Written collaboratively by Anthony Bly, David Karki, Sandeep Kumar and Navdeep Singh
Situation
Soil health includes many soil attributes that improve the soils ability to take in water (water infiltration) and exchange air. Soil pores (porosity) enable greater water infiltration, air exchange and internal root exploration for water and nutrients. Native Grass prairies have been shown to have superior soil health characteristics that include improved pore structure, high water infiltration and soil organic carbon levels.
Acknowledgments
This work was funded by a grant from the USDA – National Institute of Food and Agriculture (Award No. 2016-68004- 24768): “Back to the Future: Enhancing Food Security and Farm Production with Integrated Crop–Livestock System”. The authors thank Mr. Kurt Stiefvater and Mr. Paul Westhoff for providing the land to conduct this study.
