Today, we single out one field in particular to see how a crop consultant utilizes soil health principles and practices to improve both profitability and viability over time. Dr. Lee Briese a Crop Consultant covering Stutsman and Barnes Counties for Centrol Ag Consulting. He has been scouting fields and providing recommendations for farmers in North Dakota for over 20 years, and received his Doctor of Plant Health from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln.  Lee was nice enough to provide an example of one field that he and the farmer decided to take a different approach with. 

"So that's really where we started. We just kind of looked at what we were working with and said 'ok, planting corn and soybean that needs a lot of moisture midsummer is not working'. So what can we do to use the attributes of that field to our advantage?" - Dr. Lee Briese

"I just really think that when somebody is looking at this soil health thing, it's not about 'I'm gonna go no-till or I'm gonna plant cover crops or I'm gonna do this particular practice'. It's about looking at your field, assessing each individual field with what are the challenges or problems that you're facing, and then designing a system that addresses those challenges." - Dr. Lee Briese

Briese discusses how he and his farmer client approached managing a field that was drying up midsummer. He shares how they approached diversifying the rotation on that crop, and what happened when they tried soybeans again years later.

Follow the link www.NDFieldCheck.com to participate in our next question and answer segment to share your questions and get them answered by the experts!

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Soil Sense Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.