Soil Differences Between Worked and Unworked Ground in Western Kentucky

Soil often loses its richness in nutrients over decades. Tracking fields that are constantly being worked against a field that has not been worked in several years were observed in this study to see better soil qualities.The objective of this experiment was to determine the changes of soil organic carbon (SOC), soil pH, macroporosity, and soil water at field capacity (SWFC). For this study, 24 undisturbed and 24 disturbed soil samples were taken across eight fields. The three worked fields were located in Lyon county Kentucky and were used for corn and soybean production. All three fields had a clay and silt mixture. The unworked ground was located in Christian county Kentucky and had been in CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) for 10 years, before it was used for tobacco production. The row crop ground is tilled every two years to break up compaction. The CRP ground was completely undisturbed. The soil pH of the worked ground used for growing corn and soybeans was between 5.5 and 6.5. The unworked ground of CRP had soil pH between 4.5 and 6.0. The SOC in the worked ground averaged at 3.96% while the unworked ground was 2.7%. Macroporosity of the unworked ground was 21.5%, while the worked ground was higher with an average of 23.9%. The average of SWFC was 19.89% found on the unworked ground and 21.19% on the worked ground. Overall, it was found that worked ground had better soil properties than unworked ground in Western Kentucky. Keywords: Corn, CRP, Kentucky, Soil Water, Soil pH, Soybeans, Tilled