Understanding Soil Organic Matter and its impact on soil health and microbial biomass. We are often asked what is a good level of microbial biomass (MB). There is no one answer. The level of MB you can reach is dependent on soil organic matter (SOM.) Soil organic carbon (SOC) is
Leeston Pastoral is a 5th generation, family owned farm in New South Wales, Australia. Historically, they have had a fine wool Merino & Hereford cattle breeding operation. Over the last 20 years they have moved to focus on cattle. The 2019 drought forced them to reevaluate what operation they wanted to
Sítio Escola Portão Grande hosted students from the Mentoring and Language Acquisition Program (MLAB) for a full day immersion at the farm in Brazil which featured soil testing with microBIOMETER®. MLAB is a mentoring and language acquisition program for Harvard students and Brazilian high school students, with low income and
Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal (AMF) are dependent on the plant for their food, therefore, they die when the plant dies. Lucky for us before they die they form spores that can live a long time in the soil. When we have looked at the soil from vineyards in winter it is
The graph pictured here from the USDA website depicts the ratio of fungi to bacteria as a characteristic of the type of system it is in. An excerpt from the article: “Grasslands and agricultural soils usually have bacterial-dominated food webs – that is, most biomass is in the form of