Page 12 - IAV Digital Magazine #434

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Dirty Undies Help American Researchers To Test Tennessee Soil
By Amy McCosker
Undies, jocks, drawers... There are plenty of names for under- wear around the world.
Now, a group of farmers in Tennessee, in the United States, has found a new use for them: to test their soil.
The Coffee County Soil Conservation District is an envi- ronmental conser- vation organization in Manchester, south of Nashville, where the main industries are corn, soybeans, and cat- tle grazing.
On July 3, the organization buried several pairs of cotton underwear across the region in different soils that had been managed in vary- ing ways.
"This is just a sim- ple test where you can compare some
different manage- ment systems," said district con- servationist Adam Daugherty.
"The theory is, the more active the microbes in your soil are, the quick- er the underwear cotton fibres will be consumed by the biology."
Mr Daugherty said
the idea was to show farmers how important their off- season manage- ment was in the success of future crops.
"Traditionally, fields sit idle [between crops] with har- vested residue from the combines on them," he said.
"We've filled a niche in this time with diverse cover crop systems, keeping a live plant growing and absorbing sunlight all year long.
"What we're doing this for is trying to biologically reprim- ing, rejuvenating our soils."
While the idea of off-season ground cover is not new, using cotton underwear to prove the system is working is cer- tainly novel.
"Most times, when you think about 'soiling your draw- ers', it's not what we're doing by burying them and measuring biologi-
cal activity," Mr Daugherty said.
"It's got a bit of a different outcome but that's the com- edy behind it."
The knickers were unearthed a month later, on August 3.
Mr Daugherty said results highlighted that microbes needed carbon to survive — whether it be from plant matter or under- wear — and if an idle field was planted with crop cover, the soil biol- ogy would stay healthy.
"That's why it's so important that we keep a living plant growing," he said.
"Because we will consume a lot of the readily-avail- able organic mat- ter that we have in the soil if we do not keep priming it and keeping that living plant grow- ing."
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