Grain on the Brain

Building Soil Carbon

Episode Summary

Have you been thinking about how to build soil carbon on your farm? Scott Beaton talks to Professor Cynthia Kallenbach about soil health, the different types of soil carbon and how to make deposits into both your soil chequing and savings accounts.

Episode Notes

Resources links

Read about soil health research on organic farms conducted by the Organic Farming Research Foundation:

https://ofrf.org/research/reports/

Dig deeper into Soil Health on the National Resources Conservation Service’s website: 

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/soils/health/?cid=stelprdb1245890

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/soils/health/

If you're near Quebec City and are interested in participating in Professor Kallenbach's research, she is always looking for additional good field sites, particularly with areas of waterlogging, for research with cover crops! 

Guest bio for Professor Cynthia Kallenbach

Cynthia Kallenbach joined McGill’s Department of Natural Resource Sciences as an Assistant Professor in 2018. Her research integrates soil ecology and biogeochemistry to understand soil organic matter turnover and accumulation and microbial-plant interactions affecting carbon and nutrient cycling under land use and global change. She received her BSc degree (Geography) from Sonoma State University, California. She earned two MSc at University of California-Davis in International Agriculture Development and in Soil Biogeochemistry, and her PhD from the University of New Hampshire in Earth and Environmental Science. Before coming to McGill, she was a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) postdoctoral fellow at Colorado State University.

Credits

Host: Scott Beaton

Narrator: Karen Klassen

Producer: Karen Klassen

Editor: Jason Peters

Podcast oversight committee: Anne Kirk, Jason Peters, Kim Wilton, Tierra Stokes, Marla Carlson, Deb Tuchelt

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Manitoba Organic Alliance.  

Sponsor

Funding is provided in part by the Canada and Manitoba governments through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.