Biological Farming
What is Biological Farming?
Really simply – farming in nature's image. We do not know how to make photosynthesis work and nor do chemical or fertilizer companies. If we provide plants with the ingredients they need to grow without restriction, they will do so. If they were supposed to be fed with artificial inputs such as nitrate and fungicide, evolution would have catered for it.
To accept the paradigm of artificial inputs should mean that plants cannot grow without them. The trees seem to manage, so this section examines how you can do the same on your farm.
Not enough climate observers are familiar with the concept that soil, in a Biological farmed system, can be the answer to our accumulating climate crisis.
Dods of Haddington have, for years, taken an active role in regenerating the function of soils around Scotland and the UK which is the baseline of biological farming. Changing to a biological farming system must be gradual but the result is crop growth that does not require fungicides, insecticides and reduces fertiliser requirement. That makes farming more profitable.
There are many ways you can start a conversion to biologically produced crops. As each farm differs in geography and enterprise, there must be flexibility on how this is achieved. Trying something new is always daunting, but this system has been tried and tested in many parts of the world over many years and is the obligation on which agriculture support programs will soon be based. If you want to make more money from farming, it is time invest in your soil.
If you are interested in this we can help you in a conversion using our knowledge, tailored cover crops and nutrient products. Please call the office to discuss.
The Carbon Cycle
Soil function ultimately means to retain carbon in the soil because it has a critical role in many different processes. These parameters make plants grow more efficiently and reduce the need for costly additives.
- Carbon can hold onto many things which is why it is in the filters of tractor cabs. This means a carbon rich soil can naturally hold onto an increased quantity of plant available nutrients
- Carbon can hold onto plant available water even in a drought.
- A carbon rich soil is the habitat for the billions of micro biological species in every tea spoon of soil, as well as those that we can see. These are necessary to feed your crops.
- Soil is far more than just a medium in which to keep crops standing. It is a living, breathing ecosystem containing trillions of microbes, without which your farm does not function.
- Carbon is mentioned is various forms: Organic matter, humus, compost, dung, detritus humic acids, fulvic acids etc. Don’t be deterred by terminology. For ease, let’s just say carbon for now.
There are 2 processes within the carbon cycle that you must nurture:
- Photosynthesis
- Decomposition
The role of plants is to photosynthesize; carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and soil, added to water, with sunlight to energize the process, makes sugars. Some of these we eventually harvest or use to feed livestock; the remainder is leaked through the roots to feed the soil food web of microbes. This root sugar is known as an exudate. In return for this gift, the various forms of microbes deliver the combinations of nutrients a plant needs to generate proteins and other plant building blocks.
It is that simple. It is what happens underneath the hedge or how a tree functions. It has been happening for around 450 million years.
Decomposition is the recycling of the afore mentioned nutrients accumulated by photosynthesis. That includes animals too, as they were originally fed on plants.
This requires microbes and a healthy soil to maximise the turnaround for the next crop. A biological farmer will exclude anything that unsettles this process but can inoculate the soil with decomposers that can help. More is discussed below.
Climate Responsibilities
Not enough climate observers are familiar with the concept that soil, in a biological farmed system, can be the answer to our accumulating climate crisis. This is because some of the main Greenhouse gasses; CO2, Nitrous Oxide, Methane and Water Vapour, are all major plant growth stimulants if they are retained in the soil for plant use. They occur in the soil as the products of continuous decomposition which occurs throughout the year. Unfortunately, when soil is left bare, these gases leak upwards from the soil and pollute the atmosphere.
When previous crop residues (proteins, starches etc) are decomposed, they are broken down to their smallest carbon chains. The shortest base unit of these is carbon dioxide. As a gas it travels upwards and out of the soil into the atmosphere. This is where a cover crop is so important. The plants capture the CO2 through the stomatal pores on the underside of the leaf and by the process of photosynthesis, makes it into sugar (a new long carbon chain) and exudes almost half of the sugar back into the soil to feed certain microbes. The first recipient of this liquid carbon is a fungus that colonizes the roots called mycorrhiza.
Left: Picture of ‘root dreadlocks’ on cover crop roots. Right: mycorrhiza fungi on cereal plant
- Mycorrhiza increase access to nutrients by up 1000%
- They can scavenge nutrients and water in soil particle cracks which root hairs are simply too large to do
- They excrete a sticky substance called glomalin which creates crumb structure. We see this as ‘dreadlocks’ on plant roots. Glomalin can remain stable for decades.
- They excrete weal acids to break the bonds of tied up phosphorus and calcium and deliver them both into the plant
- A mycorrhiza colonized root toughens its cortex making it less disease susceptible e.g Take – All and pathogenic nematodes
The mycorrhizal fungal network is however rather fragile and does not appreciate aggressive tillage, use of high salt index fertiliser, nematicides or soil applied fungicides.
As all fertilisers are salts, these additions do not suit microbe welfare or indeed root hair health. This is because salts have an osmotic gradient so will absorb water away from roots and microbes in the same way salt is handy for a red wine carpet spillage! Bacteria are needed to convert the salt fertilizer into a form the plant can readily absorb. By not desiccating roots and microbes, in time, means more soil retained carbon for nutrient holding capacity. In turn this means less need for additional fertiliser (salt) and a happier microbial community that can feed your crops. Best of all, it is cheaper due to reduced inputs.
When we till the soil, we break up these fragile environments and introduce too much oxygen causing an excessive rate of decomposition. The carbon chains that make up proteins and sugars degenerate too quickly for the plants to absorb the volume of escaping carbon dioxide gas. Equally, but using heavy machinery we create compaction meaning these microbes cannot breathe or expel their waste. The result is the death of the microbes and a loss of soil function.
Why has the current system stalled?
- We have reached a critical low in soil carbon. Below 2% soil organic matter, there is not enough free carbon for the microbes to create their organic bodies and the system dies. All systems of feeding crops and expelling toxins require organic carbon as the soil’s backbone. As carbon has increasingly disappeared into the atmosphere, the natural processes on which we rely have been compromised.
- In the last 70 years, we have tried to hurry the system of plant growth, using fossil fuel derivatives such as fungicides, insecticides and fertiliser to solve every problem from a bottle or a bag. Back when the soil had very high in organic matter, these toxins could be absorbed and chelated by carbon, so had very little negative legacy. Since we have killed almost 90% of the microbial community, the system has now lost its ability to grab and hold such toxins or function without artificial inputs.
- Think of the soil like the digestive ruminant system of livestock, as the bedrock of your livestock’s health. Soil is the most valuable asset on any farm and it should be nurtured to allow the natural processes to express themselves, to maximize production and profit. An analogy of the current system would be you living on constant antibiotics.
How does a Biological System Differ?
- In a biologically active soil, microbes deliver a complete diet to plants and these are used to synthesize complete proteins. Plants made from complete proteins can defend themselves and do not get disease. Fed on incomplete ‘fast food’, they do not.
- All pathogens have a predator or something to compete with it for shared resources. When we reduce the soil to ground zero with nematicides or salts, the first thing to recover are the pathogens, which are in fact, decomposers. Any disease is simply nature’s way of saying: ”this is not working, wrap it up and start again".
Where should you begin?
There is a different starting point for everyone:
- What enterprises are you running?
- Geography
- What machinery do you have?
- What interests you?
- The list can be as long or short as you identify changes needed
- If you call the office we can identify a strong starting position for your business
- Don’t guess what nutrition your soil holds
- An Albrecht Analysis informs you of certain ratios that are key to biological growth
- Know the 16 essential nutrients for plant growth and the best form of inclusion
