Healthy soil can boost production
When was the last time you smelt your soil? Many dairy farmers could be overlooking the impact soil has on disease resistance, productivity and profit, according to Jo Scamell of Ground Level Nutrition.
Operating a soil surgery with independent experts Kingshay Farming Trust at last week’s Dairy Event, samples brought along – some even by plane from Northern Ireland – were analysed free of charge and farmers were advised on how to improve one of their most precious assets.
Speaking at a seminar, Mrs Scamell listed what to look for in soil structure and composition on-farm and stressed the importance of having a soil analysis to assess chemical content.
“When there is a metabolic imbalance, herd performance could be reduced due to capacity to digest forage,” she said.
Often, health problems which cannot be solved immediately or be determined by usual factors could be soil-related, reckoned Mrs Scamell.
“Critical imbalances such as high levels of potash, iron and molybdenum could be affecting lactation and fertility.”
On some farms, corrected imbalances have had as drastic an effect as increasing production rates in 10 days by 300 litres a cow.
“Soil should be like a bathroom sponge – able to take both considerable drought and water-logging without considerable damage. Well-managed soil should withstand conditions we have experienced this year,” she added.
Soil features such as aroma, moisture, surface cracking, texture and prevalence of earthworms are easy to analyse on farm.
“Condition-score your worms. A spade’s depth of soil should contain roughly 25 earthworms and these should either be big and strong or small, because this indicates an active breeding population.
Mid-sized worms show that the population is struggling in terms of food and air availability.”
A typical soil improvement plan could involve spring and autumn slit aeration, regular manure application alongside good slurry management, and could even extend to flat lift sub-soiling to enhance structure and content.