Jodi DeJong-Hughes, a soil health and tillage educator with the University of Minnesota, says it's important to build up carbon organic matter in fields to maintain healthy, sustainable soils.

Each year in early December, World Soil Day is celebrated around the world. To celebrate this annual event, the World Association of Soil and Water Conservation has pulled together a list of 17 soil moisture management concepts that can help you make soil and water a much better source of life.

Soil gets tired. After years of supporting a rotating cast of crops, the soil’s nutrient supply is often exhausted. The tilling, turning, and planting also degrade the organic matter in the soil and its ability to stay hydrated.

Tillage might result in some sort-term gains, but soil scientist Jay Fuhrer warns that the practice causes long-term damage to healthy soil’s best friend — fungi.

In a recent meeting of San Joaquin Valley NRCS and Resource Conservation Districts leaders held at the Wool Growers’ Restaurant in Los Banos, Calif., the 2017 Conservation Agriculture Farmer Innovator Award was presented to Chowchilla, Calif. farmer, Michael McRee.

Seeing the need to for more flexibility to map soils, Eric Lund, president of Veris Technologies discusses the features of the new iScan system that mounts to the row unit of a tillage implement or planter. The front coulter and the rear closing disc contain 2 electrodes that inject electrical current and then 2 chromium carbide points detect the electrical array after it’s gone down in the soil about 2 feet. An optical sensor also shines red and infrared light 2 inches deep to measure soil optical properties which relate to organic matter.

Precision Planting Product Manager Dale Koch discusses the new SmartFirmer, an optical senor imbedded in a Keeton Seed Firmer that scans the soil as it goes through the field. The system tracks and provides feedback on organic matter, soil moisture and residue in the furrow.