How healthy is your soil?

Building Soils for Better Crops: Practical Guidance for Farmers on Developing Healthy Soils

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Oswego County (CCE Oswego) hosted a free virtual workshop, Building Soils for Better Crops: Practical Guidance for Farmers on Developing Healthy Soils. This workshop discussed the importance of soil health and how building quality soils can result in both economic and environmental benefits for agricultural producers. Placing a greater emphasis on soil health has become increasingly more important over the past few decades. Not only can healthy soils produce better quality crops, they also can help lead to greater farm resilience.

This workshop was based on the recent publication, “Building Soils for Better Crops: Ecological Management for Healthy Soils” (4th Edition, 2021), which was written by Dr. Fred Magdoff and Dr. Harold van Es. The workshop provided an overview of the book by highlighting the following topics: 1) what is soil health and why it matters, 2) what are the physical properties of soil and the carbon/nutrient cycles and flows, 3) what are the ecological principles and practices farmers can adopt to build healthy soils on their farms, and 4) how agricultural producers can evaluate and assess the overall health of their soils in the future.

Guest speakers were Dr. Harold van Es, Professor of Soil and Water Management at Cornell University, and Joseph Amsili, Extension Associate with the Cornell Soil Health Program.