Innovative Soil Management Strategies Featured in SAN Publications

When a nearby horse stable went out of business, it forced Alex and Betsy Hitt to search for an alternative to horse manure to amend the soil on their five-acre farm. The Hitts, who raise 75 varieties of vegetables and an equal number of cut flowers just outside Chapel Hill, North Carolina, created an elaborate rotation featuring both winter and summer cover crops to supply organic matter and nitrogen, lessen erosion, and crowd out weeds.

Learn how the Hitts and other innovative producers manage and conserve soil in Building Soils for Better Crops, one of many publications of potential interest to NRCS, available from the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), national outreach arm of the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. (See below for a partial listing of SAN publications available for purchase or for free as PDF files at SAN’s WebStore).

“We have made a conscious decision in our rotation design to always have cover crops.” Alex Hitt says. “We have to — it’s the primary source for all of our fertility.”

A typical rotation for the Hitts includes a cool-season crop, a summer cover crop such as soybeans and sudangrass, followed by a fall season cash crop and then a winter cover. This careful rotation confounds weeds by varying the timing and spacing of planting and cultivation from season to season. The cover crops protect bare soil and smother weeds by crowding and shading them out.

Their commitment to building soil organic matter yields important payoffs. The farm remains essentially free of soil-borne diseases, which they attribute to “competition and diversity” in the soil. And, despite farming on a five percent slope, they see little or no erosion. “The whole system works better,” says Hitt, who served for years on Southern SARE’s grant-making council. “We don’t have many diseases and we have a lot of beneficial insects. The whole thing is really in balance and the rotation and cover crops have a lot to do with that.”

Along with Building Soils for Better Crops, which focuses on how ecological soil management can raise fertility and yields while reducing environmental impact, SAN offers many other books and materials on using sustainable agriculture and environmental stewardship to conserve natural resources.

Managing Cover Crops Profitably
Comprehensive look at the use of cover crops to improve soil, deter weeds, slow erosion, and capture excess nutrients.

Manage Insects on Your Farm: A Guide to Ecological Strategies
Manage insect pests ecologically using crop diversification, biological control, and sustainable soil management.

The New American Farmer 2nd Edition
Profiles 60 farmers and ranchers who raise profits, enhance environmental stewardship and improve the lives of their families and communities by embracing new approaches to agriculture.

Steel in the Field
Farmer experience, commercial agricultural engineering expertise, and university research combine to tackle the hard questions of how to reduce weed control costs and herbicide use.

Nearly all SAN publications can be viewed or downloaded in their entirety online. Print versions are available for sale at SAN’s WebStore or by calling 301-374-9696. SAN bulletins are available in quantity at no cost for agricultural educators or service providers and significant bulk discounts are available for book orders in quantity.

About SARE
Since 1988, SARE has helped advance farming systems that are profitable, environmentally sound and good for communities through a nationwide grants program. The program, administered by  CSREES and USDA, funds projects and conducts outreach designed to improve agricultural systems and natural resources.

NRCS field office professionals frequently collaborate on SARE-funded projects and are valuable partners to the SARE program. NRCS staff serve on SARE’s national Operations Committee, on regional Administrative Councils, on State committees and are actively engaged as technical advisers and collaborators on SARE-funded research grants around the U.S.

For more information, visit the SARE website or for more information about the regional SARE programs, click on the region area of the map below.

Your contact is Diana Friedman, SARE research associate, at 301-504-6422.