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Sometimes looking at what you shouldn't do to soil can be more valuable than hearing what you should do.

R. P. 'Doc' Cooke, Blogger

December 17, 2019

2 Min Read
Good soil with plenty of roots
Good, healthy soil has low bulk density.Alan Newport

We live in an information age as there has never been in previous times. Technology abounds and trained persons can retrieve huge (often exhaustive) quantities of info on most subjects in short time periods.

In addition, husbandry has been replaced by technology. This is wrong since technology should support, not replace, husbandry and right teaching, practice and knowledge.

This past summer I was recovering from working a set of cattle in 90-degree humid sun in midday, which is not advisable. I came across some research on bulk density that's worth discussing here.

Bulk density is an indicator of soil compaction that can be measured as dry weight divided by soil volume. A road bed will have a high bulk density. Soil that is high-organic-matter and highly aggregated, such as that at Gabe and Paul Brown’s ranch/farm in Bismarck, North Dakota, has a low bulk density. Low bulk density soil is very desirable.

Quality soil grows quality plants in large amounts and adds quality to our cattle and nutrient density to our beef. Our health depends on all of the above.

There is at least a 74% difference in growth and production in our area between high- and low-bulk-density clay soils. Remember, low-bulk-density soil is higher in organic matter, microbial life, root mass and depth, aggregation, and pores for holding air and water.

High bulk density lowers soil function and plant growth and is defined as a decrease in soil space due to the lowering of organic matter, soil aggregation, roots and life. High bulk density = soil compaction. The result is decreased functions of growth and production of our pastures.

Managing away from high bulk density (soil compaction) might be easiest to understand by reviewing and then avoiding the ways to create the condition:

  1. Apply a bunch of herbicides, parasiticals and insecticides to limit soil life.

  2. Grow or manage for mono- or bi-cultures or away from plant biodiversity.

  3. Apply severe or almost any tillage on a regular basis.

  4. Set-stock cattle.

  5. Practice short-timed rotational grazing with multiple days to weeks of cattle occupation.

  6. Keep pastures short and "pretty."

  7. Manage for lots of fescue, smooth brome, bluegrass and other shallow-rooted, water-loving, cool-season and low-energy plants.

  8. Drive heavy vehicles.

  9. Allow the cattle to create trails and camp in the same areas repeatedly.

  10. Graze the same pastures with the same technique at the same time every year.

Bulk density is a useful test and another inexpensive way of testing for soil improvement or loss. Remember that everything is connected and related to everything. Health problems are not a good deal for anyone. The same is true of high-bulk-density soil. It is all closely related.

 

The opinions of this writer are not necessarily those of Farm Progress/Informa.

About the Author(s)

R. P. 'Doc' Cooke

Blogger

R. P. "Doc" Cooke, DVM, is a mostly retired veterinarian from Sparta, Tennessee. Doc has been in the cattle business since the late 1970s and figures he's driven 800,000 miles, mostly at night, while practicing food animal medicine and surgery in five counties in the Upper Cumberland area of middle Tennessee. He says all those miles schooled him well in "man-made mistakes" and that his age and experiences have allowed him to be mentored by the area’s most fruitful and unfruitful "old timers." Doc believes these relationships provided him unfair advantages in thought and the opportunity to steal others’ ideas and tweak them to fit his operations. Today most of his veterinary work is telephone consultation with graziers in five or six states. He also writes and hosts ranching schools. He is a big believer in having fun while ranching but is serious about business and other producers’ questions. Doc’s operation, 499 Cattle Company, now has an annual stocking rate of about 500 pounds beef per acre of pasture and he grazes 12 months each year with no hay or farm equipment and less than two pounds of daily supplement. You can reach him by cell phone at (931) 256-0928 or at [email protected].

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