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The Living, the Dead, and the Very Dead

Joelle Neff 2023, Uncategorized , , , , , , , , ,
Soil needs microbes, dead plant and animal matter, and carbon to become healthy. Compost is organic matter. Roots add to organic matter.

Organic matter makes up 1-6% of most soils. Organic matter (OM) is what makes your soil fertile. Soil biology can live and thrive in OM and so can your plants. Organic matter is derived from decomposed plant and animal materials, which supplies nutrients for organisms. It also forms different sized aggregates that aid in better gas and water exchanges in the soil. So, what makes up organic matter? OM is made up of three parts: the living, the dead, and the very dead.

The Living

Earthworms and other soil life are important for oranic matter and soil health.

The “living” part of organic matter is made up of the organisms that call soil their home. Bacteria, fungi, viruses, algae, moles, rabbits, woodchucks, plant roots, etc. are all considered living organic matter. Soil organisms make up 25% of the earth’s total biodiversity. In just a teaspoon of soil, there are tens of thousands of different organisms. Soil organisms have 3 main roles:

  1. Mix organic matter into mineral soil
  2. Stabilize soil aggregates and structure
  3. Make new chemicals and new cells in the soil

Microorganisms, earthworms, and insects feed on plant residues and manures for energy and nutrition. In the process, they mix OM into the mineral soil. Earthworms have a sticky substance on their skin that helps bind soil particles together. Other materials produced by fungi have a similar effect. These aggregates make up good soil structure. Roots and other organisms produce channels that stabilize soil structure and help with water infiltration. The sun puts energy into plants through photosynthesis. This energy ends up in the residue of plants after they die which microorganisms break down to create new chemical compounds.

The Dead

Plant residues from corn and other plants lend to healthy soil and organic matter.

The “dead” part of organic matter is made up of the fresh residues including dead microorganisms and earthworms, old plant roots, crop residues, recently added manures, etc. Fresh residues have 3 main roles:

  1. Main source of food for soil organisms
  2. Provide nutrients for living plants
  3. Improve soil structure

Soil organisms eat the dead organic matter for energy, breaking it down which releases the nutrients necessary for plant growth. As the living organisms decompose the dead material, they release chemical compounds that bind soil particles together and benefit soil structure.

Some residues are broken down by soil organisms more easily than others. Proteins, amino acids, sugars, and starches are broken down very easily. While lignin, which is a fibrous compound, takes much longer for organisms to break down.

The Very Dead

Decomposed plant materials make up the topsoil.

The “very dead” part of organic matter is made up of substances in the soil that have already been decomposed by soil organisms and are inaccessible for further breakdown. We refer to this as humus. Humus has 4 main functions:

  1. Slowly release nutrients to plants
  2. Protect plants from harmful chemicals
  3. Reduce compaction
  4. Improve water retention

Humus has a good Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) and has the ability to bind to nutrients that are essential for plants. It slowly releases these nutrients for plants to utilize while reducing the risk of leaching. Some humus molecules can encase potentially harmful chemical compounds in order to protect plants from taking them up. Humus can rebound and prevent compaction problems while also reducing soil density, improving aggregation to hold onto and release water when necessary.

What do we learn from soil organic matter?

Organic matter is extremely important for nutrient availability for crops, soil structure, and water retention. Disturbing soil has effects on the living, the dead, and the very dead parts of organic matter. Tillage destroys the habitat of living soil organisms and aggregates of soil structure. It can also make humus (organic matter that is inaccessible for further breakdown) more accessible to soil organisms for decomposition, releasing carbon into the atmosphere.

Converting your growing operation to a no-till system is easily manageable and can even save you time and money! To learn more about growing no-till click here.

Resources

Magdoff, F., & Van Es, H. (2021). Building Soils for Better Crops: Ecological Management for Healthy Soils (Fourth Edition). Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE).

Bringing Ag and Conservation to the Classroom

Joelle Neff 2021, Quarter 2, Uncategorized , , , , , , , , ,

Where does your food come from? Many students across Indiana give the answer “the grocery store.” Although this is often true, the grocery store is not the starting place of our food. Farm Bureau’s Agriculture in the Classroom Program works with kids around Indiana teaching them about the origins of their food and why farmers are important. Through this program, Farm Bureau holds summer workshops for teachers and volunteers giving them ideas about how to teach agriculture in their hometown school systems.

The Allen County Soil and Water Conservation District had the opportunity to participate and lead a couple of sessions in one of the Agriculture in the Classroom workshops on June 1st at Huntington University. Mike Werling, a farmer and part time employee with the Allen County SWCD, lead a workshop on managing erosion. Erosion is a menace that has plagued agriculture for millennia. Werling used the slake test, a homemade rainfall simulator, and a purchased rainfall simulator to demonstrate different ways teachers can educate about soil health and erosion control in their own classroom.

The slake test shows the structural difference between soil in a no-till situation and soil in a tillage situation. It utilizes two class cylinders filled with water. Mesh wiring drapes like a hammock from the top of the cylinders and submerges in the water. For this demonstration, you must have two different dried peds of soil. One ped should be from a no-till field and the other from a tilled field. When the aggregates are submerged into the water and placed on the mesh wiring, the audience can see the difference between the tilled soil and the soil from a no-till field. The no-till ped will hold together, but the soil from the tilled field will break apart easily in the cylinder. Check out this video of a slake test!

The homemade rainfall simulator can be made out of 3 plastic, two-liter bottles with 1/3 of the plastic cut out of the side. One of the bottles should contain nothing but bare soil. The second bottle should be filled with soil, but covered with residue like straw, leaves, or sticks. The third bottle should contain growing cover crops (clover, annual rye, cereal rye, oats, etc). Water is then poured over the two-liter bottles. The bottle with bare soil will lose the largest amount of soil to erosion, the soil with a residue will lose significantly less soil because of the residue, and the cover crop soil will lose the least amount of soil when “rain” is introduced to it. Check out this video of a two-liter bottle simulator!

The purchased rainfall simulator works very similarly to the homemade version. Watch this video to see how a rainfall simulator works!

The Allen SWCD also shared a lesson on watersheds and water quality. Joelle Neff used an Enviroscape to teach about how water moves downhill and picks up pollutants in a watershed. Neff also taught a lesson called “Growing with Water” which uses data collected from the Water Quality Initiative Program to discuss why pollutants have varying impacts at different times in the year.

An Enviroscape is a model of a watershed landscape that funnels water into the landscape’s reservoir. The model has a farm, factory, nature preserve, golf course, construction site, neighborhood, water treatment facility, roads, and ditches. Pollutants such as fertilizers, pesticides, human and animal waste, oil, road salt, etc are introduced to the landscape. Simulated rain is then applied to the landscape. Students are able to see all the pollutants that have entered the reservoir after the rain. This tool has fairly easy clean up. You can remove the plug in the reservoir to drain water into the basin below.

Tracking sheet on which students can match the colored paper to its designated attribute. The colored pieces of paper represent the percentage of time the attributes are too high or too low.

Like mentioned earlier, “Growing with Water” uses data collected from the Fort Wayne Water Quality Initiative Program which has been collecting water samples weekly in Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio since 2002. Check with your local Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) to see if collect water samples in your area. “Growing with Water” teaches students about the quality of water in their area and the different pollutants that can impact their water systems. Growing with Water shows the variances of water quality in different seasons. Split your class into three different groups: spring, summer, and fall. Have each group come up with a list of what is happening in agriculture and with the weather in their season. Then, provide students a tracking sheet with the percentage of time that the pollutants were higher than they should have been. Have the students work in their groups to make hypotheses about reasoning for the pollutant levels based off what is happening in their season.

If you would like to use any of these demonstrations to teach in your classroom, give the Allen County SWCD a call at 260-484-5848 ext. 3.

Are You Smarter than a 1st Grader?

Joelle Neff 2021, Quarter 2, Uncategorized , , , , , , , , ,

Soil testing is a valuable way for farmers, gardeners, and those with lawns to know what nutrients are already available in their soil, as well as what nutrients should be added. Not knowing what is already available in your soil, makes it easy to over-apply or under-apply fertilizers. Over application can cause negative impacts on water quality if runoff transfers the excess nutrients to waterways. Having too few nutrients in your soil can impede plant growth.

No matter what you’re growing, getting a soil test is important!

On Friday, May 14th, the Allen County SWCD and Purdue Extension partnered to teach soil testing to the first grade students at Washington Elementary School in downtown Fort Wayne. The students did an excellent job listening!

James Wolff from Purdue Extension and Joelle Neff & Ben Taylor from the Allen County SWCD demonstrating soil testing and soil textures to the 1st grad class at Washington Elementary School.

The class learned the importance of getting a soil test. Their faces lit up as they answered questions about how we can protect our water systems by keeping excess nutrients out of them. Excitement filled the school grounds as teachers, students, and agency staff chose different locations to collect soil samples. Each student was able to pick a sampling location.

Soil testing in groups around Washington Elementary School’s property.

The first graders not only learned about soil testing, but they also learned about the different textures of soil. Students felt examples of sand, silt, and clay, as well as play a game that taught them the different properties of these textures. Sand is the largest particle with lots of surface area. It feels course when rubbed between your fingers. It allows for good drainage and doesn’t hold water or nutrients very well. Silt is the medium-sized particle. It feels smooth like baking flour when wet. It doesn’t stick together, so it still has good drainage, but it is small enough to hold water and nutrients. Clay is the smallest soil texture. It sticks together when wet, giving it a sticky texture. Much of the soil in Northeast Indiana has a heavy clay content. Clay does not drain water easily, sometimes remaining waterlogged and causing root rot in plants. On the other hand, clay soils are excellent at holding nutrients.

If you knew all this, congrats! You are smarter than a first grader, but don’t stop there! Keep learning about Conservation Practices like soil testing.

This demonstration was sponsored by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) through our Urban and Small Farms Program. The USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

Flatrock/Auglaize Watershed Management Plan

Courtney Scherer Uncategorized

Flatrock/Auglaize Watershed Management Plan

The Steering Committee and staff have been collecting information about the Flatrock/Auglaize watershed and comparing it to the List of Concerns that the Steering Committee and Technical Advisors developed in their first two meetings.

Stakeholder Concerns
Concerns Relevance
Flooding Corn and soybean fodder washing from fields plugging ditches. Unresolved issue of a limestone shelf in the Flatrock downstream of the Indiana/Ohio state line that holds back water. Lack of coordination between Indiana and Ohio drainage authorities contributes to flooding problems.
Log Jams Log jams in Ohio hold back water in the Flatrock Creek and cause flooding.
Stream/Ditch Bank Erosion Prevalent throughout the watershed especially in areas where stream/ditch banks are subject to flooding.
Need for more Water Quality Research Two sub-watersheds have their headwaters in Ohio and the contribution to poor water quality from the Ohio area is unknown.
Lack of Water Quality Education/Outreach Residents unaware of resource concerns. No materials/activities to date specifically addressing the project area.
High E. coli Levels Historic water quality data collected at Sample Site 401 identifies 34% of E.coli reading exceed the water quality target level.
High Turbidity Levels Historic water quality data collected at Sample Site 401 identifies 100% of Turbidity readings exceed the water quality target level.
High Phosphorus Levels Historic water quality data collected at Sample Site 401 identifies 79% of Total Phosphorus readings exceed the water quality target level.
Faulty Septic Systems Failing systems. Older homes where waste is piped straight to the streams/ditches.
Excessive Nutrients entering Streams/Ditches Runoff from farmland where manure has been land applied. Livestock access to open water. Faulty septic systems.
Excessive Sediment in Water Column Unbuffered agricultural runoff. Eroding stream/ditch banks.
Lack of Filter Strips Unbuffered agricultural runoff. Eroding stream/ditch banks.
No Residue/Cover on Ag Fields Only 10% of fields are in no-till/cover crops.
Unbuffered Tile Field Inlets Tile field inlets provide a direct conduit for sediment and other pollutants to flow directly into the tile system.
Barnyard Runoff Stormwater picks up pollutants from barnyards and carries them to open water.
Stream/Ditches Listed as Impaired by IDEM 303d listed segments for nutrients and impaired biotic communities.
   

A Windshield Survey was completed in April of 2020.  Just like it sounds, windshield surveys are done from a vehicle. This type of data collection is useful for verifying digital information and for pinpointing problem areas. Teams of two to three people drove every road in the project area looking for evidence of the concerns listed by stakeholders and technical advisors. The primary concerns that were identified are listed in the table below.

2020 Windshield Survey: Primary Concerns

County Total # of Points Observed Log Jams Bank Erosion Flooding Unbuffered Field Tile Inlets
Allen 180 1 77 3 117
Adams 130 0 3 0 182
Paulding 27 4 5 1 4
Van Wert 21 0 1 0 15
Total 358 5 86 4 318

Windshield Survey: Other Observations

Numerous sites lack adequate filter strips adjacent to streams/ditches.

Invasive species were observed at a limited number of sites.

Illegal dumping was observed at a limited number of sites.

Improper application of livestock manure was observed at a limited number of sites.

Few sites were observed where flooding has impacted property long-term.

The project team will continue to investigate all of the items on the stakeholder List of Concerns and report back on their findings.

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