Farmers Share Their Soil Health Journey in Cotton & Covers Video Series
September 6, 2020 The Soil Health Institute (SHI) has released Cotton & Covers, a Healthy Soils for Sustainable Cotton video series, following three Southeastern cotton producers as they discuss their individual journeys to build profitable soil health management systems on their farms.
New videos will be made available weekly through September on SHI’s YouTube Channel and the Soil Health Training webpage, according to David Lamm, Project Manager of Healthy Soils for Sustainable Cotton.
The series features Sonny Price from Dillon, SC; Zeb Winslow from Scotland Neck, NC; and Burton Heatwole from Millen, GA – all discussing their decision to explore soil health promoting practices and the benefits they’ve discovered as they experimented with reduced tillage, increased cover crop species diversity and livestock grazing. Each producer serves as a mentor to other farmers in SHI’s soil health training program.
“These farmer mentors, who are working with cotton producers in their state to build soil health management systems on their farms, have fascinating stories to tell,” Lamm explains. “Their observations, as they reduced tillage and added multi-species cover crops, provide insight that will be useful to others who are either just starting the journey or are well on their way to improve the health of their soils.”
“Being able to take care of your soil and let your soil take care of you – that’s the road we’re headed down,” explains Heatwole, who adopted a soil health management system to increase soil organic matter and water infiltration on his Georgia farm.
The video series is part of the Healthy Soils for Sustainable Cotton project, which provides farmer-focused education and training events delivered by SHI scientists in partnership with local soil health technical specialists and farmer mentors who have implemented successful soil health management systems. The project aims to increase the adoption of soil health management systems among cotton producers while documenting environmental and economic benefits.
Healthy Soils for Sustainable Cotton is supported through the generosity of the Wrangler brand, the VF Corporation Foundation and the Walmart Foundation. More information about the project and access to the webinar series is available online.
Based on information provided by the Soil Health Institute
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