Soil health at Chatfield Farms

Farmers do everything. ey are mechanics, botanists, naturalists, athletes and some even believe themselves to be meteorologists. In the age of the regenerative agriculture movement, farmers need to become biologists, or more specically, soil ecologists.

Soil ecology is the study of the seemingly limitless universe beneath our feet. In just a teaspoon of healthy soil, there are over one billion bacterial individuals and more than six miles of fungal mycelium. It would take seven years to recite the names of all the bacterial species in a compost pile. How do the trillions of soil microbes inter-

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GUEST COLUMN

Rutger Meyers

act? It’s likely we’ll never truly know. A broad understanding of the soil ecosystem, however, can change a farmer’s mindset.

e most productive soil in the world from an old growth forest contains far less plant-available nutrients than are recommended for agricultural soil. How could ‘nutrient-de cient’ soil — teeming with soil microbes — produce the largest plants on the planet?

Nutrients are released when microscopic predators consume bacteria. Nematodes, protozoa and microscopic insects ‘poop’ out nutrients that plants

LINDA SHAPLEY Publisher lshapley@coloradocommunitymedia.com

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RYLEE DUNN Community Editor rdunn@coloradocommunitymedia.com are able to consume. Plant roots absorb those nutrients through a web of fungi. Fungal networks expand the reach of roots and create highways inside root hairs. As satis ed plants then release ‘exudates,’ which attract more bacteria and fungi, the cycle continues. Without these characters to play their parts, soil turns into lifeless dirt.

Conventional soil management has disrupted the soil ecosystem. Without microscopic predators, bacteria or fungi to assist plant roots, farmers are forced to overfeed plants with fertilizers. e excess nutrients that aren’t washed away are consumed by a monoculture of bacteria, reproduc-

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LINDSAY NICOLETTI Operations/ Circulation Manager lnicoletti@coloradocommunitymedia.com ing rapidly and unchecked by predators. Without predators to consume bacteria, the soil ecosystem becomes unbalanced. e resulting population of disease-causing bacteria release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Realistically, not all farmers have the time to study microscopy. rough the eyes of a microscope, a farmer can witness the soil ecosystem in action, but studying soil ecology doesn’t require a microscope. Diversity in critters — worms, ladybugs, roly-polies, etc. — is an indication of a balanced biology.

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