What are the soil health principles?

Soil Health Principle 1: Minimize Soil Disturbance

•    Reduce organic matter degradation

•   Save fuel, labor and equipment costs

•   Promote diverse microbiological communities

•    Reduce the potential for soil erosion

Soil Health Principle 2: Keep the Surface Covered

•   Minimize evaporation losses

•    Regulate surface temperature

•    Reduce exposure to wind and water erosion

•   Suppress weeds

Soil Health Principle 3: Increase plant diversity

•    Increase diversity of microbial communities

•    Reduce disease environment

•    Reduce insect pressure

•    Reduce need for fertilizer inputs

Soil Health Principle 4: Maintain a Living Root

•    Continually feed the diverse microbial communities

•    Capture and sequester carbon whenever possible

•    Create more channels for water infiltration and air exchange

•    Build stronger soil aggregates

Soil Health Principle 5: Integrate Livestock into Cropping System

•   Facilitate rapid carbon sequestration

•    Graze cover crops for cost offsets

•   Improve nutrient cycling and microbial communities

•    Increase farm diversity and revenue per acre

•    Mimic the natural design of ecosystems