BOOKS
THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO RESTORING YOUR SOIL
The Complete Guide to Restoring Your Soil contains the blueprints for restoring our degraded soils. It begins with the principles of soil development like improving gaseous exchange in soil, optimizing mineral fertility, increasing microbial biomass, maximizing the capture of solar energy through photosynthesis, and capturing and storing rainfall. Then it follows with the nuts and bolts of practical methods of soil building. Finally, there is a peek at innovative agricultural systems of the past, the present and perhaps the future, such as the chinampas of ancient Mexico and the stone terraced farms of ancient Peru, that may hold promise for farming in a post-fossil fuel world.
MANAGING PASTURE
Managing Pasture shows how the productivity of pastures can be vastly increased through the understanding and management of the physiology of different pasture plants incorporated into a comprehensive grazing plan to maximize animal production. Best of all, these recommendations for increasing productivity are not based on the increased use of expensive, and often environmentally destructive, inputs such as herbicides and fertilizers. Instead they are based on attention to management details like the amount of leaf area left after a grazing episode and the timing of grazing in relation to season; plant lifecycle and plant growth stage are also highlighted.
THE DROUGHT RESILIENT FARM
The Drought Resilient Farm is a blueprint for creating a farm or ranch that is less susceptible to drought. It describes how to make soils more moisture efficient, how to keep livestock fed and watered during drought events, and how to design more moisture efficient agricultural systems in the semi-arid plains and steppe regions that are most vulnerable to periodic droughts.
The Drought Resilient Farm describes hundreds of techniques to improve the ability of soil to capture, store, and release water to plants, as well as innovative methods of providing feed and drinking water for livestock during times of deficit rainfall.
Dale Strickler
Agronomist, Rancher, Author
I am Dale Strickler, an agronomist, a Kansas rancher, and author of the books The Drought Resilient Farm, Managing Pasture, and The Complete Guide to Restoring Your Soil. The Drought Resilient Farm is a compilation of techniques for increasing the ability of soil to capture more rainfall, hold more moisture, and increasing the ability of plants to extract more moisture from the soil. A second section discusses methods of providing feed and water to pastured livestock during drought. The book also contains a plan for creation of a more moisture efficient system of agriculture in the semi-arid plains and steppe regions. I am also available for speaking engagements and welcome visitors.