Comparing Soil Properties in Various Management Practices in Ballard and Calloway Counties

Understanding soil qualities is an important key to manage our land better. Various land management as well as various crop rotations may alter soil qualities. This study was conducted to identify the effects of various land management practices between soils in Ballard County, and Calloway County. Soil properties, such as soil organic matter (SOM), bulk density (BD), and water holding capacity (WHC) are some of the vital soil quality indicators. Soil samples were collected from four fields in Ballard County on September 21: (1) no-till single-crop soybean field, (2) river bottom soybean-corn rotation field, (3) no-till double-crop wheat-soybean-corn rotation field, (4) tilled every two-year soybean-corn rotation field. Samples were also collected from four fields in Calloway County on September 23 (1)No-till soybeans in a rotation of corn then two years of soybean, (2) No-till corn in a rotation of corn-soybeans, (3) double-crop no-till soybeans in a rotation of corn-wheat-soybean rotation, (4) tilled sweet corn field in a soybean-corn rotation. Three undisturbed soil samples at 7.5cm depth were taken for each field to determine WHC and BD. Three disturbed samples were collected from each field to determine SOM and soil pH. The range of soil pH in the no-till system ranged from 5.52-6.46 and the tillage system ranged from 4.58-7.00. The highest average percentage of SOM was in Ballard County in a tilled every two-year period. The highest BD was 1.44 (g/cm^3) in Calloway County with a field in a tilled sweet corn field. This experiment will benefit landowners by describing how the various management strategies and crop rotations alter soil qualities. Key Words: Bulk density, Management Practices, Porosity, Soil Organic Matter, Water holding capacity