what it had been before the aggressive, destructive European agricultural policy had its way, but trebled that earlier depth.
His land protects the land around it from flooding. His land grows plants less susceptible to disease, because of all the various stressors and pressures those plants aren’t confronted with. His land almost certainly has a considerably higher concentration of microorganisms and it would follow that we’d also see greater diversity of macroorganisms thereby.
Computer game where you’re building a tower level by level and the closer you get to heaven the harder it becomes to fight off God.
The health mechanic is “coherence” as he works to confuse the tongues of your workers and you regenerate it by employing linguists to reincorporate the language changes as quickly as possible. If coherence reaches zero then your workers start wars with each other and leave and your tower collapses.
This sign was right below this post just thought you should know
The best part is OP got fired because their boss asked why they weren’t “incorporating blockchain technology” into the video switcher they were building and OP straight up said “you have no idea what you’re talking about” and went to lunch
Unfortunately my body doesn’t know the difference between someone not responding to me because they’re busy, and being shot in the chest 27 times in a row
I still think it’s objectively fucked how the world is built for morning people and if you wake up later than everyone else you’re seen as a malicious aberration of some sort. I am that but it’s not because I wake up at 11 fuck yourself
Off the coast of Australia Macroctopus caught the shark, wrapped all its tentacles around it and soon released it. Most likely, he scraped all the parasites off her.
The octopus
this is how sharks stay smooth
Bro the cuttlefish and everything else checkin it ou
the best part is the rapidly growing crowd of onlooker fish and squids hoping that this event will end in a festive shower of delicious shark guts (it did not. woe to the peanut gallery)
This is a visualization of a Japanese proverb, which means to experience a stroke of luck!
Because a duck coming to you with onions tied to its back is like a soup ready to be made delivering itself to you! What luck! A duck comes bearing onions!
*SUCKERPUNCHES YOU WITH RANDOM ANGST COMIC* I AM SO SORRY ABOUT THE WHIPLASH FROM REBLOGGING A REALLY FUNNY COMIC DUB AND THEN THIS RIGHT AFTER, I HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO POST TODAY-
I’ve had this one finished for over a week, but I was struggling with removing the white backgrounds without nuking the quality (I could not figure it out I’m so sorry). The bishop followers comic is still in progress but will be up for *sure* tomorrow, so have this in the meantime >:)
I have two wolves inside of me: one of them loves these characters dearly and shed an actual tear when you could finally heal their wounds in the new update. The other wolf was formerly a deviantart warrior cat kid whose entire brand was edgy ms paint blood art. Sometimes the deviantart wolf takes over while the other one is just like :( the whole time I’m drawing LMAO
You’re recycling Studio Ghibli material using a dogshit piece of software that burns through a fuckton of energy every time you use it so that you can use your “imagination” to churn out slop? And then you get mad when the people you’re stealing from tell you to cut it out?
I am so fucking tired of AI and quite frankly if I have to see another person act all high and mighty about being an “AI artist” (which is an oxymoron btw. Emphasis on moron) I will be losing my mind.
don’t tell social media if you went to protests or not(especially if you didn’t), don’t give cops an easy way to track down protesters. punk life advice
Maybe TMI but when I was a kid and I got good grades and behaved myself and all that my dad would tell me “that’s not being good, that’s doing the bare minimum expected of you” which was a wild thing to say as part of the “I feed you I clothes you and I put a roof over your head” crowd
“I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy” nah fuck that I would. Actually if I could choose to have any superpower, I’d want the power to make people feel whatever I’ve felt at any point of my life, at my choice. Someone mildly inconveniences me, I’m letting them have 30 minutes of being five years old and trying to learn how to cry silently because you know nobody’s coming to help you and if someone hears you, they’re coming to make it worse. Fuck you and your eyebrows.
ALT
ALT
