Applying Regenerative Agriculture Principles to Turf and Golf Management

The 6-3-4(TM) Principles Explained

By Allen R Williams, Ph.D.

Edited by Morgan Hartman and Andre Paul

Driving the Green preface:

While most golf courses seek to be efficient and resourceful with their inputs, monocultural grass production (i.e., the model of a typical non-diverse golf course that requires significant inputs) can be inherently antagonistic to the principles of nature. Allen Williams of Understanding Ag, LLC can help us understand the principles of nature, and how those principles can become the best friends of natural, efficient, and sustainably profitable golf course management!

Guest Article by Allen Williams, PhD:

At Understanding Ag, LLC, the core of our teaching philosophy is centered on what we term the 6-3-4TM, which represents the basic principles and rules that facilitate the successful application and implementation of regenerative concepts in agriculture, turf and lawn management.  We have used this approach successfully in every corner of North America and in other countries around the globe.  It should be noted that this is a highly adaptive (not prescriptive) approach.  In fact, the moment someone tries to make the 6-3-4TM prescriptive is the moment they are no longer managing adaptively and regeneratively. 

The 6-3-4(TM) refers to the Six Principles of Soil Health, the Three Rules of Adaptive Stewardship and the Four Ecosystem Processes:

Six Principles of Soil Health

All successful regenerative efforts start with, and hinge on, the degree to which managers implement the Six Principles of Soil Health.  Developing a solid understanding of these principles and how best to apply them within a specific farming/ranching (or land management) context is crucial. 

The Six Principles are:

1.     Context – Context is the most important principle and must be defined before applying the other principles.  Context includes production and financial goals and objectives, historical production factors, ecological parameters (both current and historical), community dynamics (family, neighbors, friends, vendors, lenders, etc.), and philosophical beliefs. 

2.    Minimize Disturbance – This includes minimizing disturbance of all types: tillage, synthetic, chemical and manure applications.  All forms of disturbance have the potential to harm soil biology and physical structure.  For example, all tillage damages soil structure, reduces water infiltration, reduces soil organic matter and carbon and increases weed pressure.  At times, one or more of these disturbances may be unavoidable, so a plan must be in place to minimize the impact of that disturbance in order to continue regenerative progress. 

3.    Armor on the Soil – Principally, this means keep the soil covered at all times.  Nothing good happens when we have bare, exposed soil.  Think of bare soil as our own skin.  If we have exposed skin when it is very cold, we suffer.  When we have exposed skin when it is hot, we get sunburned.  Keeping the soil covered with a combination of living plants and plant residue protects soil temperature and moisture, keeps the soil microbes functioning and cycling nutrients and progresses the regenerative process. 

4.    Diversity – Diversity is essential to making regenerative progress.  Diversity includes diversity in plant species, soil microbial species, insects, birds and other wildlife.  Monoculture and low-diversity systems (such as golf courses) significantly limit regenerative progress.  While this is a part of many turf and lawn systems, it is important to introduce diversity where feasible including fringes, edges, etc.  It is simply not possible to make large strides in progress when diversity is greatly limited. 

5.    Living Roots Year-Round – Keeping living roots in the ground for as much of the year as possible supports soil microbial life and heightened microbial activity.  This includes both root mass and root depth which build soil organic matter, enhance water infiltration and carbon sequestration.  Living roots support all life, both below and above the soil surface.  A lack of living roots will produce only negative compounding effects.

6.    Insect, Bird, Animal Integration – Virtually all land-based ecosystems in the world co-evolved through the influence of many different species including beneficial insects, pollinators, birds, and animals.  Providing habitat for and encouraging these species is vital to creating ecologically sound landscapes.   

Applying the Six Principles Toward Golf Management

Soil disturbances are especially prevalent in golf - an industry that regularly uses aeration to allow water and air filtration (controlling soil moisture and turf quality).

As soil health improves, the structure of that soil changes. Aggregates of geological and organic portions of the soil are formed, which inherently creates pore spaces. Think of the texture of a moist, crumbly, but firm chocolate cake. The pore spaces between soil aggregates are what allow both water and air infiltration.

In other words, minimizing or eliminating the disturbances that break down soil structure reduces or eliminates the need to aerate. Mulching of grass clippings will add armor to the soil, and applying compost can furthermore mitigate disturbances while saving costs on fertilizer inputs. Successful examples of this approach comes from Dan Dinelli’s management of North Shore Country Club as a “Living Bio-Filter” in Glenview, Illinois and Andrew Glen’s management of Australia’s first organic golf course, KDV Sport.

Three Rules of Adaptive Stewardship

The three rules of adaptive stewardship are: 

1.      Rule of Compounding

2.     Rule of Diversity

3.     Rule of Disruption

The Rule of Compounding follows the concept that every management decision or practice applied creates a series of compounding and cascading effects that are either positive or negative in nature.  Astute daily observation allows the practitioner to determine the compounding effects occurring and to make necessary adjustments relative to adaptive management.   Careful observation on a routine basis allows the practitioner to develop a keen sense of intuition, which facilitates better management decisions that will create positive compounding effects. 

Epigenetics, or the ability of environmental influences to affect the degree of gene expression in an individual organism (soil microbes, plants, insects, birds, mammals), are an integral part of compounding and cascading effects.  Positive compounding effects result in positive epigenetic effects. 

The Rule of Diversity follows the trend of nature to foster highly diverse ecosystems rather than monoculture or near-monoculture systems.  Diversity refers to diversity in soil microbial species, in soil macro-organisms, plant species, beneficial insects, pollinators, birds and other wildlife.  Monoculture practices negatively impact ecosystem diversity and encourage negative compounding and epigenetic effects. 

Highly diverse agricultural fields, lawns, courses, athletic fields, whether annual or perennial, should have at least three major plant functional groups found in a grassland environment.  These include grasses, legumes, forbs and woody species.  Many of the forbs that grow in perennial pastures, lawns, or courses are often referred to as “weeds,” but these forbs are a very important part of a complete ecosystem because they supply abundant secondary and tertiary chemical compounds (phytochemicals) that benefit the plants themselves, and the life around them.  In addition, forbs produce a distinct array of root exudates that attract a wider and more varied microbial population.

The Rule of Disruption refers to the fact that nature is extremely resilient and can recover from insults (challenges) quite well.  Often, after insults, soil-health parameters are improved, productivity increases and diversity is enhanced.  Adaptive stewardship, by definition, is not a rigid system, recipe or formula.  It is a flexible practice that allows for almost constant adjustment to fit conditions, goals and objectives.

It is important to note that every living cell and organism has a memory and responds to prior experiences accordingly.  Soil microbes have a memory and respond to prior grazing or other management practices.  Plant cells have a memory.  Animal cells have a memory.  If similar practices are employed year after year, then the memory in the cells of all these organisms responds by telling the organism that it does not have to gain resilience.  It becomes accustomed to the practice and basically stagnates. 

The cells in our bodies work the same way.  If we use an athlete as an example, we know that progress cannot be made when performing the same exercise routine at the same intensity and duration over and over.  The only way to progress is to challenge the mind and the body (challenging cellular memory) by significantly altering the exercise routine.  That is the only way an athlete gets bigger, stronger, faster or gains greater endurance.  It is also the only way that your soil microbes, plants, cattle will become more resilient. 

The question becomes, how can we introduce planned disruptions on a routine basis?  These planned disruptions include:

1. Altering any tillage practices and minimizing tillage practices. 

2. Altering fertility amendments used, their rate of application and timing of application. 

3. Altering chemical applications used, rate and timing (i.e., herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, etc.).  Consider other alternatives to chemical “cides.” 

4. Altering mowing heights and timing of mowing. 

5. Increasing diversity where possible.  This can include edges, fringes, transition areas, etc. 

Applying Adaptive Stewardship to Golf Management

Adding diversity presents a key opportunity for applying the Six Principles and Three Rules above, although one that challenges conventional thought (and perhaps golfer expectations, especially for greens, fairways, and tees). 

In cooler zones, bent grass is the primary species on greens because of its growth characteristics. Applied research that includes additional species of grass, representative species of legume and forb groups in mixes for greens in particular will help overcome the issues antagonistic of regenerative progress that monoculture poses. On fairways, the inclusion of fine-leafed varieties of dutch clover and of certain forbs will probably be easier to accomplish than on greens.

The inclusion of rotational grazing, especially by sheep, but also utilizing concentrated populations of chickens might be most appropriate for golf courses. Goats prefer to browse rather than crop close to the soil surface (and they’re not exactly “picky eaters”). You can find several examples of golf using undulate grazing (especially in Europe), but the following video shows a unique and fun example in the US (from Erik Anders Lang’s Adventures in Golf): Sheep Golf

Four Ecosystem Processes

The Four Ecosystem processes are free to us every day.  In a time where practically all input costs have risen significantly, we need to take advantage of what nature provides to us each and every day.  These ecosystem processes are:

1.     Energy Cycle – The energy cycle is simply sunlight captured by plants through photosynthesis.  We may say that we do this every day because we have plants growing and we have sunlight, but we need to consider if we are maximizing the capture of that sunlight or if we are losing much of it through photosynthetic leakage.  If our fields, lawns, courses are consistently mowed short, we are losing a lot of sunlight (leakage).  If we have low-diversity fields, lawns, courses, we are losing sunlight through leakage.  Highly diverse fields, lawns, courses contain plants of differing heights and differing leaf architecture, which allows for maximum sunlight capture and minimal leakage. 

2.    Water Cycle – The water cycle refers to how well our soils capture and infiltrate water from rainfall, snowmelt or irrigation.  Are we replenishing our springs and aquifers?  Do we have too much water and wind erosion occurring?  Good soil water infiltration and retention only happens when we have good soil biology. 

3.    Mineral Cycle – The mineral cycle, also called the nutrient cycle, only works effectively when we have good soil biology and microbiology working for us.  Nutrients come from many sources, including the soil itself, rocks, rain, atmosphere, animal manure and urine, dead and decaying plant materials, and dead and decaying microbes and macro-organisms. 

4.    Community Dynamic – This can also be referred to as diversity.  The greater the diversity that exists in our ecosystem, the better everything functions.  This includes plant, insect, bird and other wildlife species diversity. 

How Golf Management Can Enhance Ecosystem Services and Natural Processes

From its beginning, Driving the Green has sought to explore this fundamental idea. Among more promising solutions for solving the unique challenges of golf course ecosystems, biochar was discussed as one possible way to address soil health and multiple natural cycles (while maintaining the ideal soil profile to meet golfer expectations). 

However, amending soil with biochar is just one possible way to help us build a "house" for microbes in the soil, and it is by definition fixed or inert/non-reactive carbon. However, this is a purchased input and not necessarily required if one has established dynamic, living soil. Including such a specific method (or any of the methods and possibilities for regenerative golf management thus far discussed by Driving the Green articles) ultimately comes back to the first principle of soil health discussed above: CONTEXT. Each golf course (of which there are nearly 40,000 in the world!), has a unique context of challenges and solutions for repairing, restoring, or even enhancing ecosystem services and natural cycles.

Summary

Experience demonstrates that the 6-3-4(TM) management approach is the best and most proven way to make continuous regenerative progress.  The planned, purposeful and intentional application of the Six Principles and the Three Rules allows us to optimize the Four Ecosystem Processes and take advantage of nature’s free resources.  No matter where you are located and no matter what your agricultural enterprises may be, success hinges on how well you capture and utilize the resources that have been in place since the beginning of time.