Soil Health: The Primers
As part of a collaborative effort to raise awareness on the importance of soil health, the Colorado Department of Agriculture, Colorado State University, and Acres USA have developed a series on soil health and Colorado's STAR program.
Read about all of the Soil Health Primers at https:// www.acresusa.com/colorado-soil- health/.
Primer 1: Basics
The goal of the first installment in the Colorado Soil Health Primer series is to demonstrate the core principles related to soil health management as practiced and researched within the boundaries of the State of Colorado.
Primer 2: Drought Mitigation
This primer is focused on Drought Management and Soil Health, and will share strategies to build soil carbon and biology that can help producers better manage their operations in an era of increased stresses on water availability and quality.
Primer 3: Cover Cropping
In this primer, readers will learn about how cover crops can improve soil health when managed correctly, how some Colorado farmers are using cover crops, and what benefits they are seeing in their operations.
Primer 4: Beyond N-P-K
The Colorado Saving Tomorrow’s Agriculture Resources (STAR) program encourages farmers and ranchers to think differently about their soil fertility and health, and to think beyond nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus and the N-P-K input systems.
Primer 5: Soil Biology & Fungal Networks
In this primer, readers will learn why it’s important to understand soil biology and discover strategies to enhance the biology of the soil of their operation.
Primer 6: Tillage / No-Tillage
This primer is about the benefits and challenges associated with implementing reduced tillage strategies.
Many Colorado growers and land managers have adopted no-till practices in order to decrease soil erosion, fuel usage, and labor costs while simultaneously increasing soil moisture retention, soil carbon, soil organic matter, and farm profit.
Primer 7: Insect & Weed Protection
This primer is about how to think about agronomic weeds and pests from a soil health perspective.
Primer 8: Livestock Integration
This Primer is about incorporating animals into your operation to improve soil health while adding to farm profits. Livestock are a soil health tool that, when properly managed, can amplify carbon and nutrient cycling and can result in healthier pastures, reduced soil nutrient losses, mitigated weed pressure, livestock waste reduction and an overall improvement in animal health.
Primer 9: Grasses, Pastures & Forages
This primer is about how overgrazed and eroded pastures can come back to life by implementing soil health principles. Healthy pastures support more than farms and ranches. They improve the food production industry as a whole — combating soil erosion, recovering water quality, mitigating drought, and reviving wildlife habitat.
Primer 10: Commodity Crops
This primer is focused on the production of commodity crops. Though commodity crops are second to livestock in dollar value of gross sales, they represent a significant share of the agricultural economy in Colorado.
Primer 11: Perennial Plants
This primer showcases permanent crops, also known as perennial crops (perennial plants), which have unique growing systems that generally focus on goals multiple years out.
Primer 12: Market Signals
This primer is about market signals and how Colorado farmers can look forward to achieving better economic returns when they adopt regenerative practices.