Soil scientist (#VESS pioneer) and author into farming, global change, art and piano. Also a train enthusiast (nobody's perfect).
Roslin, Scotland
Joined March 2013
- Tweets762
- Following245
- Followers318
- Likes821
Bruce Ball retweeted
Nature-based solutions…… a relevant paper to guide your research
sciencedirect.com/science/ar…
Bruce Ball retweeted
Listened to some amazing scientists yesterday explaining the growing evidence that how we farm, and our soil biome health, is passing through food to make us sick and also the reverse, how good food from good soil can make us well again, including mental health
Bruce Ball retweeted
Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure:
- gently tease apart along lines of natural weakness to look for soil aggregate shape and size at different depths
- gently crush aggregates between finger and thumb to assess friability and density
#WorldSoilDay2024 #interpretsoil #vess
Bruce Ball retweeted
“Green revolution bypassed Africa on matters soil health. The answer now is not going back to green revolution thinking, it lies in one health approach to health of soils, plants, animals, people & the planet” Dr Lal. Soil scientist and winner of world food prize! #COP29Baku
Bruce Ball retweeted
Use of #AI in #soilhealth #governance & #management is rising. This will de-value farmers' and other land workers' bottom-up/practical knowledge: the real basis of #sustainability. Technology must serve places and their people! Interview by @AI4SoilHealth @arcticants #missionsoil
How can we ensure AI complements - not replaces - the invaluable knowledge of those who live and work on the land?
Read our latest blog, where @Anna_K_speaking outlines why dialogue between science and society is crucial for effective soil management 👉 ai4soilhealth.eu/beyond-data…
Bruce Ball retweeted
SSSAJ featured article📢
Visual evaluation of soil structure is a reliable method to detect changes in the soil quality of Colombian Amazon pasturelands doi.org/10.1002/saj2.20637
Study by Mora-Motta & colleagues @uniamazonia @duber_alejandro @MariaPauuC
ALT Figure 2. (a) Illustration of soil quality assessed using the visual evaluation of soil structure (VESS) method for each contrasting soil layer observed in forests and pastures in the northwestern Colombian Amazon with means and standard errors (in parenthesis). (b) Overall VESS Sq scores for the total layer (0–25 cm) in forest and pasture areas of the Cartagena del Chairá (CTG), San Vicente del Caguán (SVC), and Solano (SLN) sites, and regional scale. The asterisk indicates that the mean values of the VESS scores differ significantly between themselves at ***p < 0.001 and ns: not significant according to the Student's t-test. Error bars denote standard error. The red dashed line indicates the critical threshold (Sq = 3.0).
Bruce Ball retweeted
Ecomat on demo from @tnstractors today- burying trash pretty well at 5”. Looks good and could help us move less soil in our #organicfarming system. @KvernelandGroup
Bruce Ball retweeted
Less Chemical Nitrogen, less Chemical weed control, less Diesel usage, 60% more organic matter/manure can be incorporated for soil health, soil aeration for root growth, greater roots can deposit carbon sequestration at deeper layers. So why is ploughing frowned upon again?!! 🤔
Bruce Ball retweeted
Co-designed by UK industry, the Soil Scientist Apprenticeship will equip and upskill organisations with the knowledge, understanding, tools, practices, and resources to achieve optimal soil management.
Find out more: cranfield.ac.uk/courses/taug…
#SoilScience #Apprenticeship
Bruce Ball retweeted
My phone decided to create this video clip with music.
It has worked out visual soil assessment methodology …😏
Bruce Ball retweeted
My pleasure to co-facilitate a panel on #SoilHealth with the @WorldFoodPrize Laureate Dr. Rattan Lal who opened by saying "Africa is fully capable of feeding itself".
@ca4sh_global will help make a bread basket with good soil health.
#AFSH24
Bruce Ball retweeted
We're really pleased to hear our colleagues were able to assist in reuniting you with your wedding ring, Bruce!
Many thanks to Lance, driver of service 140 from Musselburgh to Roslin for keeping my wedding ring after I lost it on the bus today and to the lady who picked it up @EastCoastBuses
Good to see what looked like a #VESS chart sruc.ac.uk/media/xbrfn4x3/ve… in a consultant’s hand on tonight’s @BBCCountryfile program. After this winter assessing soil structure visually and acting on what is seen is more vital than ever @Soil_Science @SRUC @ORFC
Many thanks to @curvedflatlands for putting material on Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure #vess and artwork from amazon.co.uk/Healing-soil-he… on the LivingField site livingfield.co.uk/soil/vess-… @JamesHuttonInst @ORFC @SRUC
A great resource for farmers and sustainable land use is the Living Field: sustainable croplands livingfield.co.uk/ @LField2020 Hosted by @JamesHuttonInst and @curvedflatlands (Dr Geoff Squire), it includes resources on climate change, local food and nice artwork
Bruce Ball retweeted
☝🏼More technology won’t necessarily prevent soil erosion.
Instead, we need to understand the farmers!
How on earth we can do that? Since everyone is rushing to give advice instead of listening to the farmer.
Excerpt from the Managing soil quality book by P. Schjonning et al.
Thought provoking ideas on the future importance of Small Farms have recently been added to Colin Tudge’ blog colintudge.com/videos/a-smal… @ORFC @SRUC
Bruce Ball retweeted
To celebrate Burns Day here's a haiku from @BruceCBall 's Healing Soil book ⬇️🪱🌍
