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Plants Feed Microbes to Get the Nutrients They Need

A few weeks ago we talked about how plants can adjust their root exudate to encourage microbes to provide them with more nutrients during times of stress. Today, we’re looking at another way that...

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Fences Grow More Grass

Shannon Carmichael thought her husband Bart was crazy when he started fencing the ranch first to half sections and then to quarter sections. “This is not how things are supposed to be done. We ride...

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Take a Deeper Look at Soil Health

Dr. Ray Weil has spent his whole life looking at and learning about soils and how they work to keep us all fed. In fact, he literally wrote the book on soils. He has a message for farmers and ranchers...

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Give Your Soil a Physical

Are you healthy? It is easier to identify an unhealthy person or animal than it is to identify one that is healthy. So it is with soil. Who decides what healthy soil is, and how can you tell how...

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Soil 101 – From Special Collections

If you click on “Special Collections” in the menu bar, you’ll find a list of things that folks often ask us about or that we all need the most help with. With a topic as complex as soil, it’s hard to...

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This Winter, Improve Soil Health (and Your Life) With Bale Grazing

Bale grazing is a good tool for improving soil health while reducing costs. This 4:49 minute video from the Natural Resources Conservation Service gives some great tips for setting bales, managing...

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This Ranch’s Grazing Management Improves Soil and Vegetation

The Bench Ranch has been using intensive, rotational grazing for at least 35 years and they have seen a change that includes more grass, healthy soils, and double the stocking rate the ranch used to...

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What Is Manure Doing For Your Soil?

Would you like to reduce runoff and soil erosion? Would you benefit from soils that absorb more water, making your pastures more resilient to drought? Do you want to prevent phosphorus contamination of...

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The Key to This Ranch’s Successful Grazing Strategy? People!

When we talk about grazing management, we usually think about how to manage livestock, and we think of forage and the soil below it. But there’s one more factor to consider – people – and that’s the...

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Revitalizing Soil With Paper

This article comes to us from Sandra Avant and the Agricultural Research Service. While it’s unlikely the average farmer is going to run out and do this tomorrow, it is an example of another way...

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How a Blue Ridge Farmer Set Up His Rotational Grazing System

John Fant, Colonel, US Army (Ret), returned to southwest Virginia in 2013 to resume daily operations and management of the family farm. In this 6:52 video, John describes how he assessed the farm’s...

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Plant Root Exudate Changes With Drought to Encourage Soil Microbes to Provide...

There are all kinds of interactions between plants and the soils they grow in, and little by little we’re understanding more about what’s going on. Take root exudate for example. That’s the cocktail of...

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Grazing for Soil Health

Thanks to the folks with NRCS’s “Unlock the Secrets of Soil Health” for their part in developing this article. The abandoned cotton farm Terry and Deborah Chandler purchased was in need of a lot of...

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What’s Your Soil’s Texture?

Figuring out your soil's texture is as easy as mud pie. Here we show you how to do a little hands on testing.

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I’ve Got This Weed In My Pasture. What Does It Tell Me About My Soil?

You may have seen this On Pasture article before, but since this month we’re focusing on weeds, I thought you’d like to see it again. Enjoy! Can weeds tell you about soil health issues? Well, yes and...

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