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In this episode we revisit Agronomy on Ice for another great conversation this time with NDSU extension soil health research technician Brady Goettl. If you\u2019ve benefited at all from extension soil health work in recent years, you\u2019ve probably been the beneficiary of Brady\u2019s work in some form or another. Brady discusses his research, what led him into the soil science field, his extension work which includes direct interactions with farmers regarding soil health, and his quest to better understand soil fertility and nitrogen management.\xa0

\u201cIn order to get a full picture of what's happening when you plant that cover crop, you have to do a really intensive sampling and through a ton of different avenues. So what I'm doing with my research is more of a traditional approach where we're looking at nitrate, ammonium and non-exchangeable ammonium in the soil.\u201d Brady Goettl

Brady hopes to \u201cdevelop some sort of either nitrogen credit or recommendation\u201d for producers based on the cover crop biomass produced. The research is ongoing but could lead to less input needs based on \u201ccredits\u201d attributed to different practices after determining how they all interact with each other.\xa0

\u201cWe know that there's a lot of these microbes that can fix nitrogen and do it symbiotically. So we don't necessarily need a legume, for example, to fix that nitrogen\u2026 If we can harness the power of those guys to help us fix nitrogen, that's gonna be a game changer if we don't have to rely on synthetic nitrogen anymore.\u201d - Brady Goettl

This Week on Soil Sense:

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• Meet NDSU extension soil health research technician Brady Goettl

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• Explore his research interests and the benefits and insight he hopes to be able to provide producers in their nitrogen needs

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• Understand the focus Brady has taken in his approach to address the problems producers are most concerned about

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