The Soil Food Web and Animal Health

£100, or £90 if you are an Applied Herbal Choices for Animals graduate.

With soil scientist; Tom Knowles, equine and agricultural advisor in soil health, compost production, food chain ecology.

This 5 hour CPD held onsite in Oxfordshire is aimed at providing attendees with current science and practical assessment and improvement of soil health.  You will get a chance to do some practical tests, and see some composting methods in progress, and learn about probiotic compost tea.

This covers discussion and demonstrations as to why it is so important to ensure appropriate types and amounts of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes in the paddock soil for healthy grazing and foraging, and within your garden / yard soil and compost for herbs for self selection by pets.

We will include discussion on how to generate a healthy food web; enhancing the soil microbiome to help maintain a healthy balance in the equine and pet body microbiome.

Tom Knowles is a soil scientist, focusing on improving soil health for sustainable non chemical production of crops and grazing for support of the environment and health of grazing animals, and through the food chain beyond that with regards to plant based or meat based feed.  He provides micro-biome soil testing and advises on improvement measures for soil health.   In this CPD, he shares his knowledge, and provides some practical skills for assessing soil and pasture.

Participants also receive a 20% discount on a soil analysis and nutrient sampling testing.

Contents

• Introduction to how soil functions
  • soil biology and the soil food web
  • Biological v Chemical approach
• Soil management for animal health
  • Healthy soil produces healthy plants and enhances the body microbiome directly (soil eating) or indirectly (via plants)
  • True proteins (healthy) vs funny sugars (junk food)
• Soil and Plant testing you can do yourself (in the field/ garden) 
  • Brix testing – sugar content of plants
  • Dig a hole, examine soil
  • Water infiltration testing
• Example soil microscope analysis
  • what it means – some as a group, potentially individually, depending on numbers
  • comparison with others
• Some other management suggestions
  • Composting/worm composting
  • Calcium addition
  • Cross grazing with sheep or cattle in paddocks
  • Compost tea
  • Tips on growing herbs for your animals

https://www.facebook.com/tk.soil.services

To book, please contact us.