Soil is a magnificent thing. It’s the medium that makes crop production possible. It’s also rather mysterious. Even now, scientists are just beginning to scratch the surface of naming all the microbes that live in soil and understanding their functions and interactions. There’s also much we do know and understand about soil and its ability to provide nutrients to a crop year over year — a process called mineralization — but there are still many questions from farmers on what to expect from crop residues or added manure in the coming year.
In this video, Jeff Schoenau, professor of soil science with the University of Saskatchewan, explains how different manures impact nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur availability in the first and subsequent years after application. For the grain farmers in our audience, he also explains how wet or saturated conditions affect N losses in cropping systems, regardless of whether or not you’re using manure.
If you cannot see the embedded video, click here.