DS Family Farm

Are you worried about climate change? Have you considered healing the patch of soil you control to help mitigate our earth’s natural processes?

When we started this series of posts on soil carbon we looked at how carbon flows through air, plants, animals, soil and water, always in flux. Revisiting the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the earth’s atmosphere we quickly realize that CO2 makes up a small fraction of the air we breathe. Actually a very small part of the air volume. CO2 is currently around 425 parts per million (ppm). Do you realize that means CO2 makes up less than 1 percent of 1 percent of the atmosphere? CO2 = 0.0425 % of the atmosphere.

Climate impact – Water vapor or Carbon dioxide?

When it comes to climate impact, scientist Walter Jehne explains that water drives “95% of the heat dynamics of the blue planet” we call earth. Our atmosphere does an important job of trapping heat that radiates from the earth, known as the greenhouse effect. With H20 vapor (on average) at 10,000 ppm versus CO2 at 425 ppm in our atmosphere, it makes sense that water would have a larger effect on global heat dynamics than carbon dioxide. In addition, Jehne notes a molecule of water can absorb 8 times the heat compared to a molecule of carbon dioxide.

So if you are worried about climate change, a heating planet or a cooling planet, Jehne argues we need to look at maintaining a healthy water cycle.

Soil carbon, soil water & the climate link

Through our previous soil carbon discussion posts we have explained that our soils have suffered from a loss of carbon over the past 150 years. Again, this carbon is not lost from our closed earth system, it is currently cycling elsewhere such as in the air and oceans. The degradation of soils has depleted the ability of our land to absorb, store and filter water. Even though, soil water accounts for a very small fraction of all water on earth, soil degradation has a large impact on the water cycle. If the water cycle has the largest impact on our climate heat dynamics, it makes sense we can help mitigate climate extremes by rebuilding what Jehne refers to as the “soil carbon sponge”.

Healthy soils with soil carbon reserves can hold (sponge) water at a higher rate than degraded soils. Some of this extra water holding capacity is due to the added carbon but most of the increased water capacity of the soil is due to improved soil health. Let’s look at two soils and how they handle water:

Unhealthy vs Healthier Soil and Soil Water

The soil pictured above on the left is currently cropped while the soil on the right has been converted back to pasture. Key comparisons concerning soil water:

Unhealthy Soil	Healthier Soil
Soil surface crusting, water runs off (contributing to flood and drought)	Soil surface porous, water infiltrates, storing water for timely release mitigating floods and drought
Compacted layers, water infiltration is poor, limited to matrix flow	Vertical soil fractures, water infiltrates well by matrix and preferential flow
Old root channels collapsed/closed by tillage, poor infiltration	Water flows into soil through open old root channels
Lack of worm burrows/tunnels	Water flows into soil through worm burrows/tunnels
Higher Bulk Density, less pores space to hold water	Lower Bulk Density, more pore space to hold water
Lower soil carbon	Higher soil carbon (sponge)

All of the key points for improved water infiltration and water holding capacity of healthy soils mitigate both flooding and drought. Here is a quote from Jehne and his thoughts on soils and the water cycle:

“CO2 drawdown is essential because we need to rebuild organic matter in soils in order to have the soil carbon sponge that supports the water cycle. But the only way we can safely and naturally cool the planet and prevent the climate catastrophe is by restoring these hydrological processes. … that’s climatology 101. But in a sense it is new, because we’ve been focused on reducing CO2 emissions for so long.“

Walter Jehne, Soil Microbiologist & Climate Scientist
(https://www.ecofarmingdaily.com/supporting-the-soil-carbon-sponge/)

Here is an interesting quote from the USDA Yearbook of Agriculture, 1941, CLIMATE and MAN. It seems that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been part of the climate discussion for years, note also the recognition of water vapor:

“Much has been written about varying amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as a possible cause of glacial periods. The theory received a fatal blow when it was realized that carbon dioxide is very selective as to the wave lengths of radiant energy it will absorb, filtering out only such waves as even very minute quantities of water vapor dispose of anyway. No probable increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide could materially affect either the amount of insolation reaching the surface or the amount of terrestrial radiation lost to space.“

Climate Change Through the Ages, Richard Joel Russell, Yearbook of Ag, 1941, CLIMATE and MAN.

Climate changes numerous variables…

NASA was able to isolate the exact wave lengths that CO2 effects and conclude that CO2 is a major factor in the greenhouse effect. But it does seem to get complex when trying to account for all climate variables:

Atmosphere	Earth Angle On Axis	Earth Rotation
Sun & other planets	Radiation in, out and around	Convective circulation
Albedo effect	Water\Carbon\other cycles	Hemispheric circulation cells

Maybe with all these variables, that is why folks say, “if you don’t like the weather wait a minute, it will change.” We are dealing with numerous cycles all wrapped up into one big WHOLE called EARTH. If we tinker with one part of one cycle there will be responses that ripple through all others.

Stressing over climate change?

Let’s not stress over climate change. Let’s do what we can with what we have control over.

If you have influence over a piece of land consider how you can be a good steward of that land resource. At DS Family Farm we will keep working with known principles, regenerative agriculture principles, to improve our soil carbon sponge.

• Keep the soil covered
• Maintain a living root in the soil year round
• Encourage plant diversity
• Appropriate soil disturbance
• Planned animal impact

Obviously purchasing local food that is raised using regenerative ag principles is a great choice to reduce your environmental impact. We vote for what kind of future we want with each bite we take.

Health soils = healthy plants = healthy animals = healthy Humans living on a healthy earth.

What are your thoughts on Climate Change?

Please share your thoughts on our Facebook page.

Update: 02/26/2020. Shortly after writing about the importance of water in the climate change discussion, Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms had a couple related blog posts on the same topic. Joel’s blog links below:

• Water, not GHG, Joel Salatin, 02/25/2020
• Climate Change and Water, Joel Salatin, 02/26/2020

Measuring carbon in the atmosphere for the Northern Hemisphere is tracked by sensors (some developed by Lincoln Nebraska’s LI-COR Biosciences) at the Mauna Loa, Hawaii monitoring location. Atmospheric carbon data is updated on a regular basis and available for use by anyone. Unfortunately there is not an online network that continuously monitors soil carbon. In 2006 when carbon was becoming a “hot” topic, USDA-NRCS developed a Soil Carbon map of the world using various data sources:

Why monitor soil carbon?

Even before we brought cows to our pastures in 2011, folks were claiming cattle were “more damaging to the planet than CO2 from cars” (2006 article)! We actually felt a need to collect soil carbon data to defend our operation in the future.

The idea that raising beef in the image of nature as a contributor to greenhouse gases does not make sense when you think of the huge herds of bison that created the deep carbon rich soils of North American. The claim that cattle raised on pasture is an atmospheric carbon source has since been debunked by the 2019 Quantis-General Mills analysis of the White Oak Pastures beef operation in Georgia. Note: DS Family Farm utilizes the same pasture production principles that White Oak Pastures uses to raise beef except we do not slaughter on the farm.

The image below is slide 17 from the PDF Version of the Quantis Life Cycle report showing that “Net total emissions” of producing beef in natures image results in -3.5 Kg CO2-equivalent emitted per Kg of fresh meat produced. This means CO2 is sequestered when raising beef in natures image, again this just makes sense. So enjoy Pasture Grazed Beef for the flavor and for what it does to heal our planet!

Measuring soil carbon – methods

Back to the past. In 2011 we came across Peter Donovan’s “Soil Carbon Challenge”. His document “Measuring soil carbon change” was about the only step-by-step information we could find at the time to monitor soil carbon. Overall we were impressed with the protocol!

More recently others have entered the soil carbon measuring scene including:

• Point Blue Conservation Science
  • Scroll down to Rangeland Monitoring Network – Protocols.
• Regenerative Organic-Certified (ROC)
  • Current link to ROC Soil Sampling Guidelines (PDF)
• Savory – Ecological Outcome Verification (EOV)
  • Look for link to current version (Ver. 2.0 PDF)
  • Review section “LONG TERM ECOLOGICAL MONITORING”.
• To stay up with current Soil Health Monitoring protocols and policy keep tabs on the Soil Health Institute.

Suggestions to start soil carbon monitoring

After trying to monitor soil carbon over the past 8 years, we are happy to list some suggestions and steps below. Consider measuring the soil carbon on your own farm, garden or lawn. Following these steps with about $50 of new equipment, you will be setup to monitor soil carbon.

Before you begin, read the protocols:

• Select Your Soil Carbon Monitoring Site(s):
  • Review Peter Donovan’s document, Point Blue and Savory’s suggestions to identify site locations. Settle on a system that works for your operation, simple and repeatable.
• Sampling Depths:
  • Depends on how much work you want to put into it. We like the Savory depths of 0-4 in., 4-8 in., 8-12 in. and 40 inches (converted from metric system). This allows you to combine the top three samples for an average “top foot” analysis.
  • Want to start easy and give it a try? Just run through the entire process at the 0-4 inch depth.

Steps to determine soil carbon

#1 Download this modified Soil Bulk Density guide

This modified bulk density guide was used at the 2019 Nebraska Sustainable Ag conference. Teacher questions were removed and edits were made to clarify the calculations.

#2 In Field Bulk Density – each depth

Besides Savory EOV, most other soil carbon methods are based on determining Bulk Density at each sampling depth. Refer to pages 4 & 5 in the modified guide for the step by step procedure and watch the video below.

This is a fairly invasive sampling procedure. Imagine for each sampling depth you will need to excavate a soil pit to insert the 3″ diameter cylinder to collect a bulk density sample. Tip: at deeper depths, drive the cylinder in horizontally rather than the vertical method shown at the soil surface.

Key Equipment You May Need To Obtain:

• 3 inch diameter steel tube cut to 5 inches in length.
  • Any local auto parts store will have a straight 3″ diameter exhaust pipe that you can purchase for around $10. If you have a chop saw (or know someone that does) simply cut the pipe to 5″ length. Use a file to smooth rough edges.
• Digital Scale that will weigh 600+ grams to +- 0.1 gram.
  • Find on Amazon for around $15.

#3 Calculate Bulk Density

After completing the field work and office lab work of drying down the sub sample, use Table 2 page 6 in the modified guide to determine Soil Bulk Density in grams/cm3 for each depth sampled. Pages 7 & 8 helps you calculate Soil Water Content, Soil Porosity and Water-Filled pore space for each bulk density ring collected.

Note, at DS Family Farm we are going to further investigate the Savory EOV “Soil Equivalent Fixed Mass” method in place of Bulk Density in the future. Appears to be less invasive with similar results.

#4 Representative soil sample – each depth

Collect a “representative soil sample” by collecting 8 soil cores using a soil probe for each sampling depth. When you have 8 soil cores for each depth, mix the 8 cores together. Label the mixed soil cores by depth and send the soil samples to a lab of your choice that will give % Soil Organic Carbon using the Dry Combustion Method. We use Ward Labs in Kearney Nebraska and request “Organic Carbon”. This will cost around $10 per sample.

#5 Download this modified Organic Matter guide

This modified organic matter guide was used at the 2019 Nebraska Sustainable Ag conference. Teacher guided questions were removed, edits were made to clarify the calculation steps and Table 4 was added for % Organic Carbon samples.

This guide is really pretty cool. It allows one to make a number of estimates concerning Soil Carbon, Organic N, Organic P and Organic S utilizing bulk density (calculated in step 3 above) and any past soil sample that would have % Soil Organic Matter. Just complete Table 3 if you have % OM available to get the estimates.

#6 Calculate Metric Tons of Carbon and CO2 equivalent

Table 4 of the modified Organic Matter guide was added to utilize % Carbon from lab tests using the Dry Combustion Method. This is the same calculations used in the Peter Donovan document referenced above.

#7 Repeat in the future

Recommendations at this time is to repeat soil carbon monitoring every 3 years. A tip we liked in the Peter Donovan document was to keep a soil sample for future reference. For example, if you collect soil in 2020, collect enough soil to send some to the lab and store the other portion of the sample in a cool dry place. In the future, this stored sample could be used if new testing methods become available or as a check against lab results.

There you go. A longer than normal post but hopefully this information will give you the confidence needed to try soil carbon monitoring on your own property. We will share some of our results in a future post.

In a previous post we discussed soil organic matter and the storage of carbon in soil. The key point, plants in association with soil biology create a super highway moving carbon from the atmosphere into soil. This super highway is known as the liquid carbon pathway.

1. Plants convert sunlight into liquid carbon energy
2. Plants dump over half of this carbon energy into the soil
3. Soil biology feeding on this carbon provides:
   1. Water, nutrients, and an overall improved soil environment to plant roots… a symbiotic relationship.

The happening place

Plant roots is where it happens. When it comes to “what’s happening” in the soil, the place to be is in that magical zone near plant roots called the rhizosphere. Bacteria increase by 2400% and fungi increase 1200% in the area right around plant roots when compared to the rest of soil. Soil creatures hang out in the rhizosphere for what they see as a “free lunch” (carbon).

With large concentrations of bacteria and fungi around plant roots, it doesn’t take much imagination to realize that all kinds of creatures will soon follow. Bacteria and fungi are lunch for the rest of the soil food web.

Though we can’t see much of this vast community with the naked eye, we know it is based on carbon just like all food webs on earth. The potential to sink carbon into the soil is significant when the soil food web is healthy.

So how can we manage what we cannot see?

It’s actually very simple, manage what you can see! The above ground portion of plants are a mirror to their underground roots. We can literally manage the rhizosphere by managing what we see above ground. When it comes to soil health the basic principles (that apply everywhere) are:

1. Keep the soil covered
2. A living root year around
3. Plant species diversity
4. Minimize man induced soil disturbance (chemical/physical)

These principles were taken from nature. If soil becomes barren in nature, plants arrive to start the healing process (think of those pesky weeds growing in the crack of a sidewalk). Plants form a cover and attract below ground critters with liquid carbon from their roots. They also attract critters above the ground with carbon in the form of vegetation and flowers. It is really all driven by biology. HOW you manage above ground biology will determine below ground biology and how much carbon ends up in the soil.

Here at DS Family Farm we mimic natures pattern to manage soil carbon with the cattle herd. We manage the below ground food web by applying the soil health principles above ground.

As you look at the photo below, we can literally see insects, mice, coyotes and cattle swimming through the above ground vegetation. Now translate this to what is going on below ground. It is not hard to imagine herds of bacteria, protozoa, nematodes and earthworms swimming around below ground roots.

Join us in the regenerative ag carbon cycle

With current elevated levels of carbon in the atmosphere, now is a great time to be a carbon farmer. We are using free sunlight energy and moving carbon from the atmosphere into plants. The plants are moving the carbon into critters above and below ground. Our customers are enjoying this carbon in the form of Pasture Grazed Beef.

Please join us and other regenerative agriculture practitioners in being an active, positive force in the carbon cycle. Your taste buds and your health will be glad you did.

For a more in depth discussion on this topic refer to ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture “Nutrient Cycling in Pastures” (24 page PDF).

Soil organic matter makes up a small part of all soils. In this area of Nebraska, cropland fields will average around 3% organic matter. SOM is a small but powerful part of any soil. SOM can be thought of as the Soil Bank where carbon and other organic compounds are processed and stored below our feet. Remember that carbon is always cycling, moving from air to vegetation, to soil, to rivers, back and forth, always in flux. In the soil bank, we find fast moving carbon along with carbon that will be locked away for a very long time.

The pie chart above represents the organic matter portion (3%) of a typical soil. This chart indicates that about 15% of the carbon and other organic compounds in a soil will be quickly moving through living organisms and fresh residue (just as money flows quickly between bank tellers and individual checking accounts). Around 40% of SOM at any one time will be decomposing. During decomposition, organic materials will be part of the soil for a little longer period of time, maybe 1 to 10 years depending on climate.

100+ Years of Cropping

Actually, I think it is fairly amazing that our cropland fields in this area still contain 3% organic matter after 100+ years of cropping. In fact it is rare to find a field below 2% OM in this area. The reason for this is that the humus fraction (40% of SOM) is so stable that it is very hard to remove this portion of OM even under repeated tillage. It is locked tightly with soil minerals.

The humus/stable portion of SOM represent the ultimate goal for all soil health enthusiasts. Folks wanting to build healthy soils are implementing principles to move and lock as much organic material and carbon as possible into the stable humus fraction of SOM. Luckily, using proper regenerative farming techniques we can quickly build the fresh and active portions of OM. These quick gains help farmers see benefits in nutrient cycling and water holding capacity in a few short growing seasons.

So how do we build SOM?

Traditionally we thought keeping soils covered with residue and mulches was the main option to increase the organic matter level of soils. Referring back to our pie chart, crop residues would move in the following order through the Soil Bank:

1. Bank Tellers (soil organisms)
2. Checking Account (fresh OM)
3. Savings Account (decomposing OM)
4. Retirement Account (stabilized OM)

Actually this process is very inefficient or leaky along each step. The following graphic adapted from “The Nature and Properties of Soils” by Brady & Weil, gives an example of growing a corn crop. The corn crop produces a total of 7,500 lbs of organic matter per acre. Obviously we take off the grain immediately losing a third of the produced OM. We are left with 2,500 lbs. of OM in the above ground corn stalks and 2,500 lbs. of OM in the roots.

As the graphic indicates, almost 90 percent of the above ground residue never makes it into soil organic matter. It is digested, respired and oxidized before making it into SOM. Since the roots are buried in the soils, the conversion rate is a little better with only 70% of the produced biomass lost before reaching the soil organic matter pool.

When you run the numbers, it get’s a little depressing. To build soil organic matter from 3% to 4%, (a 1% increase) you would need to add 20,000 pounds of residue! Under optimum conditions this would take years.

Reports of significant SOM gains in short order

So how do regenerative farmers such as Gabe Brown report multiple percent increases in SOM over just a few years? Dr. Christine Jones, founder of Amazing Carbon, says this is possible through what she calls the liquid carbon pathway. Carbon is rapidly moved in liquid form via plant roots in association with fungi and locked away into the humus/stable portion of SOM.

Once again referring back to our pie chart of SOM, the liquid carbon pathway skips the leaky Checking Account and Savings Account steps. Soil organisms (mycorrhizal fungi in association with roots and mineral soil) move organic material directly into stable SOM compounds! In this process new soil healthy soil aggregates are formed.

Trees turn CO2 into wood. Soils turn CO2 into humus.

Christine Jones

Why does this just work in regenerative Ag?

The missing link with most of our agriculture lands is the required soil biology. As previously reported, most of the U.S. and World soils are currently degraded. The liquid carbon pathway first requires regenerating our soils with fungi. Most cropland is currently bacteria dominant, refer to the ecological succession image below.

The goal of regenerative agriculture is to get degraded (bacteria dominant) soils to the most ecologically productive part of the ecological succession chart. In our part of the world, that is at the edge of perennial grasses and forest. This is where we see wildlife flourish, at the edge. These soils have a near balance of fungi to bacteria ratio.

This requires building a home for soil fungi with the proper plants to advance succession from bacteria dominance. In addition fungi find it difficult to survive under annual tillage and inorganic fertilizer applications. Reducing soil disturbance and detrimental chemical applications is a key step in the process. Note that for areas where trees have taken over, management needs to be applied to set succession back!

At DS Family Farm we utilize the cattle herd to manage ecological succession. Currently we are building plant root and soil fungi associations with a long term goal of getting and keeping our pastures near the “Sweet Spot” of succession. We do have the challenge in some areas of keeping woody species from advancing into our perennial grass pastures.

We thank God that the overall system He put in place is very forgiving and even provides for an abundance while we begin the regeneration process. An abundance that we can share with others in the form of pasture grazed meat. Call or stop by to see the herd in motion and the steps we are taking to closer reach our goals in ecological succession.