Field Check: Soil Health and Moisture Management with Dr. Lee Briese

In this episode we explore the question of how to improve soil health in fields that are just too wet. From drainage tile to cover crops, Dr. Lee Briese visits some of the strategies and tactics he uses with the farmers he works with. Lee is a Crop Consultant covering Stutsman and Barnes Counties in North Dakota for Centrol Ag Consulting. He has been scouting fields and providing recommendations for farmers in North Dakota for over 20 years. He says there hasn’t been a year he would classify as ‘normal’ in quite a while, and that this year has been especially challenging.

“We went from this field's going to be corn, this field's going to be wheat, this field's going to be soybeans to what field is dry enough to plant today. So a lot of those plans just went out the window. And so we're at the point now once we get them planted, then we figure out how we can deal with those weeds.” - Dr. Lee Briese

And especially in years like this, there are fields or areas of fields that are just always wet, and present their own set of problems like trafficability issues, weed pressure and salinity. Lee relies on his creativity and the tools in his toolbox to address these types of growing conditions.

“It's the same kind of principles, but it's a different thought process and it's a different prescription…Really what we're trying to do here now is use moisture out of sync of our cash crops… Instead of using tillage, because the tillage uses moisture through evaporation, but that evaporation increases salinity making the salts worse and we already have salt problems…We're using plants for the roots to go to 6, 8, 12, 14 inches deep to move the water from below instead of evaporating off the surface.” - Dr. Lee Briese

Lee mentioned their using crops like cereal rye to address these saline spots. This technique then distributes the salt throughout the soil profile reducing the risk of excess salinity while still capturing some of the moisture. Cereal rye can also serve as a “bridge to get across to move through that field” when trafficability becomes a concern. Lee reminds growers that you really need to assess the needs of each individual field first and then have the necessary tools to apply whatever that field needs.

“There's so many influencing factors that when you're trying to put together this plan this is why you have to look at the field. What are you trying to do? What can you work into your system? What is not gonna work?... It's about looking at your field, assessing each individual field with what are the challenges or problems that you're facing, and then designing a system that addresses those challenges.” - Dr. Lee Briese

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Soil Sense Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.