Step 3: Covered Crops, Carbon Sequestration & Gas Exchange
Harness the Power of Nature and Watch Your Farm Thrive
Summary:
On this page you will learn about 3 Natural Systems Fundamental to Regenerative Agricultural Success:
The reason regenerative agriculture practices are so profitable is we shift the burden off man made systems and harness the power of Nature. When natural systems are restored, one thing gracefully leads to the next with waste from one process becoming the fuel to another. A healthy ecosystem sustains itself with little interference and little need for intervention.
Chad Wall
What is gas exchange?
Gas exchange is the ability for gases to move into and out of soil much like how we breathe. The earth breathes too. Earth is on a 24 hour cycle and as it inhales it takes gases from the atmosphere and exchanges them through exhalation into a concentrated soil surface.
Gas exchange is vitally important to ensure that microbes and plant roots receive and utilize oxygen and other atmospheric gases for transformation. In a properly functioning ecosystem, gases, particularly carbon dioxide, are released and concentrated at the soil surface for the leaf canopy of the plants to absorb. In essence, carbon dioxide concentrates where the plants need it and provides oxygen and nitrogen to the microbes for conversion and the life that those gases bring.
What impacts the process of gas exchange?
The biggest contributor to preventing gas exchange is the lack of pore space and compacted layers of soil particles. Pore space is created by soil aggregation while compaction is mitigated by roots, microbes and direct tillage. Microbes have to have food, air, energized water and protection in order to flourish.
A healthy microbe population is essential for soil aggregation and reducing compaction in soil environments is essential for a healthy microbe population. Research trials going back decades have validated yield potential is limited by CO2 concentration and atmospheric greenhouse gases, however, that is easily overcome by concentrating CO2. The only way the soil can concentrate CO2 is to get atmospheric gas converted and concentrated.
What is carbon sequestration?
Carbon sequestration is the capturing of atmospheric gases in the soil. Similar to how we humans inhale and exhale oxygen, the Earth breathes in greenhouse insulating atmospheric gases and brings them into the soil where they can be stored and utilized for plant and microbial health and soil stabilization.
With modern-day conventional farming practices including excessively tilled soil, a lot of carbon is released and lost to the atmosphere. This coupled with the rampant burning of fossil fuels contributes to climate stressors that greatly influence weather patterns, drought, and water conservation. Soil, however, when managed properly, has a tremendous capacity to mitigate these carbon levels.
Regenerative agriculture practices that include proper soil management, cover cropping and improving plants’ photosynthetic capacity are very simple ways to be part of the global solution.
Chad Wall
What are cover crops?
Cover cropping is the practice of keeping plants growing on your fields as much of the season as possible. It establishes a seasonal plant mix that continues the process of photosynthesis between cash crops in order to feed microbes, capture water and carbon protect the soil surface.
Cover cropping is vitally important to provide root exudates. These exudates are the food sources to microbes from the photosynthesizing plants. They help to capture water that falls on the soil and prevent the soil from leaving with water runoff. Microbes have a very limited capacity to withstand direct sun or the radiant heat created from bare soil exposure to sunlight. Shading the soil with cover crops protects microbes and prevents evaporative water loss.
The key to effective cover cropping is to establish the cover crop before the cash crop is desiccated. There is no one single cover crop that fits in all agricultural settings. It’s important to find multiple cover crop species that can be companions to your cropping system. These species could be grown simultaneously or in opposite seasons.
Natural ecosystem restoration is easy if you follow the 3 important steps:
- Hydrate Plants, Animals and Soil with Energized Water
- Create a Healthy Ecosystem and Target Nutrients and Pesticides
- Harness the Power of Nature and Watch Your Farm Thrive