On-farm assessments of soil health and soil functions comparing conservation and conventional farming practices in southeast Norway

Summary

This comparative on-farm study assessed soil health indicators on loam soils in southeast Norway, comparing long-term conservation farming (no-till with diverse crop rotation and cover crops) against conventional practices (annual ploughing with cereal-based rotation). Conservation practices significantly enhanced aggregate stability, earthworm populations and labile carbon pools, with radar chart visualisations indicating more sustained overall soil function delivery. The findings contribute evidence that conservation agriculture can improve soil health and ecosystem services even in cold climates, though the authors acknowledge that further multi-field comparisons are needed to strengthen conclusions.

UK applicability

These findings from southeast Norway's loam soils and cool climate have potential relevance to upland and northern UK farming regions with similar pedo-climatic conditions. However, UK soil types and growing seasons vary considerably by region, and direct transposition of these results to southern England or intensive arable zones would require caution and local validation.

Key measures

Aggregate stability, bulk density, cohesion, soil roughness, saturated hydraulic conductivity, total organic carbon, total nitrogen, carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, permanganate-oxidisable carbon (POXC), pH, earthworm count, plant coverage

Outcomes reported

The study measured physical, chemical and biological soil indicators on conservation and conventional farms in southeast Norway, comparing aggregate stability, bulk density, organic carbon, nitrogen, earthworm counts and other soil functions. Conservation farming significantly improved aggregate stability, earthworm abundance and permanganate-oxidisable carbon, with more sustained soil function delivery overall.

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