Soil Cover
Soil Health: Principle 1 of 5 – Keep the Soil Covered: It starts at the surface
To maximize soil health and regenerate degraded soils, each of the five principles of soil health should be implemented, and each principle is of equal importance. But keeping the soil covered is usually the first mentioned principle, because you can’t build soil if you’re losing it. Here are the reasons why keeping “armor” on the soil should be your first line of defense when starting your soil health journey.
Control erosion Wind and water are powerful forces. A 5-millimeter raindrop is travelling at 18.2 feet per second when it strikes the soil surface (Marelli, 1983). Wind erosion can start at wind speeds as low as 12-15 miles per hour. Erosion occurs when the kinetic energy of the rain or wind destroys soil aggregates. By keeping the soil covered with the previous crops’ residue and/or living plants, the energy from the raindrop or wind is absorbed by the cover.
Reduce weed pressure Cover reduces the amount of sunlight that reaches the soil surface. For weed seeds that require some amount of sunlight to germinate, a good cover will inhibit germination. Any weeds that do germinate will have to contend with a low light environment and may not have the energy to grow through the residue. Some living covers, such cereal rye, have an allelopathic affect on weed seeds and prevent their germination.
Moderate soil temperatures Soil armor acts like a blanket in cold weather and a shade in hot weather. Roots and below ground life do not perform well, and may even die, with wildly fluctuating temperatures.
Moisture retention By shading the soil surface, evaporation rates are greatly reduced, allowing more plant available water to be stored for use by your crop. Reducing evaporation rates also aides in the prevention of salts moving to the soil surface through capillary rise.
Reduce compaction/crusting When soil aggregates are broken down by the erosive power of rain, they are left as individual particles of sand, silt, clay and organic matter. When the sand, silt and clay are no longer held together in an aggregate, they clog soil pores and form visible layers on the soil surface. These layers become compacted and prevent water infiltration and seeds from sprouting.
Home for biology Having a high residue cover on the soil surface provides both the home and the pantry for surface feeding soil life. Maintaining this layer of residue is important for fostering earthworm populations, as their primary source of food is dead and decaying plant matter. Earthworms serve as soil aerators and fertilizers.
News & Events
Wet or dry, less stress: Father and son credit focus on healthy soils
Eli (left) and Barry Little. Photo courtesy of USDA-NRCS SD. By Lynn Betts For the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition “We feel like if we get the moisture that God gave us and leave it where it's supposed to be, we can get through most any year,” Barry Little...
Standing up to drought: No-till, cover crops build resilient soil for managing water
By Janelle Atyeo For the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition South Dakota farmers slogged through two wet years before the rain shut off in the middle of the last growing season. Now a warm start to winter without much snow cover has farmers heading into the next crop...
Maximum benefits seen when cover crops and cattle grazing added to no-till
By Lura Roti for South Dakota Soil Health Coalition Driving conditions were challenging as Brandt, S.D., farmer Tyler Brown made his way south to the Texas Panhandle this December. “I started out in a snowstorm, then it became a dirt storm. And it made me realize, we...