Resources to maximize soil health on farms in Sonoma, Napa, and Mendocino Counties
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In this edition:
- Grower Profile: Accelerating Soil Health Profiles
- Scientist Profile: Amelie Gaudin, UC Davis
- From the Field: The Hub's vineyard soil sampling report
- Best practices: Conservation Burning and Biochar
- CDFA Healthy Soils Program workshops
- Carbon-focused farm planning assistance available
- Vineyard Soil Health Symposium, March 13
- Soil Health and Vineyard Floor Management Workshop, April 1
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Natural Resources Conservation Service Chief Matthew Lohr says, “Healthy soil is the foundation to successful farming... these case studies provide concrete evidence that soil health management systems can lead to economic benefits for the producer.”
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Amelie Gaudin, Assistant Professor, Department of Plant Sciences, UC Davis:
An Interview with Miguel Garcia, Sustainable Agriculture Project Manager, Napa County RCD
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Q) What was your motivation to join the North Coast Soil Health Hub Science Advisory Committee?
A) There is significant interest across the state to build up soil health as a mean to mitigate and adapt to climate change while meeting sustainability goals. The North Coast Soil Health Hub is collecting a large amount of data which will be critical to re-value soils and better understand the implications of healthy soil practices for water and nutrient cycling and retention. I joined this effort to support producers and their advisers in capturing the benefits of soil health and better understand how to successfully implement soil health building practices. The large dataset being collected will also advance our scientific understanding of soil functions across contexts and spatio-temporal scales, which is a current knowledge gap we should address to provide new science-based leverages for adoption.
Q) In your opinion, what is the role that the North Coast Soil Health Hub is currently playing in the region and what its future role should be?
A) This hub provides a space for discussing and helping harness soil health for sustainable production. This hub is a well-organized, interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder initiative, which is pivotal to promote adoption of sustainable practices and engage farmers with research. The combination of farmer-to-farmer network, demonstration sites and survey and outreach effort is especially powerful and is already playing a large role in better appreciating the potential benefits of soil health and management implications in the region. Soil health building and data mining takes time, and a sustained effort is needed; I hope the Hub's mission will continue so we can fully realize the potential of healthy soils in the region, especially in a changing production context.
Q) In your opinion, how important is it to promote agriculture practices that benefit soil health?
A) Very! It is a paradigm shift in how we conceptualize and manage our agricultural systems. There is no doubt that climate change will shape a different agriculture across our landscape and adaptation needs are high. Promoting agricultural practices that benefit soils can help build a sustainable and resilient agriculture better equipped to maintain California as a top food and fiber commodity producer.
Q) What would you say is the most important role of the Science Advisory Committee in the North Coast Soil Health Hub?
A) A lot of data is being collected in farmers' field and demonstration platforms and trials. A major role the Science Advisory Committee is/will be to guide data mining in order to better understand 1) how soils function, 2) provide tangible evidence of the timing and magnitude of benefits for growers and the environment and 3) identify potential management trade-offs to guide optimization.
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The Hub's Vineyard Soil Sampling Report
By Miguel Garcia, Napa County RCD
RCDs in the north coast of California are developing a comprehensive database to determine the impacts of various practices on soil health. So far, we have collected 443 soil samples from approximately 50 different vineyards and we expect to collect an additional 100 samples in 2020. All soil samples are sent to the Central Analytical Laboratory at Oregon State University. Scientists at the lab test the soil for various physical, chemical, and biological soil health indicators.
Analysis conducted include texture, aggregate stability, available water holding capacity, pH, electric conductivity, nutrients (N, P, K, Ca, Mg), electric conductivity, cation exchange capacity, total carbon, active carbon, soil respiration, water infiltration, and compaction. We look forward to sharing results from our sampling efforts next year!
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Soil Health Best Practice Highlight
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What To Do With Trimmings? Conservation Burning and Biochar
By Ashley Kvitek and Miguel Garcia, Napa RCD
Napa RCD’s Conservation Burning Workshop on February 7
left attendees with much to consider about how to dispose of old vines. Our speakers went over not just the correct techniques of how to properly burn a pile to get the best quality biochar, they also spent time talking about why biochar is an important practice in comparison to traditional burning and even chipping. Although not for everyone and not for every vineyard,
burning piles to create biochar can be a cost-effective way to dispose of old vines, sequester carbon back into the soil, increase soil health overall, and reduce the pollution impacts of traditional burning
.
One important benefit of biochar is its ability to hold things.
Biochar can hold 5-10x its weight in water
while still allowing that water to remain available to the plants around it. If you have sandy soil, mixing biochar into it will help to retain some of the water, keeping it near the plants for their use. Not only does it hold water well, it also attracts nutrients to its surface. When mixed with compost, biochar can hold on to all those good nutrients, releasing them slowly into your soils.
The best part?
Biochar is a one-and-done activity
. It isn’t a process that must be replicated year after year to reap the benefits; burn the vines into biochar, inoculate it with compost or soil, apply it, and you’re done until you replace your vines again, 20 years from now. For more information on conservation burns and biochar see the
Sonoma Biochar Initiative's website
.
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CDFA Healthy Soils Program Workshops
By Katy Brantley, Mendocino County RCD
The CDFA Healthy Soils Program (HSP) Incentives Program provides financial assistance to growers and ranchers across California to implement almost 30 climate beneficial conservation management practices that sequester carbon, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve soil health. The maximum grant award amount will be
$100,000
, and CDFA hopes to better fund the full cost of project implementation this round. The application period opened the week of
February 24th
with a rolling application period until June. Check out pages 6-7
for
the list of eligible practices
, and look for the
application here
.
Mendocino County RCD will be hosting multiple workshops in Mendocino and Lake Counties during the application period. Workshop dates:
- March 12th
- March 17th
- March 19th
- April 2nd
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The Wildlife Conservation Board Announces $1.4 Million in Funding for Carbon Farming
Last June, the Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) voted unanimously to approve $1.4 million for on-farm projects that use conservation practices to sequester atmospheric carbon and combat climate change. Ten (10) RCDs, including Napa County, Gold Ridge, Sonoma and Mendocino County RCDs, and the Carbon Cycle Institute will create at least 38 conservation and carbon farm plans with producers, and WCB’s funding will enable them to implement the plans and put carbon back into the soil.
Interested in developing a carbon farm plan for your vineyard? Read more about
our
Carbon Farming program page
. Get in touch with your area's RCD office and request assistance.
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3rd Annual Vineyard Soil Health Symposium
March 13, 9am-12pm, Sonoma County Farm Bureau
By Keith Ables, Sonoma RCD
This year’s focus is on vineyard tillage management. We’re excited to host Dr. Patty Skinkis, Professor & Viticulture Extension Specialist at Oregon State University, as our featured speaker. Her presentation will cover results from a long-term vineyard floor management research trial conducted in a commercial vineyard. No till, alternate row tilling, and clean cultivated alleys were compared over a nine-year period and monitored for soil moisture, plant water stress, vine growth, and yield. The RCD will also share findings from its three-year vineyard tillage trial in Kenwood. More program details to follow.
This event fills quickly each year. Register to join the wait list, or
contact the Soil Hub
to let us know you'd like to see another symposium scheduled soon.
The event is hosted by the Sonoma and Gold Ridge Resource Conservation Districts and the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission.
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Soil Health and Vineyard Floor Management Workshop
April 1, 9am-11:30am, Ferrington Vineyard and Pennyroyal Farm
By Katy Brantley, Mendocino County RCD
Join Mendocino County RCD in an interactive discussion with Anderson Valley growers who have worked to improve soil health in their vineyards. We will observe changes in soil behavior based on vineyard management and discuss practices that build soil health.
We will first visit Ferrington Vineyard to hear about a cover crop and tillage field trial from Vineyard Manager Norman Kobler and NRCS Soil Scientist Erica Lundquist. We will then transition to Pennyroyal Farm to talk with Sarah Cahn Bennett and Natalie Birch about integrating livestock into their vineyard system. Please join us. Contact Katy Brantley at
katy.brantley@mcrcd.org
with questions or for more information.
Agenda:
9-10 am:
Ferrington Vineyard | 13401 Hwy. 128, Boonville
Cover crop and tillage field trial
10:30-11:30 am:
Pennyroyal Farm | 14930 Hwy. 128, Boonville
Integrated livestock and vineyard system
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Discover More at SoilHub.org
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