Keeping moisture in the ground is vital to success in producing crops across rural America. Jimmy Emmons of the Dewey County Conservation District in Oklahoma says catching as much moisture in the soil as possible starts with good management.

“It’s all about soil management, cover cropping, to build that aggregation in the soil so that when we do get these big rain events that we’re experiencing, we can catch all of it or at least most of it, and I think that’s the key. And we’re seeing a lot of change, and I think there’s a lot of opportunity in managing soil better.

He talks about the key to good soil management to make sure you keep that water there.

“Well, it’s all about keeping a living root in the ground as long as we can through the year, so we try to use cover crops in between our cash crops. We’ve talked about a little bit here with other presenters about how you maximize the ROI on that. So, we like to graze our cover crops in between when we have cattle, and it works well in our operation. So, we are just trying to maximize the return there as best we can, but keeping the living root in the ground really builds that aggregation and puts carbon back in the ground. That helps facilitate that water infiltration rate.”

Emmons talks about where producers can start this kind of soil management.

The conservation districts are a good way to get started. NRCS is focused on soil health practices as well. Noble research is doing a lot on grazing right now in soil health practices, so I think there are lots of resources out there to find out more about what you can do and just think out of the box a little bit about how we’ve always done it. Are there other opportunities, and I believe there is.”