Rick Haney's Uncommon Sense

Field Work

Documentary, Society & Culture

5 • 652 Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2021

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One of the most important resources for farmers interested in sustainable practices is a soil test commonly known as the Haney Test. In this episode, we talk to the developer of the test, Rick Haney, a soil scientist who will retire from USDA Agricultural Research Service on June 30. Rick tells Field Work producer Annie Baxter how he came up with his legendary soil health test — and exactly how it works. We also hear from Indiana farmer Rick Clark about how he converted his 7,000-acre farm from conventional corn and soybean to no-till and diversified his crops. The Haney test played a crucial role.

The two Ricks help lead a brainstorm about scaling up regenerative practices to slow climate change and help farmers be more profitable — with Iowa farmer Brian Hora (Mitchell’s dad), North Carolina farmer Russell Hedrick and Great Plains Regeneration Executive Director Jessica Gnad also joining in.

Our show was recorded at Field Work co-host Mitchell Hora’s field day June 3, 2021, in Washington County, Iowa.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, welcome back to the field work podcast.
0:10.0	I'm Mitchell Hora and this is a podcast by farmers for farmers.
0:15.0	Thanks to the Walton Family Foundation for supporting the podcast this season, but today is a really sad episode. I'm flying solo. I don't
0:22.9	have, don't have Zach with me today. I don't know how this is going to go. I don't know how to move on
0:27.7	on my own. Just lonely in my redneck recording studio, I'll buy my lonesome. But the other day I did
0:36.9	get to hang out with Zach a lot.
0:38.1	He actually came down to my field day.
0:40.2	And in today's episode, we are going to share some of the really cool content that we
0:45.7	had at the field day that I hosted at the Washington County Fairgrounds.
0:50.2	So talking about scaling sustainable agriculture, we're going to hear from one of my biggest
0:56.6	mentors and one of the real idols of the whole soil health movement.
1:00.9	And we jokingly call him the legend.
1:03.7	Dr. Rick Haney, along with his wife, Dr. Liz Haney, developed the Haney's soil health test.
1:09.4	They had some other help in there as well.
1:10.7	But he's been working at the USDA grass. Dr. Liz Haney developed the Haney Soil Health Test. They had some other help in there as well,
1:18.4	but he's been working at the USDA Grassland Soil and Water Research Lab. It's down in Temple, Texas.
1:25.0	He's been there for 19 years. For simple thought process on how I think about the Haney test versus regular soil sampling is that the Haney test is utilizing
1:28.3	those plant exudates to look at the soil's current assets. What's actually available to the
1:34.7	plant at that time that you pull the soil sample? What's available today? A regular soil analysis
1:40.7	or a traditional analysis, it looks at the soil's intermediate assets.
1:45.2	It utilizes a strong acid to be able to break apart some of those soil nutrient bonds and be
1:52.7	able to assess what should come available over the next growing season.
	...

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