A local Center Seeds dealer held an informational meeting about soil health.
Burkholder Healthy Farms invited local farm and land owners out to learn about environmentally friendly ways of keeping their soil healthy. Owner Matt Burkholder says that the key to good crops is healthy soil, and healthy soil means healthy water supplies. When farmers avoid tilling their field, it allows air pockets and earthworm tunnels to stay open making it easier for water to seep in instead of running off the field with all of the nutrients. Burkholder says it is not a perfect system but the positives outweigh the negatives.
"One thing that the people see as a disadvantage of no-till, they'll see cornstalks and different residue that if we have flooding could wash onto the road," says Burkholder. "Well, I would rather have the residue on the road than have a bunch of soil on the road that contains different nutrients that then go into the lakes and streams and pollute the water."
You can find out more on this environmentally conscious way of farming online at www.burkholderhf.com.
