Working Toward Healthier Soil
Wayne Fredericks has discovered a way to better soil health through conservation practices.
Look to better soils for improved productivity, water and air quality
BY KRISS NELSON
W
ayne Fredericks is on a mission to improve the soil health on his farms near Osage. “Soil health is the basis for good production,” the past ISA president says. “It’s also the basis of good water quality and air quality.” Fredericks has been a key collaborator with the Iowa Soybean Association’s (ISA) Research Center for Farming Innovation (RCFI), working to not only improve soils on his farm but to also add research that collectively helps all soybean farmers. ISA’s RCFI conducts ongoing collaborative research with Iowa farmers to find practices that improve soil health profitably. Through various work with RCFI and other partners, Fredericks has seen economic and agronomic returns on investment from his conservation practices. After what Fredericks refers to as an “accidental conservation adjustment”
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following the early freeze in 1991, he began no-tilling his soybean acres and converted from conventional tillage to strip-tilling corn 10 years later. The Mitchell County farmer says the economics of a system, which was also the building block to a healthier soil profile, happened almost instantly. “We had the yields. We saw a tremendous savings of equipment costs and labor,” he says. “But we also changed the soil structure, soil health and soil quality.”
Cover crops When Fredericks served as ISA president in 2016, and during that time, he did everything he could to learn about raising cover crops. He led by example, diving 100% into the practices. “I call cover crops the most dramatic step in conservation since the 1970s when we started to get rid of the plow,” he says. Prior to raising cover crops, he
took water samples on his farm. Since incorporating cover crops on his farm, Fredericks has seen a 35% reduction in nitrates found in his tile line samples.
Organic matter Organic matter is the foundation of soil health. It increases soil water holding capacity, minerals and is a source of food for various plant growthpromoting fungi and bacteria. “Most cultivated soils in Iowa have lost around 50% of their original organic matter,” says Scott Nelson, ISA senior field services program manager. “We can only imagine what Iowa crops would yield if we had our original base levels of organic matter. Some experts estimate our yields would be 50% greater.” From soil samples pulled on Frederick’s farms in 1984, the organic matter ranged from 2.3% to 3.3%. In 2015, soil samples showed the organic matter had improved to a range of 4.3% to 6.1%.
