If you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and/or YouTube, you may have seen today that Mike finally made it in front of the camera! That's right! We wanted to be able to share with you the importance of armor on the soil and cover crops. Driving around the last few weeks you have been able to see that the ditches are DIRTY! I saw over the weekend that WDAY did a story about the loss of topsoil and I read through the comments and was surprised by how many people do pay attention to the snow and how dirty it is.
This winter was an "open" winter. Meaning, no real snow cover. The ground has been exposed for a good portion of it. Then you add in the wind, which in NW Minnesota, there is a lot of it and it can blow! That it did this winter too. But with it blew the dirt, or the topsoil, off the fields. It is in the ditches, it is across the roads in the ditches, it is in others fields! Last fall Mike decided he wasn't going to work the fields because he wanted to armor the soil with the residual that was left from the crop he harvested, so that in the spring when the snow melted and the wind blew, the soil stayed in place. Well, it ended up coming in handy all winter due to the minimal snow.
We also ended up planting cover crops because we wanted to make sure there was enough protection for the soil and so that a living root was left in the ground for the microbial life to feed on and help in replenishing the soil, making it more healthy. In some fields there is rye and oats, in others there is rye, oats, and radishes. It all works together to keep the soil in place and to improve the health of the soil. Healthy soil = Healthy food. There is no other equation for healthy food.
Check out the following pictures from one of the fields we were in and investigating how the rye looked. Underneath the soil it was still green, meaning the wildlife were able to nibble on it all winter. While the deer are in the field eating, they are in the field fertilizing. We are sharing a picture of deer scat so that you able to see the circle of soil life. We provide food to the soil, it builds up a healthy soil to allow us to grow healthier food, and to feed God's creatures and get free fertilizer out of the deal.
