Participants learn about nutrient management and healthy soils, and the resulting effects on water quality through a study of mechanisms for increasing soil organic matter, providing habitat for soil microorganisms, and improving soil quality.

A series of 41 videos, mostly under five minutes each that discuss various soil health topics and applications of soil health principles. 

This webinar focuses on how several core NRCS conservation practices can be used by farmers to improve soil health, linking them to the four soil health planning principles, i.e. minimizing disturbance, maximizing diversity, keeping a living root growing, and maintaining residue cover.

Participants in the webinar learn about Natural Resources Conservation Service conservation planning principles to improve soil health and the impact soil health has on other resource concerns, such as water quality.

In this session, Dr. Jessica Gutknecht discusses soil health. When you think about the soil beneath your feet, or beneath your tractor, what does it mean for it to be healthy? What does it take for it to be healthy, and what are the results of those efforts? In this talk, we will explore the world below with a brief introduction to soils, how soil structure is built into a healthy soil, and some management options for building a healthy soil.

Participants will learn how soil biology directly and indirectly influence crop growth and nutrient cycling, along with methods for measuring biological activity in soil and interpreting soil respiration to understand nutrient availability. This webinar will provide information on how soil health can be measured in a lab, along with plant available nutrients and the importance of accounting for both the organic and inorganic forms of N, P, and K.

This webinar will give participants an overview of soil health and new soil testing tools for N-P-K that take into account the contribution of soil microbes, allowing producers to make informed nutrient management decisions, and it includes a discussion of the USDA NRCS Soil Health Nutrient Tool Project.

Hal Weiser, USDA, discusses how to improve soil structure and soil biology to maximize crop production.

Plants are of central importance to natural resource conservation. Thus, the ability to identify species or species groups is an essential skill for USDA NRCS field staffs. The goal of this webinar is to provide participants with a basic understanding of plant ecology and a framework for determining the identity of plants.

Participants in this webinar will learn important considerations in planning for a solar-powered water delivery system for grazing operations, especially in contrast to permanent electrically-powered systems.