{"id":60762,"date":"2021-12-03T09:02:20","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T14:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=60762"},"modified":"2021-12-03T09:04:05","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T14:04:05","slug":"how-healthy-is-your-soil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=60762","title":{"rendered":"How healthy is your soil?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Earthworm\"<\/div>\n
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How healthy is your soil?<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n

In celebration of World Soil Day, December 5, 2021, we want to help farmers around the world to better understand their soil.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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Our soils are an incredible resource \u2013 they have a remarkable ability to clean water and help mitigate climate change, they support biodiversity and are the reason we can grow nourishing food. However, the ability of soil to deliver these benefits has been compromised by widespread intensive farming \u2013 so much so it\u2019s been estimated\u00a0we have only 50 harvests left<\/span><\/a>\u00a0until our topsoil is degraded beyond repair. But not all is lost. Every day, farmers are transitioning to more sustainable farming practices which can not only prevent further deterioration of the land but can regenerate it too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But where do you start? You can\u2019t manage what you don\u2019t measure \u2013 a clear indication of the health of your soil can help show you where to go next and illustrate the effectiveness of new management practices. Here are three simple soil tests from the\u00a0Global Farm Metric<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that you can do to understand, manage and protect the health of your soil and the vital services it provides.<\/p>\n

These tests indicate the state of your soils in terms of structure, the amount of organic matter and biodiversity. You can do this in your garden, allotment or farm.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On farm scale, choose three fields that are representative of your land (e.g. with different soil types or different enterprises such as arable or permanent pasture). Follow the sampling protocols \u2013 time of year and weather (e.g. after heavy rainfall or frost) can sometimes affect your results, so tests are best done throughout the year, when soil is moist and not waterlogged or frozen. Let\u2019s get digging!<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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How healthy is your soil? In celebration of World Soil Day, December 5, 2021, we want to help farmers around the world to better understand their soil. Our soils are an incredible resource \u2013 they have a remarkable ability to clean water and help mitigate climate change, they support biodiversity and are the reason we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[1912,346,32247,1091,1536,4061,6867],"class_list":["post-60762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-food-production","tag-gardening","tag-may-wheeler","tag-soil","tag-soil-fertility","tag-soil-health","tag-sustainable-food-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60762"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60765,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60762\/revisions\/60765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}