Black Gold

It's amazing how good this stuff is for soil fertility. In the field of human health, we are learning more and more about how the gut biome impacts our well-being. I'm no expert on that, but I try to keep up with the current research. The microbiologic activity in our gut appears to be connected to everything from energy levels to Alzheimer's. As a side note, yes, many folks want to sell you a supplement that will improve your gut biome, but I believe the only way to do that sustainably is a diet full of clean whole nutrient-dense foods, some of which need to be consumed raw or lightly heated. I said all that to say this: there is a similar phenomenon on the farm. Soil health is key to healthy plants. However, what exactly is soil health? Reductionist science has told us for many years that adding the right levels of N,P, and K to the soil will produce a good crop. That's partly right. Those "supplements" do create satisfactory yields. Unfortunately, it leaves the soil wanting and needing more. Eventually, there is a cycle of adding more and more supplements. The soil then becomes little more than a growing medium to hold the plant upright as it is fed a cocktail of nutrients in the form of chemical fertilizer. Let me speak for the soil and say that this is not what the soil wants. The soil/plant relationship is as natural and should be as symbiotic as any relationship on this planet. Thats why folks in my world have been paying a lot of attention to the soil biome for the last several years. Those microbes in the soil are the largest "herd" we have on the farm. All of our farming practices should be built around creating the right environment for the microbes. In return they will create and establish a rich topsoil that is filled with macro and micronutrients ready to support plant life and fend off disease. One way we support these microbes is by applying animal manure to the land. This particular load is a combination of chicken and pig manure compost that has been aged for a few months. On this plot is where we will be planting sweet corn, I am feeding the microbes pretty heavily so we can have some nice big ears of corn on July 4th. Livestock farming and vegetable farming go together beautifully, and they should never be separated. Our animals spend most of their time on pasture depositing the manure on the field themselves, but our pigs spend a lot of time in the shade of the barn sleeping on a deep bed of hay. Likewise, our laying chickens are probably 50/50 outside on pasture vs. inside the barn for water, food, and to lay their eggs. Those barns need to be cleaned out and the vegetable plots are the perfect place for that "material". By its very nature, reductionist science tries to reduce a problem down to only a few components. In doing so they miss the concept of wholeness. The beauty is in the complexity and the symbiosis of the entire system.