Role of Soil Microbes
A short video exploring the role of soil microbes, and their benefits to plants.
Featuring Dr. Will Brinton of Woodsend Laboratories.
A Guide to Managing Organic Matter in Agricultural Soils
The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) has published a guide to managing organic matter in agricultural soils.
About the publication:
Soil organic matter contributes to a range of biological, chemical and physical properties of soil and is essential for soil health. This publication is a practical guide to understanding what soil organic matter is, why it’s important as well as how you can manage it on-farm to increase soil functionality and enhance production benefits.
The whole publication can be downloaded for free from the GRDC webpage [6mb PDF file].
The PDF file is also available here
Soil Carbon Cowboy
SOIL CARBON COWBOYS from Peter Byck on Vimeo.
Soil Carbon Cowboys – a film by Peter Byck in collaboration with Arizona State University and the World Bank.
About the film:
Meet Allen Williams, Gabe Brown and Neil Dennis – heroes and innovators! These ranchers now know how to regenerate their soils while making their animals healthier and their operations more profitable. They are turning ON their soils, enabling rainwater to sink into the earth rather than run off. And these turned ON soils retain that water, so the ranches are much more resilient in drought. It’s an amazing story that has just begun.
More info: http://www.carbonnationmovie.com/
Soil Carbon and the Role of Fungi
Soil Carbon and the Role of Fungi in the Long-term Sequestering of Carbon in Soil
– an interview with Associate Professor Peter McGee, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney.
From the introduction to the article:
In the following interview, Associate Professor Peter McGee of the University of Sydney defines and describes the importance of soil organic carbon and in brief outline describes research that may lead to an understanding of the role certain fungi play in facilitating the long-term adding of carbon in soil.
Read the full article here.
Toil and Soil
Summary:
Most of the food our farmers grow ends up in the cities most of us live in and a lot of that food ends up being waste, the sort of waste that could be composted and put back onto farms to improve the fertility of the soil.
That doesn’t happen as much as it should for a number of reasons, but as Chris Clarke reports, little by little there is progress.
Watch the programme here.
