NYS

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William Waterfield (Andover)

This was an acronym that summed up a lecture by Dr Peter Purdy at the recent Green Farm Collective conference.

It stands for Not Yet Soil and Dr Purdy was referring to the fact that most of the life on earth originates in the soil and returns to the soil hence you and me are NYS.  If we are going maximise the ability to turn free sunlight energy into nutritious food, it starts with the soil and the exchange of carbon from the air to the soil.  The carbon builds soil organic matter which is the critical component of soils remembering that amongst other functions 1g of carbon hold 20g of water improves the ability to hold nutrients and improves drainage.

One easy way to measure the potential of a soil, rather than simply looking at what’s in the soil as normal soil analysis does, is to measure the capacity of the soil to hold and exchange nutrients by measuring its cation exchange capacity (CEC).  CEC is driven by the clay and the organic matter content of the soil, each 1% of clay increases the CEC by 0.5% compared to a 1% in increase in organic matter that increases CEC by 2.0 CEC.  Remembering that the soil nitrogen supply SNS is dependent on the CEC of the soil and 1 point of CEC is equal to 4.5 kg of free nitrogen.

Calculating a soils Cation Exchange Capacity can be carried out by soil analysis and most laboratories offer this service.  Ask your FCG consultant or contact William at w.waterfield@fcgagric.com , to discuss how you can improve the most vital resource on your farm. 

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