Soil Case Study

This conservation plan has been put together to identify any soil, salinity, fertility, water, grazing and manure management issues that Cattleland Feed yards might have and to make recommendations on how to improve them. The goal is to make the land owner more informed and knowledgeable of the beneficial management practice and get them to commit to improving them. This will need to be done in a realistic and financially manageable way.

It may seem like we will never run out of soil, but soil conservation is a critical issue in Texas today. So if the entire farming community implemented at least one type of soil conservation effort we would widely improve our agriculture benefits. These benefits would include saving energy, by using less diesel fuel for tractors. Implementation of these farming practices could save water and reduce several types of diseases and pests that farmers encounter when planting their crops. This is no time to be cutting corners on expenses because the United States spends about $37.6 billion each year on soil

Today, in the United States, farmers and ranchers produce a wide variety of commodities for food, fuel, and fiber in response to markets. These farmers understand and recognize the significance of managing their soil as well as their plant productivity. America’s farmers are true professionals because crop production is a very complex business.

Dallas, located in the northeastern part of the state, has a variety of different types of soil. The Gulf Coastal Plain is composed of red and yellow soils, which can be beneficial for the vegetation if proper fertilizer is used (Escape to Texas). Moving more towards central Texas, it has “soils based on weathered decayed limestone” (Escape to Texas). Much of the Dallas area has grassland vegetation, which comes from Mollisol soils, which are rich in calcium and other nutrients (Ritter). The intensely hot summers cause the soil to possess high moisture retention so as not to dry up easily, but when they do become dry, they have a “granular structure and soft consistency” (Ritter). A typical soil profile of this soil type would include “dark brown to black organic rich surface layers” (Ritter). The soil in this area has been used to alter the landscapes, and recently have been used for “cropland and pasture to

While watching the video-presentation of Tony Avants’ speech on soils, I came to realize the importance of not only the quality of soil that one begins with, but also the quality of products used to enhance it. He states that there is a common gardening myth that plants do not recognize the difference between chemical and organic fertilizers. While that may be true for plants, the microbes in the soil know the difference and have a preference. They prefer the fertilizers made by nature. It would be easy to add chemicals to increase the Carbon these microbes feed off, but it would be much more cost effective, and better for the environment to use a Carbon-rich compost to fertilize one’s soil.

The physical and chemical properties of the soil were analyzed. The soil of the experimental site was lateristic, fairly homogenous with good drainage and moderate acidic. The details of physical and chemical properties are shown in Table 3.2 and the summaries of methods are described in Appendix

One critical problem of industrial feedlots is that they devastate the environment due to the grand scale of emissions, odors, and bi-products of the oversized “farms”. With tens of thousands of livestock, comes hundreds of thousands of pounds of waste and manure. Many times, feedlot owners allow the manure to settle in the lots without disposing of it properly because there is just too much of it to contain. This waste can seep into the ground, supersaturating the earth with nitrogen, ammonia, phosphorus, and oxygen-stealing compounds; moreover, manure serves as a breeding ground for diseases and pathogens. In an agricultural paper published by the University of Minnesota, Dr. Mindy Spiehs (animal scientist) and Dr. Sagar Goyal (molecular

Since the dawn of the industrial revolution in the 19th century, both food production and the world’s population have experienced dramatic increases. The last five years have seen particularly significant benchmarks, with the world population reaching 7 billion in 2011. Looking to the future, experts have estimated that the population is likely to surpass 9 billion by 2050. As a result, the same amount of land (30% of the earth’s surface) will be expected to feed increasing numbers of people. The area will have to be used more intensively leading to soil deployment. For the above reasons fertilizers, will be in great

Erosion removes the surface soils, containing most of the organic matter, plant nutrients, and fine soil particles, which help to retain water and nutrients in the root zone where they are available to plants. Thus it affects the productivity of plants. The remaining, the subsoil, tends to be less fertile, less absorbent and less able to retain pesticides, fertilizers, and other plant nutrients. There are over 17,000 soil types recognized worldwide. They vary widely in structure, erodibility, fertility, and ability to produce crops. A generalized soil profile for a humid, temperate climate is showed. When the natural vegetation is cleared for agriculture, soils become exposed to erosion and loss of soil fertility. The removal of the above-ground natural

The first presenter talk about carbon sequestration and the capturing carbon using trees and how the Carbon concentration decreased from soils. He also explained about how carbon credit works for Australian farmers. Further, the Soil Carbon Matrix Method (Keith, H., et al, ND) was explained in terms of soil assessment to increase soil quality by carbon sequestration.

Abstract. The study aims to understand the impact of organic inputs on strength and structural stability of aggregates in a sandy loam soil. Tensile strength, friability and water stability of aggregates; and the carbon contents in bulk soil and in large macro (>2 mm), small macro (0.25-2 mm), micro (0.053-0.25 mm) and silt+clay size (<0.053) aggregates were evaluated on soils from a long-term experiment with rice-wheat rotation at Modipuram, India with different source and amount of organic C inputs as partial substitution of fertilizer N. Addition of organic substrates significantly improved soil organic C (SOC) contents, but type and source of inputs had different impacts. Tensile strength of aggregates decreased and friability increased through organic inputs, with maximum effect under green gram residue (rice)-farm yard manure (wheat) substitution. Higher macroaggregates in crop residue and FYM treated soils resulted in higher aggregate mean weight diameter, which also had higher SOC contents. The bulk SOC had a strong relation with MWD of aggregates, but SOC content in all aggregate fractions were not necessarily effective for aggregate stability. The SOC content in large macroaggregates (2-8 mm) had significant effect on aggregate stability, although aggregates <0.25 mm had negative impact. Partial substitution of nitrogen by organic substrates improved aggregates properties and SOC content in bulk soil and aggregate fractions, although the relative effect varied with

High rates of soil erosion, losses of organic matter, depleted fertility, productivity, disruption of soil structure, chemical and heavy metal contamination, and degradation of air and water quality have ignited the concept of soil quality assessment and its management. (Susan et al., 2004). Soil quality is defined as the capacity of the soil to function. This includes: physical stability and support, transport and retention of nutrients, water infiltration and drainage, maintenance of biodiversity and habitat. These functions are essential to sustain biological productivity, maintain environmental quality and promote plant and animal health (Jeffery E Herrick, 2000 and Susan et al., 2004).

Soil is the precious gift of nature to the mankind. All the plant family, animal kingdom and human society at large depend upon soil for their sustenance directly or indirectly.  Ironically, soil is the most neglected commodity on the earth. Shifting cultivation on the hill slopes, non-adoption of soil conservation techniques, and over exploitation of land for crop production due to population stress, leads  to enormous soil erosion. It will take hundreds of years to form an inch of soil, but in no time it gets washed away down the slope due to erosion.

From a practical point of view, anionic polyacrylamide (PAM) has been commonly used as a soil conditioner to reduce erosion by clay flocculation and binding particles and stabilizing the outer aggregate surfaces. Moreover, PAM is highly resistant to microbial degradation, with a decomposition rate of ∼10% yr-1, which has led to its efficient use as a soil conditioner for long periods. Wu et al. (2012) revealed that PAM showed a minor effect on 14C allocation in plant parts and soil in a short-term 14C labeling study. Except the observations of PAM biotransformation, little information is available on the PAM efficiency on the microbial activity in soils. In contrast, the agronomic benefits of biochar (BC) application to improve soil quality and increase SOM is growing. Applying BC improves the physicochemical properties of soil and maintains C and N sources, owing to a pronounced increase in plant growth and yield. Moreover, wood biochar decreased the soil bulk density and enlarged diameter of aggregates, thereby reducing soil loss. However, little is known about the effect of BC on soil microbial populations and activities. BC or PAM showed minor effect on the decomposition of SOM based on CO2 evolution because of the stability of these conditioners. A high portion of 14C- maize residues were stabilized in the soil after adding BC and PAM as the binders by the occlusion of labile residue-C into aggregates. Understanding the short-term dynamics of C caused by PAM or BC is

Constant deterioration of soil health during past three decades is one of the most serious second generation problems of Green Revolution in India, causing not only stagnation in food production but also threatening the nutritional and economic security. The problem is more acute in high productivity areas of Indo-Gangetic Plain Region i.e., Trans-Gangetic Plains (TGP, representing Punjab and Haryana) and Upper Gangetic Plains (UGP, representing Delhi and Western U.P.), where intensive cereal-cereal cropping systems are predominantly followed with indiscriminate use of nutrients and irrigation water, and also with excessive tillage using heavy machinery (Yadav et al. 1998). Major soil health problems emerged due to continuous adoption of this kind of farming are depletion of soil organic matter (SOM) both in terms of quality and quantity, emergence of multi-nutrient deficiencies and deterioration of soil physical properties - especially sub-surface compaction and poor aggregation (Hobbs and Morris 1996). The sustenance of high yields in these otherwise productive areas is becoming increasingly difficult owing to soil-related constraints. Hence, the farmers have started using greater than recommended rates of N fertilizers, particularly in the most prevalent rice-wheat cropping system, in order to maintain the yield levels that were attained previously with relatively less fertilizer. Such emerging trends of indiscriminate N fertilization need to be curbed, for