Water Quality Benefits from Soil Health

By James Hoorman, Hoorman Soil Health Services

Dr. Vinayak Shedekar, Ohio State Drainage Specialist recently shared information on water quality. Dr Shedekar showed improved soil health, cover crops, and no-till had both direct and indirect effects on water quality. A direct effect is increased soil organic matter (SOM) over time. The gain is slow, but on long term research plots, no-till plus cover crops increased SOM from 2.3% (conventional tillage for 75-100 years) transitioned to no-till and cover crops with 4.3% SOM after multiple years.

The research question was: Does no-till and cover crops improve water quality? Dr. Kevin King has 41 paired water quality sites with over 200 years of site data. He measures both surface flow and subsurface (tile) flow on these paired plots, comparing conventional tillage to no-till fields. Tile discharge was similar however less nitrogen (N) leaves the no-till fields and on soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), there was no difference.… Continue reading