Fence rows make for the best soil
- Joe Christner: SWCD
- March 12, 2020
- 1511
To keep learning and stay current on conservation topics, I attend meetings such as the recent Ohio Soil Health Symposium in Shelby and was glad to see some Holmes County farmers there as well.
It was a good combination of speakers and breakout discussion groups. There were several interesting topics including “Unhealthy Compacted Soils: Prevention Strategies,” “Soil Health Q-and-A,” and “Adding Cover Crops to Corn, Bean and Wheat Farms.”
The first topic was “Connecting the Dots on Farms: Science, Data, Decisions and Yields” by Barry Fisher, soil health specialist from Indiana.
Several slides into this presentation, he put up one that grabbed my attention. It was a slide of a colored yield map of a corn field similar to what is generated by a yield monitor on a combine.
The dark-green indicates high yield and the lighter green to yellow indicate areas of lower yield. Most fields will show some variation, but there was a consistent narrow dark-green band all the way through this field. The entire field had been managed the same including the amount of fertilizer applied.
One of the values of yield maps is to identify the location of yield variation across a field and what causes the difference in yield. It could be different soil types or wet areas or even shaded areas. High yields can be a good indicator of healthy, highly functioning soil. But why was there a narrow band of dark green indicating healthy soil and high yield all the way across this field?
As it turns out, a fence row had been removed to merge the adjoining fields. The higher yield in this area was the result of a healthy, highly functioning soil in the old fence row. This yield increase has become known as the “fence row effect.”
The best soil on most farms is found in the fence row. If you want to see what healthy soil looks like, grab a shovel and dig a little in a fence row. Healthy soil will be darker in color, crumbly and easy to dig into. It will have a sweet, earthy aroma and be full of life as indicated by the presence of earthworms, bugs and other organisms.
An unhealthy, poorly functioning soil feels dry, crusty and cloddy and does not crumble readily when pulled apart. Compare a shovelful of soil from a fence row to a shovelful from your field. This might convince you of the soil-building power of nature that takes place in a fence row.
As I attended the other presentations at the Soil Health Symposium, I heard a lot of good information about the value of soil health and how to improve it. The four principles to improve soil health and create fence row soils in your fields include: first, disturb soil as little as possible using no-till and minimum till; second, keep soil covered as much as possible using cover crops and leaving plant residues; third, diversify as much as possible using crop rotation including small grain or hay; and fourth, keep plants growing throughout the year to feed soil life using cover crop mixes.
I believe by using these practices over time it is possible to create fields with “fence-row-like” soils and gain the yield increase from the fence row effect. Data from various studies back up the importance of soil health.
If you want assistance with a plan to improve soil heath in your fields, call or email Joe Christner at Holmes Soil & Water Conservation District at 330-674-2811 ext. 3 or jchristner@co.holmes.oh.us. Follow us on Facebook for current conservation updates and see our website at HolmesSWCD.com.