Written by Sage Dennis, organic consultant, Rodale Institute
Quick answer: In a pasture system, soil health is the foundation of forage quality. Healthy soil regulates water, cycles nutrients, and feeds your plants, which means more nutritious grass, less supplementing, and a more profitable, resilient operation.
Some of the most common questions I’m asked as a consultant at the Rodale Institute are: Is soil health really that important? What do I need to do to increase my soil’s health? And is there anything to gain from changing my system to accommodate it? In my opinion, soil health should be a primary concern in any agricultural system, but not every operation approaches it the same way. Pasture-based livestock operations often assume pastures don’t need much attention compared to other parts of the farm. Those farms are slower to adopt soil-focused practices, and may be holding themselves back from a more efficient, profitable operation.
What is soil health?
Soil health is a measure of soil function. It can be defined as the optimum status of the soil’s biological, physical, and chemical functions working together.
Why does soil health matter in a pasture system?
Healthy soil regulates water, cycles nutrients, sustains plant and animal life, and buffers potential pollutants, all while providing physical stability and support. It improves nutrient availability, which improves soil fertility. In a pasture, that fertility flows straight into your forage, and from your forage into your animals. Quality, balanced soil makes sure your plants get the proper nutrients, which raises the quality of your livestock’s pasture. Establishing a fertility program with nutrients that break down and store in the soil keeps your operation healthy from the ground up.
Start with a soil test
One of the most reliable ways to get a baseline is a soil test. It gives you an interpretation of your soil’s chemical health, showing what nutrients your soil offers plants and what it lacks. That’s your starting point for a fertility plan built around your operation’s specific strengths and weaknesses.
If your soil is deficient in nutrients, your forages develop those same deficiencies as they grow. Take a soil test from the last three years and compare it to a forage test from the past year on the same field, and you’ll see a direct correlation between the nutritional content of your forage and the nutrient profile of your soil. This is why soil fertility should be viewed as the first health check for your animals. When forage still falls short, balanced free-choice minerals can fill the gap, and deficiencies like low magnesium can show up in the herd as conditions such as grass tetany.
Build soil biology: tillage, no-till, and cover crops
Another factor in soil health is soil biology: the micro- and macro-flora and fauna, like microscopic fungi, bacteria, and protozoa, that keep soil functioning. They break down the carbon sources we apply, such as manure, cover crops, and organic inputs. To improve soil biology, start with management practices.
Tillage is one of the single most damaging practices to soil’s physical health. Don’t take that as “never till” — that’s not the case. Done with a plan, the damage can be managed. But tilling disturbs soil texture by loosening it and exposing biology at the surface, which harms microbial life. It dislocates microbes and destroys the food networks (think root systems) those soil inhabitants depend on. Tillage is a useful tool, but using it well means understanding the damage it can cause.
You can reduce the harm of unrestrained tillage in one or several ways: conservation tillage; no-till; perennial pasture systems; or cover crops that create an environment for quicker soil-microbe development. Cover crops keep living roots in the soil, which gives soil biology food and habitat. Those inhabitants create a substance, or “glue,” that locks the soil in place and forms a barrier, helping retain moisture and prevent loss through leaching or erosion. Diversifying the species in your pastures helps too, offering more variety for both your livestock and your microbial life.
When soil is active and fertile, it’s tempting to keep that area in production year after year, but that drains soil nutrients. It’s best not to overwork the soil: give it time to recover its nutrient profile and let its life forms proliferate for a year before returning the area to production. There isn’t yet a widely accepted measurement for soil efficiency, so giving the soil a “breather” is a practical way to make sure we don’t over-exhaust it.
How long should you rest a pasture after grazing?
When you’re actively grazing, I encourage producers to use a rule of thumb of waiting one month after grazing before reintroducing livestock to that area. That isn’t always possible, since many factors can shorten the window. What matters is doing your best to allow that rest period for as long as you can, even if it’s shorter than a month. For operations where a full month is hard to honor, the good news is that soil health practices are vast, and there’s something to fit nearly any operation.
Achieving and maintaining soil health is a marathon, not a sprint. You don’t need to adopt every practice at once. I encourage growers to try practices and transition into what feels most natural if they’re unsure where to start. That rest window gives plants time to redevelop their top growth and, just as importantly, their root growth. What you see above ground reflects what’s happening below it: when a tall stand is grazed and trampled, the plant pushes energy into its roots first to reestablish itself, and once the root system is healthy, top growth catches up quickly. Heat and moisture, species diversity, and how long animals stay in an area all affect that timeframe.
What you gain from healthy pasture soil
After building a nutrient portfolio, slowly developing soil biology, and managing your grazing, what’s the payoff? An operation that’s as self-sufficient as your pastures can get. You’ll see stronger stands, which means more forage with higher nutritional content than before. Higher nutrient content means you supplement less for what your animals are missing, because you’re providing it on the farm. You also worry less about losing your investment, since healthier soil is more structurally sound and resists erosion and run-off. And because that soil is more active, it breaks down inputs like manure faster, so it’s not only balanced but efficient, helping nutrient cycling from the moment a patty drops.
Investing in your soil and pastures saves time, money, energy, and stress, and it starts with a conversation with your neighbors, some research, or a call for advice. The Rodale Institute is happy to provide expert consultation, and for many farmers our services are free of charge. You can reach me at [email protected], the Rodale team at [email protected], or call 610-683-1416.
About the author
Sage Dennis is an organic consultant with the Rodale Institute, an organization dedicated to researching organic and sustainable farming for over 70 years. Before Rodale, Sage was an agronomist at the Fertrell Company, an organic fertilizer company where he built the base of his knowledge. Across both organizations, he has visited countless farms in six years of assisting farmers. Focused in south-central Pennsylvania, where agriculture is one of the lifebloods of the community, he is honored to help anyone wanting to better understand organic soil fertility.