Soil Management (Crops)

Learn how to improve your soils and benefit from them

The quality of your soil is paramount to plant and therefore stock productivity. This course examines:

• The proprieties of soil
• Testing
• How to manage and improve soil
• Soil problems
• Sustainability of soils and much  more.

Soil is the foundation for profitable farming. There are many things that can be wrong with soil (e.g. poor nutrition, chemical imbalance, structural problems such as drainage, lack of microbial life etc). Often minor and relatively inexpensive treatments can make a huge difference to productivity, but the problems need to be identified first, and that requires a solid understanding of soil theory and management practice.

Whether you are living or working on a grazing property or work in the area of land restoration, the study of soil management goes hand-in-hand with the study of pasture management. This is a solid course that covers the topic effectively.

Lesson Structure

There are 8 lessons in this course:

1. Physical & Chemical Properties Of Soils
2. Soil Testing Methods
3. Sustainable Soil Management
4. Soils & Managing Earthworks
5. Land Degradation & Other Soil Problems
6. Container Growing
7. Soil Science & Health
8. Soil Management

Aims

• Develop a broad understanding of the physical and chemical properties of soils.
• Develop skills in sampling and field testing soils for basic physical and chemical properties.
• Understand the principles, methods and techniques of sustainable soils management.
• Understand the principles and practices of earthworks.
• Understand causes and remediation methods of land degradation and soil problems.
• Develop a broad knowledge in the use of growing containers for agriculture.
• Develop strong understanding of soil science and its impact on plant growth.
• Develop practical knowledge about managing soil for particular cropping uses.

What You Will Do

• Define terms related to the production and management of agricultural soil, such as manure, micorrhyzae, ameliorant, pore space, micro-nutrient, denitrification, ammonium fixation, chemo autrophic organisms, colloids, buffering capacity, leaching, compaction.
• Create a compost heap.
• Discuss ways that human activity can destroy soil structure.
• Explain how pH affects nutrient availability.
• Explain the function of different nutrients in soils/growing media, such at nitrogen and phosphorus.
• Analyse a soil test report in order to evaluate the soil for horticultural or agricultural use.
• Describe appropriate soil testing methods for different situations.
• Compare the use of organic and inorganic fertilisers in different situations.
• Develop a detailed nutritional management plan for a particular crop, following organic principles.
• Identify suitable earth moving equipment for different tasks, and the conditions of use.
• Explain various methods for assessing drainage at a site.
• Evaluate the use of earthworks to refurbish or improve a specific site.
• Research Environmental Protection Agency (or equivalent) recommendations for cleaning up chemical spills and for disposing of old household chemicals and their containers.
• Discuss advantages and problems of importing soil from elsewhere for crop production.
• Explain appropriate methods of stabiliising an unstable or erosion-prone slope.
• Remove a soil profile, describe the different soil layers, and compare the effects of different soil treatments on the soil profile.
• Report on prevention and control methods for soil degradation, and development of sustainable soil management practices in a case study.

Why Soils are so Important

In the field, we record soil properties that are simple to measure without elaborate equipment. Attributes which can be seen directly (colour, structure) or measured directly (depth of horizons, structure form, size of structural units) or felt directly (texture, resistance to penetration) require little equipment. Presence of carbonate and pH are simple chemical tests using solutions that can be handled in the field.

Nutrient levels, pH, salinity, depth of soil, texture (properties of sand and clay), structure (form and arrangement), porosity (air space), consistence (ability of soil to withstand rupture) and even colour can all affect plant growth independently and interdependently."

MAJOR TYPES OF SOIL PROBLEMS
A number of major soil related problems can occur including:
  1. Loss of soil fertility (see section on nutrition)
  2. Erosion
  3. Salinity
  4. Soil compaction
  5. Soil acidification
  6. Build up of dangerous chemicals

There are several ways to improve soils, and these include:

• Adding sand to clay soils to improve drainage.
• Adding clay or organic material to sandy soil to improve its ability to hold water.
• Adding organic matter to sand, while improving water holding capacity, will not affect drainage to the same degree as the addition of clay will.
• Adding sand or organic matter will help break up a clay soil, making cultivation easier. Although the two will act in different ways.
• Adding organic matter will usually improve the nutritional status of any soil.
• Use of soil ameliorants lime, gypsum, sulphates.
• Crop rotations and correct cultivation.

When you understand soils and nutrition better, you will have improved your capacity to grow crops better. You ability to be a profitable and sustainable farmer of horticultural crops will be improved.

WHY IS THIS SO IMPORTANT?

• Soils are the foundation of all good horticulture; just as much as plant knowledge.
• If soil conditions are matched to the plant cultivar's needs you have a very good chance of achieving the best possible crop production, both in terms of quality and quantity.
• If you harvest more, and your quality is higher; you can sell more produce, and sell it easier. This situation amounts to increased profit - increased income - and it can be the difference between survival and total farm failure when conditions are bad.
• Hence a good knowledge of soils can make all the difference to the success of a crop.

This course is ideal training for anyone working in the cropping sector.

The knowledge you gain here will also make you more employable when seeking work in cropping or any other sector of horticulture or agriculture.

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