(Atlantic) Carbon sequestration was the topic of the Atlantic Rotary Club’s Salute to Agriculture program on Tuesday.
Soil Health Specialist Ruth Blomquist with the USDA-NRCS Office was the presenter, “Carbon markets and carbon sequestration are something that’s in the headlines quite a bit.” Blomquist says, “A few years ago the first Iowa farmer started to get paid for carbon credits in Iowa so it’s something that more and more farmers are pursuing.”
Blomquist explained practices for introducing carbon into the soil such as cover crops which are a long term investment into soil health. “So how do we increase carbon coming into the soil? If it’s driven by photosynthesis we have to have more plants.” Blomquist, “So if we plant in April or May and harvest in the fall we only have 4-5 months a year that plant is actively growing and taking that sunlight and turning it into carbon.”
Once carbon is introduced to the soil, keeping it there is the next step. Tillage is one of the main threats. Blomquist suggests producers view soil as a living system. “I like to think of them like underground livestock. Livestock needs food and they need shelter.” Blomquist says, “We don’t want to release that stored carbon. We want to maximize cover with plants and we also need the plants to protect that microbial home and that habitat and then our soil microbes really need that diverse food source.”
Blomquist says the goal is to achieve higher crop yields with lower costs and less risk.
