JUDA — Sixty landowners, farmers and agronomists interested in learning about soil and how to properly manage it for optimal health, attended the Summer Field Day on Aug. 21 at Jerry and Barb Daniels farm, east of Juda. Farmers of the Sugar River, a producer-led watershed group sponsored the event.
The soil pits were a little muddier than ideal, but still usable to the group.
Francisco Arriaga from the University of Wisconsin Department of Soil Science explained how soil structure contains pore space which is essential for infiltration of water into the soil profile. Maintaining good soil structure creates a sponge-like surface able to uphold and bounce back from heavy loads.
He also emphasized that improving the soil biology is an important part of management.
The rainfall simulator was shown by Jeff Deniger, Area Resource Soil Scientist with Natural Resources Conservation Service. Five soil trays of different managements were exposed to an inch of rain- one tray was of annually tilled soil, two were from no till fields- one in corn and the other soybeans, a sample of grass from a yard and lastly a sample from a prairie. The cropped fields had runoff to some degree. The two samples with a good sod layer protecting the soil, hardly had any runoff. The interesting part for attendees was how much soaked into the soil. The grasses were able to “harvest” or infiltrate the rain that fell on them.
The no till soils had significantly more rain in their infiltration jar than did the tilled field.
The tilled field had destroyed most of the pore spaces in the soil structure that would have allowed water to percolate through the profile, so the majority of the water ran off that system. This runoff problem leads to a surface water quality problem. Farmers of the Sugar River are working to reverse this problem.
The producer-led watershed group, Farmers of the Sugar River, is funded largely by DATCP and partially by generous local businesses. There is still cost sharing available to farmers in the watershed to get help in planting cover crops this fall. About half of the money is allocated but there is still enough to fund eleven more farmers.
Interested farmers need to contact Tonya Gratz with the Green County Land and Water Conservation Department by email Tonya.Gratz@wi.nacdnet.net or phone 608-325-4195 ext. 121 to sign up for funding.
During a lunch catered by Jim’s Backyard BBQ, farmers were able to network with others about cover crops and what conservation practices were working on their farms. They also had the opportunity to view planters and the variety of attachments available to get seed planted.
The next event for the group will be at a cover crop plot off County OK on Oct. 11 with more details to come.
