Manure is a great source of nutrients, but recent studies show there is something even more magical about it. Read on to learn more about the importance of soil health to yield, the ways that manure can influence this and how the Nutrient Management Spear Program (NMSP) is investigating the relationship between microbial health, yield and climate resilience.
Soil is its own ecosystem, hosting numerous micro- and macro-organisms. For farmers, these organisms are very important because of their role in nutrient cycling in the soil.
Microbial health has already been found to be tightly linked to soil health, but at NMSP, PhD student Gurpreet Kaur is going beyond the soil health measurements themselves, investigating the relationship between yield, climate resilience and soil health indicators. Kaur hopes her work will lead to a better understanding of how soil-health indicators can help farmers more effectively manage crucial nutrients, such as nitrogen, and identify barriers to production.
NMSP began the soil health project with two primary goals in mind. First, to help farmers and researchers get a clearer picture of what is happening below the ground. Second, to assist farmers in creating a diverse and active microbial environment — which supports the ecosystem above the soil.
One of Kaur’s projects studies the effects of different levels of manure and nitrogen (N) fertilizer applied between rows of crops — known as sidedress application — on corn yield, forage quality, major soil health indicators and microbial biodiversity.
