Improve Soil Health to Build Resilient Soils

Managing rural stormwater helps reduce soil and nutrient runoff from agricultural fields.

In recent years, the intensity and frequency of weather events has increased (see Figure 1), and patterns are leading to more intense storms that present additional challenges for managing stormwater.

Excess rain falling on bare soil often results in soil erosion, so it is important to build resilience into our agricultural soils. Soil management can be a ‘first line of defence’ for your farm for these storm events.

Improving soil health is a key practice in adapting to heavy rainfall. There are several ways to build healthier soils:

Use crop covers or manage crop residues
Maintain a minimum of 30 per cent cover over soil using cover crops or crop residue.

Cover crops and crop residue protect the soil from water and wind erosion, build organic matter and provide other economic and environmental benefits.

Reduce compaction and modify tillage
practices. These practices improve soil structure. Soils with better structure can absorb rainfall much better than compacted soil, reducing the risk of water runoff.

Think of soil as being either like a brick or like a sponge. Try mopping up spilled water with a brick. Compacted soil is like a brick – hard and non-porous and therefore can’t absorb water. On the other hand, healthy, aerated soils, like a sponge, can absorb water. They hold water needed for crop growth during dry periods and promote biological activity.

In 2013, Healthy Lake Huron watershed partners collected soil samples in the priority watersheds and developed a database of the soil test results.

These test results can be used as soil health indicators to report on watershed soil health.

Landowners are encouraged to contact their
local conservation authorities about workshops,

software tools and soil demonstration sites to learn more about the benefits of building and maintaining good soil health.

The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food and and the Ministry of Rural Affairs fund and support the Healthy Lake Huron project.