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    Organic Matter Input use has decreased.

    Compost Manure Organic Matter Inputs Progress
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    Organic Matter Input use has decreased by 13T/acre on average since 2019.  When we examine our successive years of data and divide our sites into their different crop categories, we see that only home gardeners have increased their Organic Matter Inputs in the last 5 years.  All other crop categories have seen a sharp decrease in Organic Matter Inputs.  Commercial Veg/Flower/Fruit growers have seen the biggest decrease.  Our growers identified several possible causes for this decrease. 
    • An exceptionally wet May-June-July in 2023 meant growers had a hard time planting, cultivating and harvesting between storms.  They may not have wanted to or been able to get additional machinery into soggy fields to spread amendments.
    • Fuel and hauling costs for amendments have tripled in recent years, putting amendments out of reach for many growers.  Several have switched to amending with more economical cover crops if they have the water to get them established.
    • Some growers with excessively high phosphorus levels have decided to forego organic matter inputs and use cover crops instead, to avoid increasing their soil phosphorus to dangerous levels.
    • Our very tight labor market meant growers struggled all season to fill vacant positions.  They may not have had enough workers to do things like spread amendments. Additionally, our tight labor market has increased labor costs sharply.  This has affected Commercial Veg-Flower/Fruit growers the most as their crop category is the most labor intensive.  Recent high labor costs may have consumed any profit that formerly paid for purchased amendments. 
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    Most CSSHP growers have used Organic Matter Inputs.

    Compost Grazing Animals Manure Organic Matter Inputs Progress
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    A majority of all our growers have used organic matter inputs (manure, compost, mulches) on their sites in the last 5 years, with home gardeners leading the way.  We only count the organic matter inputs which are acquired off-site in this analysis.  Manure deposited by grazing animals on-site, or clippings from on-site cover crops, are not counted as organic matter inputs here.  Thus, perennial fields with aftermath grazing often appear to have no organic matter inputs, even though they may have many days of grazing animals depositing manure and urine there.
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    Our Growers have made progress!!

    Cover Crops Days Of Living Cover Organic Matter Inputs Progress Tillage Intensity Variability
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    The variability we continue to see in our lab results has thrown a great big monkey wrench into our ability to assess progress using only our lab results. However, we can still assess the progress our growers have made in increasing their use of tried-and-true soil health practices, including:
    • Increasing their Days of Living Cover
    • Increasing their use of Cover Crops
    • Decreasing their Tillage Intensity
    • Increasing their Organic Matter Inputs
    Our growers have made excellent progress incorporating 3 out of 4 of these soil health practices in the last 5 years.
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    Variability with 2 Consecutive Years of Grazing or Organic Matter Inputs

    Grazing Animals Organic Matter Inputs Variability
    Variability with 2 Consecutive Years of Grazing or Organic Matter Inputs
    We sorted our sites into 3 groups and calculated the average variability for each group.  This bar graph shows that the groups which grazed animals or added organic matter to their sites for 2 consecutive years have approximately three times as much variability in their lab results as the group with NO grazing animals and NO organic matter inputs.
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    Variability due to Grazing Animals & Organic Matter Inputs

    Grazing Animals Organic Matter Inputs Soil Organic Matter Variability
    Variability due to Grazing Animals & Organic Matter Inputs
    In the top graph above, 71 sites with both grazing animals and organic matter inputs (OMI) are each represented by a quadruplet of data points connected by a vertical black line (a blue square for 2019, red circle for 2020, green triangle for 2021, and yellow diamond for 2022).  Each square-circle-triangle-diamond-black-line combo represents the Soil Organic Matter (SOM) values for one site for 4 years. According to the literature, SOM is supposed to be quite stable and very difficult to change, and yet we are seeing large swings in individual sites’ SOM data, especially when grazing animals are present or organic matter is imported to the site, as is the case in the top graph above.
    We only have 12 sites in our study which have no grazing animals or imported organic matter for 3 or more years.  The second lower graph shows that the variability in SOM values for these 12 sites is much less than for sites with grazing animals or organic matter inputs.

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    Predicting the Soil Health of our 3 Main Crop Groups, PART 2

    Alkaline Soil Crop Groups Days Of Living Cover Grazing Animals Irrigation Water Organic Matter Inputs PH Soil Organic Matter Tillage Intensity
    Predicting the Soil Health of our 3 Main Crop Groups, PART 2
    Perennial Hay/Alfalfa/Pastures: The Pasture group has the highest average soil health scores of these three crop groups.  Although the Pasture group has lower supplemental water days and lower organic matter added, their very high days of living cover and very high grazing days, along with their very low tillage intensity and lower soil pH seem to more than make up for their water challenges, in terms of soil health.
    Commodity Row Crops: The Commodity crop group has the lowest average scores of these three groups.  Although they have done an excellent job of reducing their tillage intensity, that fact alone cannot make up for their high soil pH, lowest days of living cover and lowest organic matter added.  They have only 2/3rds of the water availability as the Commercial Veg/Flower/Fruit group, which explains their lower days of cover crops that often require fall seeding and fall water.  Inter-seeding cover crops aerially or when the main crop is still small are work-arounds but not always practical.  Low commodity prices mean the cost of additional organic matter inputs like compost and manure are hard to justify.
    Commercial Veg/Flower/Fruit: The Commercial Veg group has the highest tillage intensity by far, but also triple the organic matter inputs of the other 2 groups.  These huge organic matter inputs, along with their longer water season, greater use of cover crops, and lower soil pH overpower their intense tillage and boost their average soil health scores above the commodity crops’ averages.  Their longer water season means they can plant more fall cover crops and string together succession plantings for a longer growing season.  Their high value vegetables mean that they can afford organic matter input costs and hauling fees.