Healthy soils beneath our crops and pastures will mean a healthy hip pocket and a healthy catchment. So what are they top 10 habits of producers who can maintain heatlhy soils?
1. Maintain organic matter and ground cover
2. Maintain soil fertility
3. Maintain healthy plant growth
4. Manage for soil structural stability
5. Monitor & evaluate soil constraints
6. Understand soil limitations – fit for purpose
7. Learn for continuous improvement
8. Value the balance between production, and ecological and environmental services
9. Invest in profitable strategies to enhance soil health
10. Manage for climatic variability
There is plenty of information available to producers from organisations across Australia, and the above list comes from the www.soilhealthknowledge.com.au site to get us started with the how’s and why’s of soil heath. The site has been established by the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
The recent floods and wet weather gives us all a chance to have a good look at how best to manage our properties, and we shouldn’t go past what holds it all together: our soils.