Demonstrations Teach Soil Health Comparisons
Have you ever wondered how to demonstrate differences in the health of soils? At a recent meeting of the Soil Health Nexus team, Stan Boltz of the South Dakota Natural Resources Conservation Service shared tips and tricks he uses when demonstrating soil health principles to producers and other farm advisors. During his presentation, he showed how to:
- run a rainfall simulation with a table-top rainfall simulator
- compare infiltration into different soils
- estimate rainfall infiltration in one soil
- do a slump test
- run a slake test, and
- show wind erosion on a tilled field.
The presentation was recorded and is available below.
| Aggregate Stability (slake test introduction) | |
| Rainfall Simulator | |
| Slump test and more on the Slake test | |
| Jar infiltration | |
| Jornada field soil aggregate test and more on the Slake test | |
| Rainfall infiltration field demonstration | |
| Wind erosion demonstration |
Authors: Leslie Johnson, University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Reviewers: Paul Gross, Michigan State University