What our farmers do for their soils

The maintenance of healthy soil is increasingly becoming a problem in agriculture. Through intensive cultivation and the use of agrochemicals, the humus layer becomes less. But it is precisely this that is decisive for fertile soil in the long term.

Although our Barnhouse partner farmers do not use agrochemicals, they also have to work actively to preserve the humus layer. BIOLAND-farmer Hans Reichl uses a so-called summer greening. This consists of many different seeds. The mixture includes clover varieties, phacelia, yellow mustard, oil radish, garden cress and sunflowers.

The proportion of mustard ensures that the soil is quickly covered, while the seeds of oil radish and phacelia are responsible for good root penetration. This keeps the fields alive and provides perfect food for earthworms, bees and the like.

In the end, the summer vegetation becomes humus, which in turn makes the soil fertile in an ecologically sensible way over the long term.

In the following year our Barnhouse oat will grow again on Hans Reichl’s field. But until then, bees and co. have the opportunity to spread out in the field and find enough food.