Cornell Cooperative Extension of Oswego County (CCE Oswego) hosted a free virtual workshop on Thursday, March 24th from 1 p.m.
to 3 p.m. This workshop discussed the importance of soil health and how
building quality soils can result in both economic and environmental benefits
for agricultural producers. Placing a greater emphasis on soil health has
become increasingly more important over the past few decades. Not only can healthy
soils produce better quality crops, they also can help lead to greater farm
resilience.
This workshop was based on the recent publication, “Building Soils
for Better Crops: Ecological Management for Healthy Soils” (4th
Edition, 2021), which was written by Dr. Fred Magdoff and Dr. Harold van Es. The
workshop provided an overview of the book by highlighting the
following topics: 1) what is soil health and why it matters, 2) what are the
physical properties of soil and the carbon/nutrient cycles and flows, 3) what
are the ecological principles and practices farmers can adopt to build healthy
soils on their farms, and 4) how agricultural producers can evaluate and assess
the overall health of their soils in the future.
Guest speakers were Dr. Harold van Es, Professor of Soil and Water
Management at Cornell University, and Joseph Amsili, Extension Associate with
the Cornell Soil Health Program. For more information, contact Joshua Vrooman, Ag
Community Educator, at jwv33@cornell.edu or 315-963-7286 ext. 200.