TNACD

John Britt

Number Fifty Profiles of Soil Health Heroes is Making a Difference in Soil Health in Obion County, Tennessee
by Mike Hubbs, TACD Soil Health Specialist

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In 2013, Tennessee NRCS and the Tennessee Association of Conservation Districts (TACD) focused on soil health. In 2014, I was fortunate to be hired by TACD to disseminate soil health information to farmers, partners and NRCS. One way that I decided to achieve my objective was to identify farmers with significant achievements in soil IMG 4637new IMG 4655new health. Approximately four years ago, I began a series of articles to identify Tennessee farmers for their soil health achievements, Profiles of Soil Health Heroes. During my writing of the first article, I was not sure where these were going. Since then we have completed 49 articles. This article sets a milestone as the 50^th Profiles of Soil Health Heroes.

I want to introduce Number 50 of Profiles of Soil Health Heroes. John Britt farms in Obion County, Tennessee. I met with John Britt along with Josh Richardson, District Conservationist, Union City, Tennessee on December 5, 2018. Most of the farms that John farms are on State Line road between Tennessee and Kentucky. He shared with me that he has farmed his entire life. John is a fourth-generation farmer. John's father passed away in 2002, and he became the main operator. His grandfather no-tilled in the 1970s. So, John not only grew up in a farming-family; he grew up being conservation-minded.

John is a one-man show on his operation1,400 acres. He produces corn, wheat, and soybeans. Wheat acreage is market driven. He grows a variety of group type soybeans to manage time. He grows 3.6s to 3.9s and then later plants 4.6s to 4.9s. This diversity of group type soybeans helps him spreads the time out for harvest of soybeans and corn. Also, John often focuses on earlier maturing soybeans to assure seeding of winter cover crops by October 15.

Interpretation of Haney and PLFA Analysis

Soil Health Concepts Leading to On-Farm Prescription, Interpretation of the Haney Soil Health Tool and Phospholipid and Fatty Acid Analysis (PLFA)

As I previously discussed in the two previous articles on "Concepts to On-farm Prescription" articles, farmers need to add active carbon into their farming operation. Active carbon is produced by having a plant growing or present 365 and 24/7. That is, we need to have green plants present to intercept sun energy (photosynthesis) to transfer that sun energy to carbon in the form of sugars. These sugars are then translocated throughout the plant that ultimately leaks from the roots. These sugars are then consumed by soil biology. As carbon increases, soil biology increases. I also discussed in the last article that you need to protect carbon increases by minimizing disturbances such as tillage. Also, we need to leave the soil covered. All of these principles protect the food sources and habitat protected. Another principle of soil health is to add diversity. The additional diversity adds quantity and quality of soil biology. The last soil health principle is integrating livestock which brings manure, urine, and saliva to the crop field. These low carbon-nitrogen ratios additions also provide a short-term explosion of soil biology.

The foundation of improving soil health is to increase and protect carbon inputs while the soil biology consumes the active carbon and aggregates soil and cycles nutrients. Many farmers who practice the soil health principles see anecdotal benefits. I want to discuss in this article the interpretation of Soil Health Tool known as the Haney Test developed by Rick Haney, USDA-ARS and a biological soil health test known as Phospholipid and Fatty Acid Analysis (PLFA). I will hit the highlights of these two soil tests. I encourage readers to check out both tests on-line by typing the name of these tests to find out the steps of taking the tests and how they are performed in the lab. I concentrate on the highlights of some of the components and provide a practical discussion on how to interpret the tests.

TNACD

John Britt

Interpretation of Haney and PLFA Analysis

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