MILLHEIM — The Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) is hosting a series of workshops to inform farmers on how they can participate as citizen-scientists in research on growing healthy soils. This would be part of PASA’s 2018 Soil Health Benchmark Study.

By participating in the study, farmers will learn how to monitor their soil’s health and integrate methods to improve their management systems.

Farmers will receive subsidized comprehensive soil tests issued by the Cornell Soil Health Testing Laboratory and soil reports issued by PASA specific to their farm.

Farmers also will connect with their peers to collaboratively work to advance soil health research and improve management systems on their own farms by fine-tuning their cover cropping, tillage, and soil amendment strategies.

While this year’s research focuses on diversified vegetable farms, row crop and dairy farmers may gain insights from the workshops and research as well.

Twenty-nine farms participated in PASA’s soil health research study in 2017.

These farms generally revealed outstanding soil health outcomes. For instance, participating farms maintained living cover on their fields 237 days of the year, which means they are building soil and contributing to making air and water cleaner for nearly two-thirds of the year. They also showed high levels of soil organic matter and achieved optimal scores on the Cornell Comprehensive Assessment of Soil Health.

PASA also found that participating farms have challenges in aggregate stability — an important measure of soil structure — and excessive levels of phosphorus, often caused by amending soil with manure or compost for fertility.

Participants in PASA’s research study have the opportunity to collaborate with their peers to develop innovative and practical solutions to these common soil-health challenges.

“Participation in PASA’s Soil Health Benchmark Study has been an excellent opportunity to think critically about our soil management strategy,” said Deirdre Flemming of Two Gander Farms and Apiary, an organic vegetable operation in Chester County. “Benchmarking our farm’s soil health relative to other farms put our results into context and offered an opportunity to learn more about the management practices of farms with high ratings.”

Flemming and her husband, Trey, have contributed to PASA’s research since 2016 and have used information from the study to guide improvements in their fall cover cropping.

Workshop schedule

The workshop schedule includes:

- March 19 — at Red Earth Farm, Berks County, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

- March 20 — at Bending Bridge Farm, Franklin County, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

- March 26 — at Blackberry Meadows Farm, Allegheny County, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

- March 29, webinar, 12:30 to 1 p.m.

Register at www.pasfarming.org/events or call 814-349-9856.

Contact PASA Director of Education Franklin Egan (franklin@pasafarming.org) with questions about the workshops or research project.

The Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture is a community of farmers and supporters focused on education and evidence-based research for the purpose of building a more economically just, environmentally regenerative and community-focused food system.

For more information, visit pasafarming.org.