Do soil health practices work on tough soils? An NRCS soil health expert in Northeast
Missouri says, “yes,” and uses the “claypan” soil in his area as an example.
Dr. David Doctorian describes the claypan soil as having a restrictive layer.
“It’s going to have a high clay content and what we end up
with is a pursed water table when we get a lot of rainfall. And so, that becomes
a restrictive layer for plant roots, especially when we’re thinking about annual
crops like corn or soybeans or wheat.”
Doctorian tells Brownfield soil health practices, which
include cover crops, can indeed break the tough soil down to encourage better
crop growth and overall soil health.
Continue reading Cover crops help clayplan soils at Brownfield Ag News.
