The Lingering Power of Biology

Observations over time are a key tool for improving land.  Vern has been managing his fields since 1997.  He first started experimenting with biologicals in 2017.  You can get up to speed on that here.

We learned from our work with Montana State University that these biological treatments had changed the soil microbial community in positive ways that good management couldn’t do in 25 years.  We were also able to see that change in a host of other measures, notably brix, grasshopper resistance, water holding capacity, increased soil carbon, and animal health.  That said, the most impressive benefit appeared when the water got turned off on the field to the north (right side of the photo below).

Here is what they looked like 2 years into treating them right at the start of green up:

You can see the pasture is still thick even on the untreated side, just not as vigorous as the treated. Not a grand slam field, but not a bad field either.  The next year (spring 2019) the field on the left was treated and so was the lower part of the field on the right that had not been treated before. The next year, 2020, the field on the right (completely untreated on the upper part and treated once on the lower part) stopped being irrigated.  In one season, the top, untreated part, turned into pig weed:

The next year (2021) it turned into pigweed, cheatgrass, and other various weeds, but as a surprise to everyone, the lower part once treated field hung on with the pasture mix:

Here is a video Vern took of the lower, treated part of the field in the fall of 2022. It could be watered and probably come back to life as a desirable pasture. There is still a fair amount of alfalfa left and few, if any, weeds.

This video is of the untreated part of the field. This part of the field is full of cheatgrass and weeds.

Lastly, this picture shows the field on the original left that continued to be treated and irrigated on July 4th, 2022. Vern was able to cut the watering changes in half this year and didn't see a drop in production. What a relief to have the same production with less inputs!