Soil Health Field Day: How to Determine if your Soil is Functioning

It’s not too late to register for the Soil Health Field Day will be held on Wednesday, July 5, from 12:00 to 3:00 PM at Bill Bendickson’s farming operation southeast of Williams. The workshop is free and open to the public.
Kent Solberg and Doug Voss from the Sustainable Farming Association will demonstrate ways you can evaluate whether your soils are functioning properly. They will be discussing soil health in the context of Bill’s farming crop rotations, utilizing a rainfall simulator to see the effects of rain on differing soil management methods, and holding break-out stations to try out methods for evaluating soil health. The break-out sessions will consist of hands-on testing including Slake test, nitrate test strips, soil samples, temperature, soil moisture, shovel test, penetrometers, refractometer, and ring infiltrometers. After the breakout sessions, everyone will come back together and discuss soil testing methods (including Haney, PLFA, and TND) and how to evaluate this information.
This workshop is being hosted by the Lake of the Woods Soil and Water Conservation District and the Natural Resources Conservation Service with funding provided by the Clean Water Land and Legacy Amendment. Please RSVP to receive specific location details by either calling 218-634-1842 ext. 4 or emailing staff@lakeofthewoodsswcd.org