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The world's soils are getting worse, but the livestock story is changing
A short summary of the FAO's Status of the World's Soil Resources 2026 and the rangelands decisions taken alongside it at the UN desertification conference.
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What the Status of the World's Soil Resources 2026 means for grazing livestock
The second global soil assessment in eleven years, the COP17 rangelands decisions, and why both push against the assumption that livestock are simply bad for land.
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The microscopic decision-makers: what nematodes tell us about carbon
Soil food web structure, not just carbon stocks, explains ecosystem service delivery. Why nematode trophic groups may be the missing measurement in regenerative agriculture's carbon claims.
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Measuring grass cover with a sward stick
A step by step method for measuring pasture cover, and using it to make rotational grazing decisions.
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A simple field water infiltration test
Measuring how fast water moves into the soil using nothing more than a tin can, a mallet, and a jug of water.
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The slake test: watching soil structure fall apart, or not
A five minute jam jar test that shows soil aggregate stability more vividly than almost any other field method.
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How to do a simple earthworm count
A quick biological indicator of soil health, and how to sort what you find into three ecological groups.
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How to do a VESS assessment
Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure: a five minute spade test that scores soil structure from Sq1 to Sq5.
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5 steps to a soil erosion risk assessment
A practical, five step walk through method for assessing erosion risk in a grazed or arable field.
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Not all "regenerative" grazing is equal
Regenerative grazing gets talked about as one thing. The evidence says grazing intensity, rest periods, and stocking method push soil carbon in opposite directions.
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Measuring what matters: why bulk soil carbon is not the whole story
Bulk soil carbon measurements and simplified turnover models miss the biological processes that decide whether carbon stays in the ground.
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Why this research has to work for farmers, not just journals
Journal articles come third. Annual farm summaries, a policy facing report, and open access data come first.
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Why I am fencing off four square metres, three ways, for three years
The unglamorous physical reality behind a rigorous grazing carbon claim: exclusion plots, a farm network from Dumfries to Devon, and three years of patience.
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The nitrogen question everyone skips
Carbon gets all the attention in regenerative grazing claims. Nitrogen cycling, just as central, barely gets measured at all.