Six Steps to Planning a Dinner Party Cont'd - The Menu
Soil Fertility
This is the last part in the Six Steps to Planning a Dinner Party. I referred to it in earlier posts as The Menu. Well, this is the last part I'm going to talk about. Step six is to harvest, plant, and repeat. I also went out on a limb and recorded a video for this week. At the end of the post, I include the talking points I used to make the video. There is a lot of eye rolling, I look like I'm in a fishbowl and on drugs, and it lasts a whopping 29:45! At the 17:36 mark, I should have said biology instead of chemistry. But hey, it's my first time!
What is soil fertility? It is managing or balancing soil nutrients to improve crop production
1. Agronomy is the management of soil and the crop you are growing in it. Its taking science and making it practical for the farmer to achieve fertile soil
2. How you do it is based on the farmers' goals, management decisions, and limitations
Points to consider
1. No farm – Soil or farmer is the same
2. No one management style or decision is all-encompassing or is the end all be all
3. One agronomist’s definition of a fertile soil and how to achieve it may be entirely different from another’s – It has to be based on the farmers' goals
Three points to consider when planning the menu
1. Finances
2. Your limitations/resources
3. What are your goals
My thoughts on a soil fertility program
1. Spoke at length in Week 23 about what an agronomist should be asking about
2. A program needs to be built based on the soils inherent properties, not the latest and greatest
3. pH is the last thing I look at but the first thing I take into consideration
4. A sound fertility program starts before the first crop goes in and ends when your done farming
5. It is not complicated, or at least it shouldn’t be.
6. No, I don’t write or talk at any more length then generalities because I wrote a free eBook and several posts about specific amendments. But most of all point 1 of points to consider
7. There’s nothing new – Trust me I’m looking every day
8. I will answer calls and emails all day long about yours, ask my family
Most important it all goes back to week 2 and the triangles