By Brian Hefty

If you could have ideal soil for crop production, what would it consist of?  Here’s my list:

  1. Good drainage
  2. Organic matter of 5%, maybe even 6% or 7%
  3. High fertility levels, but not excessive to the point it contaminates the water
  4. 18” of topsoil with clay below that
  5. Soil pH in the 6.3 to 7.3 range
  6. Cation exchange capacity (CEC) of 25 to 30
  7. Base saturation of 65% to 80% Calcium, 12% to 25% Magnesium, 4% to 8% Potassium, less than 10% Hydrogen, and less than 1% Sodium.  If I had to pick exact numbers, I’d go for something like 75% Ca, 15% Mg, 8% K, 1.9% H, and 0.1% Na.

Do NOT think this is a “dreamer’s” article.  In other words, don’t fall into the trap of saying, “There’s nothing I can do to make my soil ideal or close to it.”  THERE ARE LOTS OF THINGS YOU CAN DO.  Sure, you can’t make these things happen overnight, but of all the things I listed above, the ONLY thing I don’t think you’ll ever change is whether or not you have clay below your topsoil.

There is absolutely no good reason why you can’t improve your drainage, increase your organic matter, improve your fertility levels, build new topsoil, get your pH in the right range, improve your CEC, or fix your base saturation.  Yes, some of these things can take some time, but if you start now and keep working on it over many years, you’ll begin to see the benefits as you work toward the ideal.

Here’s how we can help you:

  1. We conduct a series of free Ag PhD Winter Workshops in January through March each year.  I realize that Darren and I aren’t the smartest guys in the world, and we certainly have no business telling you how to run things on your farm.  However, I think we can give you some great ideas if you want help answering questions like, “How can I start getting my soils in better shape?”  Plus, if you simply visit with some of the other farmers at these Workshops, you may just learn more from them than you do from us.  We’ll have a host of new topics again this winter.  Just check out www.agphd.com.
  2. We also conduct a series of free Ag PhD Tiling Clinics each winter that can help you solve your drainage issues.  We have all sorts of drainage equipment that will be on display, along with representatives from those companies.  There are also several breakout sessions for both the novice and advanced.  In other words, even if you’ve been to previous Tiling Clinics, you won’t want to miss this year’s.
  3. We have hired a Soil Improvement Specialist, Brian Top.  Brian is a former NRCS employee who can help you with Wetland Determinations, tile design, erosion reduction, building organic matter and CEC, designing waterways and terraces, and other soil improvement practices.  While most environmentalists like to talk about “conservation”, I prefer to focus on soil improvement.  What good does it do to keep soil as is?  Why not make it better?  Brian Top can help.  His advice is free on the phone, at our office, or at our workshops.  There is a fee if he has to come to your farm.  His e-mail address is brian.top@heftyseed.com.
  4. We spend a considerable amount of time training our agronomists (and a few others), so you can get better advice when you’re trying to improve your soils.  While you may invest more of your input dollars in fertilizer than anything else, we often find that soils and fertilizer remain somewhat of a mystery to most.  If you know how to read your own soil tests and how to improve your soils, your odds of improving your yield and your profits in the future increase.
  5. We will also be talking about all these things on Ag PhD TV, Ag PhD Radio, and in the Ag PhD Newsletter.  While most others in ag media focus on the grain markets, farm news, and the weather (all things you can’t control, by the way), we will continue to pour our efforts into helping you from an agronomic standpoint.  Producing higher yields year after year is challenging, but we’ll do everything we can to help you.