By Jody Hardin, CEO, Carbon Chicken Project LLC and Fifth-Generation Farmer
As a fifth-generation farmer from the little town of Grady (southeast delta of Arkansas), I've seen firsthand the importance of healthy soil in my nearly six decades of first hand observations. I’ve learned from my ancestors that its the foundation of our food system and a critical component of a healthy environment. One of the most important indicators of soil health is the amount of Soil Organic Matter (SOM) it contains. SOM is the living and decaying matter in soil, and it plays a vital role in soil fertility, water retention, and carbon sequestration. Moreover, it is becoming apparent that farmers who take action locally to reverse this trend will be way ahead of those who deny this key national fact.
Unfortunately, SOM levels have been declining in the US and around the world since industrial ag offered farmers cheap options like urea and DAP. This trend is increasing at an alarming rate due to major factors like intensive agriculture, deforestation, urbanization, and climate change. This decline has serious implications for farmers and the environment, as well as consumers who will increasingly pay a higher cost for food as productive ag lands begin to shrink in the future.
The Link Between Climate Change and SOM Decline
Climate change is exacerbating the decline in SOM in several ways:
● Increased Temperatures: Higher temperatures accelerate the decomposition of organic matter in the soil, leading to a loss of SOM.
● Changes in Rainfall Patterns: More intense rainfall events can lead to soil erosion, washing away topsoil and the organic matter it contains. Droughts can also reduce plant growth, limiting the input of organic matter into the soil.
● Extreme Weather Events: More frequent and severe droughts, floods, and wildfires can damage soil health and reduce SOM levels.
● Heavy rain events on hard crusted soil causes increased sheeting, leading to frequent rural community flooding events as well as losses of expensive fertilizers due to leaching, which is causing algal blooms downstream of farmlands
The Benefits of Increasing SOM
Increasing SOM is critical for building climate resilience on farms. Here's how:
● Improved Water Retention: As the NRCS points out, a 1% increase in SOM can increase water holding capacity by up to 16,500 gallons per acre. This is crucial in times of drought, as it helps to maintain soil moisture and reduce the need for irrigation.
● Enhanced Nutrient Cycling: SOM provides essential nutrients for plants, reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers.
● Increased Carbon Sequestration: Soil can act as a significant carbon sink, helping to mitigate climate change. Increasing SOM helps to store more carbon in the soil, reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
● Improved Soil Structure: SOM helps to improve soil structure, making it more resistant to erosion and compaction.
How to Increase SOM
There are several existing practices farmers can adopt to increase SOM:
● No-Till Farming: Reduces soil disturbance and helps to maintain soil structure. ● Cover Cropping: Planting diverse cover crops between cash crops helps to protect the soil and add organic matter.
● Crop Rotation: Diversifying crops helps to improve soil health and increase SOM. ● Composting: Adding compost to the soil is a great way to increase SOM.
● Managed Grazing: Carefully managing livestock grazing can help to improve soil health and increase SOM.
A New Way to Increase SOM– An Engineered Tool by the Carbon Chicken Project team
Introducing Carbon Chicken 80:20.
The Carbon Chicken Project Team have discovered one of the most effective ways to quickly increase SOM is to utilize a biologically advanced, Carbon infused, compost based pelletized soil conditioner. And since nothing was on the market like this, we invented a process to manufacture our revolutionary product and it is ready to hit the market. Until CC80:20 was released earlier this year, there has been no product like this available to farmers. This blended product contains 20 percent biochar, which is a highly porous Carbon material that can absorb moisture and remains permanent in the soil for centuries that significantly enhances nutrient cycling for plants. However, 80 percent of the product is made up of nutrient rich composted poultry litter, which is a rich source of organic matter with a NPK range of 3-2-2.
When applied to the soil, Carbon Chicken 80:20 helps to improve soil structure, increase water holding capacity, retain nutrients, and enhance nutrient cycling, especially in poor soils. It also helps to sequester carbon in the soil by increasing root mass (since our CC80:20 is also inoculated with soil microbiology that encourage larger mycorrhizal root zones), further cooling the Earth and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Benefits of Using Carbon Chicken 80:20
● Quick Results: Carbon Chicken 80:20 ( a soil conditioner that has short and long term benefits) can quickly increase SOM levels (over 3 to 5 year period), even on degraded soils, immediately reversing SOM decline where it is applied to the land.
● Long-lasting Benefits: The biochar in Carbon Chicken 80:20 is stable and will remain in the soil for many years, providing long-lasting benefits.
● Improved Soil Health: Carbon Chicken 80:20 improves soil health in a number of ways, including increasing soil fertility, reducing erosion, and improving water retention.
● Cost-effective: Carbon Chicken 80:20 is a cost-effective way to increase SOM and qualifies for NRCS cost share under CPS 336 and others.
● Carbon Credit revenue from 3rd Party programs like Indigo Ag
How to Apply Carbon Chicken 80:20
Carbon Chicken 80:20 can be applied to the soil using a variety of methods, including broadcasting, precision application, top dressing or injecting. The application rate and costs will vary depending on the desired results.
Conclusion
Increasing SOM is a critical step towards building climate resilience on farms. By adopting practices that promote soil health, farmers can improve their yields, reduce their environmental impact, and help to mitigate climate change. At Carbon Chicken Innovation Farm, we are committed to increasing SOM on our land and helping other farmers do the same. Carbon Chicken 80:20 is a powerful tool that can help farmers quickly and easily increase SOM levels on their land. By using this product, farmers can improve their soil health, increase their yields, and reduce their environmental impact all while securing crop production and resiliency for future generations of farmers.
Disclaimer: I am the co-founder and CEO of Carbon Chicken Project, as well as a fifth generation farmer who is passionate about regenerative agriculture...and I am heavily biased in favor of our new product we have invented and developed for farmers and gardeners. It is my strong belief that Carbon Chicken 80:20 soil conditioner is a regenerative farming game changer that can help farmers build climate resilience, reduce irrigation expenses over time, increase CEC (Cation Exchange Capacity) so plants can uptake more nutrients that were previously locked up. Our powerful selection of soil microbes, some of which are extremophiles, as well as humic acid, can wake up soil that has been depleted of biology caused by long term application of synthetic fertilizers made from expensive fossil fuels-that do not return organic matter to the soil. We believe that by adopting Carbon Chicken 80:20 as part of an annual routine application, (over a three year period with 1 ton per acre application rate), we can regenerate soil organic matter by a half to 1 percent. And according to NRCS, for every 1 percent increase in soil organic matter we increase the soil’s water holding capacity by as much a s 16,500 gallons per acre. - Jody Hardin
