Analyzing poor soil areas and how to repair them is a difficult issue to decide on.
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The area on top is 1.31 acres of very highly eroded Marshall soil. This area yielded 105 bu/A This is one area we plan to haul soil out of the bottom and put a layer of about 4 inches of good topsoil over it. The bottom area is 1.82 acres of highly eroded Marshall soil. This area yielded 156 bu/A |
The above image shows a 3/30/91 aerial image which shows dark areas that are historically wet spots. These wet spots are generally highly eroded. |
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The bottom section shows a large percentage of dark (wet/eroded) areas. When we tilled this farm in the 70s and early 80s we would often disk mucky soil and sometimes get stuck. Since No-Tilling this farm from the late 80s up to present these areas have now disappeared. |
The bottom section above is 2.78 acres and yielded 140 bu/A Using this data has confirmed to us that No-Till helps heal the ground but takes decades to do it. |
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Top section = 1.31 acres of 9C The green areas have a Corn Suitability Rating of 138 bu/A |
The CSR is not an exacting science but used as a long term indicator for yield averages on a certain type of soil.
Since the top section shows a 138 CSR but yielded 105 this fall and has yielded below par for many years we have decided to work on this area to see if we can improve it. Unfortunately since it is very highly eroded the only solution is to return the topsoil through mechanical means.
They say it takes hundreds of years to make one inch of topsoil so even if it is No-Tilled for centuries it would take a long time to naturally rebuild the soil in this area.
