----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 5:34
PM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Fwd: Organic Farming
Tops in Soil-Building
Ron, I really
wonder whether the findings would be the same in a region where the climate
and crop grown are markedly different than at Beltsville. For example,
small grains grown under a summer fallow rotation. -- Sam Brungardt, St. Paul,
Minn.
Slightly off topic, but still applicable to orchards in some ways.
Begin forwarded message:
From: ARS News Service
<NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Date: July 10, 2007 6:57:35 AM PDT
To: ARS News subscriber
<lonrom@hevanet.com>
Subject: Organic Farming Tops in
Soil-Building
Reply-To: ARS News Service
<NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
STORY LEAD:
Organic Farming Beats No-Till?
___________________________________________
ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Don Comis, (301) 504-1625, donald.comis@ars.usda.gov
July 10, 2007
--View this report online, plus photos and related stories, at
www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr
___________________________________________
Organic farming can build up soil organic matter better than conventional
no-till farming can, according to a long-term study by Agricultural Research
Service (ARS) scientists.
Researchers made this discovery during a nine-year study at the Henry A.
Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC), Beltsville, Md. BARC
is operated by ARS, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific
research agency.
Plant physiologist John Teasdale, with the ARS Sustainable Agricultural
Systems Laboratory in Beltsville, was surprised to find that organic farming
was a better soil builder than no-till. No-till has always been thought to be
the best soil builder because it eliminates plowing and minimizes even light
tillage to avoid damaging organic matter and exposing the soil to erosion.
Organic farming, despite its emphasis on building organic matter, was
thought to actually endanger soil because it relies on tillage and
cultivation--instead of herbicides--to kill weeds.
But Teasdale's study showed that organic farming's addition of organic
matter in manure and cover crops more than offset losses from tillage.
From 1994 to 2002, Teasdale compared light-tillage organic corn,
soybean and wheat with the same crops grown with no-till plus pesticides and
synthetic fertilizers.
In a follow-up three-year study, Teasdale grew corn with no-till
practices on all plots to see which ones had the most-productive soils. He
found that the organic plots had more carbon and nitrogen and yielded 18
percent more corn than the other plots did.
Read more about the research in the July 2007 issue of Agricultural
Research magazine, available online at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul07/soil0707.htm
___________________________________________
This is one of the news reports that ARS Information distributes to
subscribers on weekdays. Send feedback and questions to the ARS News Service
at NewsService@ars.usda.gov.
* To change the address, please notify the ARS News Service at
NewsService@ars.usda.gov.
* To unsubscribe, send a blank email to
leave-129030-22236Y@ls.ars.usda.gov.
* Other ARS news products are available by e-mail. For details about them
or to subscribe, please contact the ARS News Service or visit
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/lists.htm.
__________________________________________
ARS News Service, Information Staff, Agricultural Research Service
5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2251, Beltsville MD 20705-5128
NewsService@ars.usda.gov | www.ars.usda.gov/news
Phone (301) 504-1638 | fax (301) 504-1486
_______________________________________________
nafex mailing list
nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Reproduction of list messages or archives
is not allowed.
This includes distribution on other email lists or
reproduction on web sites.
Permission to reproduce is NEVER granted, so
don't claim you have permission!
**YOU MUST BE SUBSCRIBED TO
POST!**
Posts from email addresses that are not subscribed are
discarded.
No exceptions.
----
To subscribe or unsubscribe, go
to the bottom of this page (also can be used to change other email
options):
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex
File
attachments are NOT stripped by this list.
TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF
FROM COMPUTER VIRUSES!
Please do not send binary files.
Use plain text
ONLY in emails!
NAFEX web site:
http://www.nafex.org/