As an animal science major at Cornell in the 1980’s, I took a course in soils. I’m not sure if it was the subject matter or the professor, but I just couldn’t get excited about the class. I think I skipped a number of classes, and slept through a few more, so the fact that I passed the course with any knowledge of soils is fairly remarkable.
I had the basics – I knew there are different soil types, and it was based on the changes in the soil profile when a soil pit was dug to a certain depth. Then there was the color and texture of the soil, the clay or sand content, organic matter, and fertility, and different crops could grow on different soils better or worse based on these characteristics. I thought that was all I would ever really need to know.
Almost 30 years later and working for USDA-NRCS, it’s all about knowing about soils and soil health. Although I’m a grazing and animal nutrition technical specialist, the soil plays a big part of how I think about pastures now. There has been a lot of interest and outreach on soil health on the part of our agency, and it has me much more engaged than I was in college in learning more.
There is so much more going on below the soil surface than I remember learning about in college. Interactions between plant roots and soil micro-organisms, earthworms aerating the soil, plants working together to bring nutrients up from different root zones – these feed the plants that feed our animals.
Soil scientist Ray Archuleta with NRCS is even more excited than I am about all of these interactions of life in the soil. I have been fortunate to hear him speak two or three times in the last few years, and every time I do I learn something new. He is probably one of the best speakers I’ve ever heard on soils – too bad I didn’t have him in college!
We are fortunate to have Ray coming to New York again this summer for the Grasstravaganza conference in July. The focus of the conference is “Pasture Soil Health Creates Wealth”, because pasture is one of the best ways to improve soil health, and it’s one of the most profitable ways to farm. The conference is being held July 17th to 19th on the Morrisville State College campus, and we will also be doing some hands-on soil health stations and touring local farms, including dairy, equine, and multi-species. The full conference agenda and registration information is at www.grasstravaganza.morrisville.edu. There will also be a trade show, and vendor information is available there as well.
NRCS and the NY Grazing Coalition are sponsors of the conference, along with Morrisville State College. We have had the help of grass farmers and local Soil and Water Conservation District and Cornell Cooperative Extension staff in planning the conference. It promises to be a great conference with a lot of enthusiasm and interesting topics!
