A lot of the discussion around soil health seems to revolve around various indices and indexes which while really important don't always tell the whole story. A lot can be determined from an old fashioned spade and a bit of digging. We regularly hear around here about heavy land, high organic matter levels, high P&K levels and low pHs but what do these soils actually look like and what are the farm management practices behind them? It would be great if you could share on this thread a picture of your soil and a bit of the story behind it...
Below is an excavation from one of the silage fields. Absolutely bogging on the surface but yet some decent dryish aggregate down at 10cm. The big lumps in the pic give the compaction issue away from years of heavy silage traffic. But that doesn't explain why its wetter at the top of the hill. There has been discussion around springs etc but the current theory in this household is its long term soil erosion due to poor sward density. So very little top soil left on the surface which means we are down to basically clay subsoil which goes absolutely bogging with even a splash of rain. Anyone else have this issue and a better theory?
