Nurturing the soil is a high priority for Lundberg Family Farms. Most farmers consider the soil to be merely an anchor for the plant's roots, and treat it as a sterile medium in which they attempt to control growth, weeds, insects and diseases with various chemicals and burning. The Lundbergs view the soil as a living organism rotating in cover crops, regularly leaving fields fallow, and encouraging waterfowl to rest on our fields in the winter. Between rice crops, we pant nitrogen-fixing legumes as a cover crop on our Organic and Premium fields.
Cover crops improve soil fertility and tilth, and supply organic matter to the field.
We leave our Organic fields fallow every other year, and our Premium fields every two to three years. Generally we have less than two-thirds of the land in production at a time. This aerates and rests the soil, and allows time for cover crops to mature, produce abundant organic matter and supply nitrogen. We have some areas of our farm that we do not cultivate at all, such as the field where we compost rice hulls. They provide natural fertilization.