Entries by Rich Myers

Soil Aggregation and Assessing Pasture Soil Structure with a Simple Field Test

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Soil aggregate stability is a measure of how well soil particles stick together and facilitate air and water movement in soils. In this video, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Lee Rinehart discusses the practices that contribute to healthy soils and demonstrates how to conduct a simple soil aggregate stability test at Lands at Hillside Farms in […]

Episode 279. Patrick O’Neill on the Many Sides of Soil Health

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In this episode of Voices from the Field, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Martin Guerena, who works out of NCAT’s office in Davis, California, has a conversation with Patrick O’Neill of Soil Health Services in Alamosa, Colorado. They discuss Patrick’s projects, including consulting with farmers on cover crops systems, volunteer work with the Rio Grande Farm […]

Soil Health for Watersheds: How Can Federal Agencies Help?

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In this session of the National Center for Appropriate Technology’s second Soil Health Innovations Conference in March 2022, panelists from several federal agencies, a state conservation commission, and an innovative farmer discuss opportunities for agencies and farmers to work together to support watershed-scale soil health practices that reduce runoff and downstream flood hazard. This video […]

Slump Test for Assessing Aggregate Stability in Agricultural Soils

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Healthy soils hold water and prevent nutrients from running off into surface water and groundwater. In this video, Lisa Blazure of the Pennsylvania Soil Health Coalition and NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Lee Rinehart discuss the practices that contribute to healthy soils and demonstrate how to conduct a simple soil aggregate stability test during the Columbia […]

Soil Aggregation and Assessing Pasture Soil Structure with a Simple Field Test

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Soil aggregate stability is a measure of how well soil particles stick together and facilitate air and water movement in soils. In this video, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Lee Rinehart discusses the practices that contribute to healthy soils and demonstrates how to conduct a simple soil aggregate stability test at Lands at Hillside Farms in […]

Episode 278. A Look at the Texas Soil Wealth Alliance, Part 2

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This episode of Voices from the Field is the second of a two-part series about a new project called the Texas Soil Wealth Alliance.   NCAT’s team on the project – Climate Smart Agriculture Coordinator Elise Haschke and Sustainable Agriculture Specialists Robert Maggiani and Darron Gaus – talk with others involved in the project. They discuss […]

Capturing Water and Reducing Floods: Can Healthy Soils Save Society Money?

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This discussion about the opportunity to maximize off-farm benefits of soil-health practices at the watershed scale was part of the National Center for Appropriate Technology’s second Soil Health Innovations Conference in March 2022. The panelists include: Dianna Bagnall, research soil health scientist at the Soil Health Institute Juli Obudzinski, sustainable agriculture policy consultant at the […]

Indigenous Perspectives on Soil Health and Water

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Before 1993, when Santa Clara Pueblo Indigenous scholar Gregory Cajete began to publish about what he referred to as Native Science, there had been no serious attempts to analyze and gather data regarding American Indian perceptions and cognition related to soil and water management and how those perceptions influenced indigenous practices and choices as they […]

Economics of Soil Health

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This discussion was part of the National Center for Appropriate Technology’s second Soil Health Innovations Conference in March of 2022. The panelists include: Adam Chappell (Speaker) Chappell Brothers Farm LLC Harry Greene (Speaker) Propagate, Chief Investment Officer Rex Dufour (Moderator) NCAT, Western Regional Director Propagate helps farmers, landowners, and service providers make regenerative agriculture work […]

Regenerative Practices to Reverse Desertification

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In this video, Alejandro Carrillo, a keynote speaker during the National Center for Appropriate Technology’s second Soil Health Innovations Conference, which was held in March 2022, talks about his experience building soil resilience by working with nature. Alejandro Carrillo is a consultant as along with his work at Las Damas Cattle Ranch. This video is […]