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LGLCI Hosting Healing the Land and Building Soil Health Workshop

LGLCI Hosting Healing the Land and Building Soil Health Workshop
The Louisiana Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (LGLCI) is a consortium of individuals and organizations working together to maintain and improve the management and health of Louisiana’s grazing lands. The purpose of this non-profit organization is to address the needs of private grazing lands in Louisiana by:
Promoting voluntary action and respect of private property rights Strengthening partnerships between grazing lands managers, and others who support the purposes of the organization Encouraging voluntary diversification to achieve multiple natural resource benefits Increasing economic, environmental, and social stability on private grazing lands Closing the gap between availability of knowledge and application of said knowledge on private grazing lands Enhancing the private landowners’ ability to achieve greater profitability on an ecologically sound and sustainable basis Educating the public through the dissemination of scientific knowledge on the conservation and management of grazing lands in Louisiana
Grass based agriculture is uniquely positioned to provide a lot of food for the world without a lot of purchased inputs but first and foremost, we have to take care of the soil to do that. Louisiana is a region of high potential productivity due to its favorable climatic conditions (mild winters, hot summers, and plentiful precipitation). Soil acidity, low water holding capacity, and low nutrient-supplying capacity are conditions that limit its productivity. But, that can be overcome with proper management. Managing a property for healthy soil provides ecological and economic benefits that include everything from increasing productivity to filling gaps in grazing systems.
The Louisiana Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative and Louisiana Natural Resources Conservation Service will host a Healing the Land and Building Soil Health workshop on October 18 at the DeWitt Livestock Show Facility. The facility is located at 100 Gregg Marshall Drive, Alexandria. The workshop will consist of presentations given by Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Specialists in the morning and soil health demonstrations in the afternoon. The title of the morning presentations will be:
Understanding Soil Quality Impacts on Soil Functions Healing the Land and Building Soil Health with Grazing Management Effect of a Cover Cropping System on Soil Available Water Capacity
NRCS is now incorporating the use of a rainfall simulation unit to demonstrate the numerous benefits of enhanced ‘soil quality and soil health’. Implementation of management practices that contribute to improved soil quality typically yield benefits not readily apparent to many land owners and managers. The benefits derived from management practices that lead to increased organic matter content are numerous.
The new Louisiana rainfall simulation unit uses water supplied by pressurized hydrant/faucet or an ‘onboard water reservoir’ to simulate a measureable rainfall event to demonstrate ‘soil erosion’, ‘runoff’ and ‘infiltration’ from soil pans reflecting various ‘cover managements’. Runoff water and eroded sediments are captured in collection jars to visually demonstrate quantitative and qualitative differences in cover management.
Space is limited to 60 people. To reserve a spot, please call Johanna Pate at 318-473-7808. A lunch will be served.