March 24 2026 Whether you have naturally low inherent organic matter such as in the southeastern United States or high inherent organic matter like prairie soils in the Upper Midwest, how you manage your farmland has...

Feb. 18 2026 Livestock producers know that defecation is daily, and if livestock were penned, then serious piles would accumulate over time. Livestock excrement contains nutrients, and those nutrients can be a liability...

Dec. 29 2025 Are you feeding hay on the same pasture this winter as you have in the past? Winter hay feeding is a common activity around the country, and your livestock require sufficient energy to withstand the winter...

Oct. 28 2025 A balanced uptake of nutrients allows plants to thrive. Potassium (K) is one of the three primary nutrients, along with nitrogen and phosphorus, that is often applied in the greatest quantities. But how...

Aug. 25 2025 Soil can become compacted from heavy trampling with livestock grazing on pastures or frequent tractor traffic over hayfields

May 27 2025 We are all familiar with the three primary nutrients required by plants: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K)

April 25 2025 One of the soil functions of widespread interest to country and city dwellers alike is providing a firm foundation, either for growing plants or for the variety of buildings that we house our livestock,...

March 17 2025 Is it safe to assume that we all look forward to a bit of spring green up?

Jan. 7 2025 Have you ever wondered how all those cattle dung patties simply disappear from one year to the next?

Nov. 25 2024 When evaluating the quality of land for farming, one of the key features of interest will be its organic matter content

Sept. 26 2024 In the February 2023 issue of this column, I introduced the forces binding soil into water-stable aggregates

May 28 2024 In the March 2024 issue of this column, it was questioned whether pastures were just right in maturity or too old and in need of renovation

March 26 2024 Do fresh, newly planted pastures provide better nutritional quality for grazing livestock than older pastures?

Feb. 24 2024 Out of sight, out of mind! This adage can certainly apply to our view of soil and the organisms that live in it

Jan. 25 2024 This edition of Sunrise on Soil offers some ethical and spiritual musings of soil

Nov. 13 2023 Organic matter is a key indicator of soil health and soil function, affecting the natural supply of nutrients, buffering against pH changes, softening soil to resist compaction, holding more water for...

Oct. 13 2023 Carbon is fundamental to all life. It forms the backbone structure of carbohydrates (composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen), which are the initial products from the miraculous process of photosynthesis

May 3 2023 To have healthy, functioning grasslands that are nutritious as livestock forage, productive over time, resilient in the face of periodic droughts, that resist the erosive action of intense thunderstorms,...

March 31 2023 Can soil really be considered healthy or unhealthy? Wouldn’t that require soil to be a living entity? How could this be if soil is made up of sand, silt, and clay particles and simply holds water...

Feb. 1 2023 Have you ever wondered why clay soils have such a good ability to absorb water? And yet, these same soils can become muddied and are prone to standing water in wheel tracks from vehicles traversing a