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southern MN | I'm combining the field behind my grove today. It is 1320 feet long. Has a short 100 foot or so of light ground but pretty good. Then 200 feet of shale sand - too dry to produce anything - if I get a crop from this the rest of the farm is deep under water! Then 100 feet of heavy clay valley - too wet to produce anything in the middle, but oh boy do the edges between the too dry & too wet produce, have to really slow the combine down! (So that valley is 3 soil types in the 100 feet.....)
Then a yellow clay hill for 100 feet. Then 300 feet of a shallow plate - good soil, a little too wet, but good fairly flat ground. Then a yellow clay hill of 30 feet or so, and a gravel hill 150 feet down pretty light soil but good enough to produce. Then a deep black too wet bottom again, 150 feet or so - bit too wet, but terrific ground if it is a dry year. Then a 200 feet of a gentle hill, clay top - good ground, but not terrific. End the field with tight clay for 90 feet or so.
This is once across that field.
As you move to the south, the hills get steeper, but the valleys shallow out - everything gets higher in elevation. So 3 rounds over, you get the same types of varriations, but with different soils....
I soil test these fields - with the wet issues, many 'fields' tend to be 8-12 acres in size, so I do a lot of soil testing. But it is kind of a hoot to bother, as who knows how to test this - I have 12 different soil types in one trip across this field.
I'm not sure your 2 acre grids would really make much difference - more varriation than a 2 acre grid will even catch.
Oh, and it has miles of tile - just so very many clay shelves, and sandy tops, can't figure out where else to run tile to catch it all....
These old glacial river bluffs are a real challenge. :)
I understand you aren't telling me what to do - I wish you would, I haven't figured it out, and even the coop fert guys who do grid sampling just kinda shrugged when I talked about that 80 acre field....
--->Paul | |
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grid sampleing
