Keys to making soil healthy for profitable farming By Martha Blum
AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS
CHICAGO — Healthy soil is key to profitable farming. “Soil health is the capacity for soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals and humans,” said Jeff Martin, owner and operator of Martin Family Farms, who farms with his wife, Jean, and their sons, Doug and Derek, near Mount Pulaski, Illinois. “If we have a healthy soil with all the minerals to produce a healthy plant, then those minerals in the plant go into the food chain, which helps us become more healthy,” said Martin during a webinar organized by The Chicago Farmers. “The single largest issue with consistent farm profits is that we have the wrong expectations of our soils that if See SOIL, Page 17
Soil health, itself, is difficult to measure, but the achievement of specific goals can be researched and monitored.
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16 – Winter 2021
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