January 15, 2025 • 19 mins
Soil series names hold invaluable information that can inform land use and agricultural practices. Join us as we explore soil series and their characteristics, featuring insights on collecting data, understanding soil maps, and highlighting the significance of favorite series like Fargo and Williams.
• Soil series names relate to specific regions and provide insight into soil characteristics
• The importance of five soil-forming factors in classification
• How to access soil survey data for informed land management decisions
• The relevance of local soil characteristics in agriculture and farming
• Engaging with soil series can lead to deeper insights about land and environmental quality
CLORPT: Climate, organisms, relief, parent material, time
NRCS Web Soil Survey: https://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/WebSoilSurvey.aspx
SoilWeb App for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.casoilresourcelab.soilweb&hl=en_US
SoilWeb App for Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/soilweb/id354911787
KML of SoilWeb for use in Google Earth: https://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/soil_web/kml/SoilWeb.kmz
Soil Series Data Explorer (where you can pop in the name of a soil series and get information about that soil): https://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/sde/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jodi (00:00):
And now it's time for a tiny bite of knowledge.
Sarah (00:12):
When we think of a name, for instance, like a name of a
person like Darin Johnson, forexample, we think of somebody
who is really good at buildingcomputers, computer programming,
has a fantastic voice for radio.
Has a fantastic voice for radio.
I mean, these are some of thecharacteristics that you know.
(00:35):
Helps me identify who DarinJohnson is.
But did you know that soilshave names as well, Jodi?
Have you ever thought aboutwhat's in a name for a soil?
Jodi (00:51):
I have, and I was lucky to take some classes in college
about it, which was amazing, butthe information that's
contained in those soils namesis also available to all of us
as well.
Talk about today what a soilseries name is, where you can
find that information and why itmight be helpful when we're
making maps to know a little bitabout what is actually behind a
(01:12):
soil's name, Absolutely so.
Sarah (01:16):
the name of a soil is called the soil series.
So oftentimes a soil series, itliterally is a name.
So some of the ones I can thinkof off the top of my head would
be Fargo, Williams, Glyndon,Renshaw, Daiglin.
There's tons of different namesout there for soils, but they
(01:38):
are unique and they can beidentified by different
characteristics of that soil.
So when you think of a name ofa soil, you're going to think
about a particular soil color, atexture.
You know how sandy, how clayeyis it, the structure within that
(01:58):
soil, the soil pH, what type ofparent material, and how was
that soil formed?
What climate is that soil in?
Jodi (02:09):
So, for example, you can have a soil that has very
similar color and texture but ifit's a North Dakota versus
Arkansas, it's going to havevery different uses, simply
because of the climate that it'ssurrounded in, absolutely, and
that's the fun part like, if youreally dig into this, there's
almost a soil series name,almost any soil series name you
(02:32):
can think of.
Well, they're mostly based ontowns or like areas where that
soil series was first named.
But we'll get into that laterabout why that is and who does
those namings and stuff.
But, as sarah was saying, like,as you move across the country
as climate changes, as your fivesoil forming factors change
right when we think aboutclorped climate, living
(02:54):
organisms, relief, parentmaterial and time, those things
change as you move across theregion, north and south and east
to west, and so in the UnitedStates alone we have hundreds,
even thousands of different soilseries that describe and really
classify the different soilsthat are found across this
(03:15):
country.
Sarah (03:16):
One of the places where you can find the information for
all of these soil series is ina soil survey.
The soil survey is actually allof these soils mapped out with
lines.
Usually, when you find thisinformation, it tends to be in a
vector file format.
It's lines, it's not colors,and that's very normal.
Jodi (03:43):
Right and that's very normal Right, like if you look,
if you look at a soil seriesmaps, it's a lot of like
squiggly lines demarcating wherethose different soil series are
Right.
And if this was, you know, the1960s or the 1970s when a lot of
these soil surveys were made,at least for the for North
Dakota you would find thisinformation in a soil survey
book for North Dakota.
You would find this informationin a soil survey book and maybe
(04:04):
that'd be at your local FSAoffice or your local library or
maybe, like me, you just havethese in your library for
whatever reason, because you'recool.
Sarah (04:10):
That's one of the characteristics of Jodi.
It's who she is.
That's what it means for it tobe a Jodi name person.
You have to own soil seriesbooks.
Having saying that, I'm veryjealous.
Jodi (04:21):
I?
I would suspect you have one inyour office someplace.
I have one.
I don't have very many exactly.
Okay anyways.
But my point is is like whenyou open that soil survey book
or you find this soil surveyinformation online or you bring
it up in your GIS software, it'soften going to be of these maps
are going to be you know,squiggly lines that have a
(04:43):
letter and maybe a number thatrefer back to a soil series that
that refers to for that area,and this is the same information
.
Say, if you're looking at anauction for some soil that's
coming up for sale, they willmost likely have the soil survey
data there, so telling whatname of the soil is there, how
much of that area of the landthat's for sale is covered by
(05:04):
that soil series.
Same thing for when you go andlook at the productivity index
the productivity index, exactly.
So all this information that'sgenerated from that is based on
this classification system ofsoil survey that was done to
name and classify these soils.
Sarah (05:21):
Absolutely so.
Jodi nailed it the soil surveyreally is basically a bunch of
squiggly lines showing theboundaries between where these
soils begin and end.
And yeah, a lot of these soilsurveys were determined by
scientists who are soilclassifiers, very specialized
people who know how to look atthe soils and analyze where they
(05:43):
fall on the landscape and takea look at the pedons, which is
basically a big, huge soilsample in a block format, so you
can really see what's going ongoing down.
That's kind of what it's like.
But anyway, they started doingthis back in like the 1960s.
That's when they startedclassifying some of these soils
and these soil surveys.
(06:04):
In some places they have beenupdated, but in many places they
haven't, and what's interestingabout that is how accurate they
actually were for identifyingthese soils.
So it's just it's fun to seethe maps, it's fun to see where
they fall in the landscape andinteresting to think at how well
(06:25):
people did back in the 1960s.
So, Jodi, what is your favoritesoil series?
Jodi (06:33):
My favorite soil series is the Williams soil series.
And why is that?
The Williams soil series is myfavorite soil series and like I
sound like every sixth graderthat's ever studied any fun
facts about North Dakota,because the William soil is the
state soil of North Dakota.
But, more importantly, on myfarm in Western North Dakota
(06:54):
we've got a couple of fieldsthat have William soils and it's
it's hands down the mostproductive on our farm.
It's got a lot of organicmatter.
It's probably the darkest soilthat we have.
That isn't in an area.
That's really wet, it's reallyfriable.
You pick it up in your handsand it's dark and it just kind
of crumples and it feels moist.
It's an awesome soil.
I love it.
(07:14):
It's my favorite.
That's why it's my favorite.
Sarah, what's your favoritesoil?
Sarah (07:18):
series.
So my favorite soil series is aFargo, and there are some
people out there that are goingto kind of probably question why
.
I think that you see, a Fargoclay is characterized by its
high clay content.
It is a very sticky soil.
It has it's it.
It's a smectitic clay, whichmeans it's a very active,
(07:41):
chemically active clay.
It's got a very high cationexchange capacity.
Generally it's got very it'svery dark soils, very, very dark
, high organic matter it has.
A Fargo clay actually is notnecessarily considered to be a
prairie soil.
It is considered to besomething that can have that
(08:05):
prairie concept on the soilsurface, but it's got more clay
content to it and so it's a verydynamic soil, to be honest with
you, and it can be verycharacter building.
In some places the farmers liketo call it a 10-minute soil
because it will go from being aplace where it can really be
worked with tillage equipment totoo dry really quick.
(08:29):
But it will start off too wetand you'll just make a big, huge
smeary mess out there and thenit'll be about right and then 10
minutes later it's going to betoo dry and then you make
another big mess on the otherside with a lot of soil lumps in
it.
Jodi (08:41):
So why are we talking about this?
Why should we even care aboutsoil series in the first place?
And that's a good question.
Why we care is that thesecharacteristics can be really,
really helpful in determiningsome generalities when we're
approaching these areas.
So, for example, when I amlooking at for me on my own farm
(09:03):
, as we look at new farmland torent new places where we might
want to consider breaking upthings, if I'm looking at a web
soil survey and I see thatthere's an area of a field
that's Williams that we haven'tbroken up yet, that's an area
that I'd really want to considerputting crop onto because it is
a fantastic soil series.
(09:25):
On the other hand, as you'veheard me talk about before,
there are some pH issues inWestern North Dakota and there
are a couple of soil series thatI closely associate with being
problematic and potentiallyhaving low pH.
For me in my area.
Specifically, if I see a lephersoil series, it's a pretty good
indication that it probably haskaolinidic clay, doesn't have a
(09:49):
very good CEC, doesn't have avery good ability to buffer pH
and may have a pH problem, andso just knowing a little bit
about these characteristics ofthese soil series can be really
helpful in predicting how theymight act when we start putting
crops on those soils.
Sarah (10:07):
I think that's really a great segue.
I'm going to talk just for twoseconds about another soil
series called Renshaw, and I'mgoing to bring that up because a
Renshaw soil series is oftenfound further west in North
Dakota, but it definitely hasgravel underneath in the soil
layers definitely prone todrought issues.
(10:28):
I actually have a little bit offarmland that I work with right
outside my backyard here thathas that soil series in it, and
routinely there's going to beissues with with drought on that
particular little spot withinthe field.
It's not that soil series doesnot predominate the entire field
that I'm thinking of, but it isin a spot and it is on a top of
(10:49):
a hill.
I cannot get my soil probe togo down within that.
It crunches all the way downand bends tips and probes
because it's so rocky andgravelly and consistently the
yield is much lower, alsobecause of its sand content.
Along with that, it doesn'thave the cation exchange
capacity, and so I've noticedthat oftentimes nutrients like
(11:12):
to leach through there.
So these are things that we canthink about when we're seeing,
but I think it's alsointeresting to note that while I
have taken a look at soilseries information and I use it
in this manner all of the time,just as we're having a
conversation.
I have only used it to put itover the top of my zones when
(11:33):
I'm making zone maps to help meverify where these soils might
be occurring in relationship tozones that I'm making.
And that's because the zonesthat I make tend to be
reflective of crop response,whether that's using imagery
with vegetative index in imagery, indicating where plant
(11:55):
material might be more or lessgreen across the field, or yield
data itself.
I really want to understand theproductivity potential and what
the plant is feeling and wherethe plant has that opportunity
for better growth or maybe notquite as good a growth.
Jodi (12:12):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think I hear exactly whatyou're saying, sarah.
These are really handy mapsthat we can help to kind of see
where soil changes in our fieldsor where that has the potential
to change.
But it's not something that Iwould ever use as a single layer
to make a zone map out of.
It's information about somegeneralities and characteristics
(12:33):
of soil, but it's not tellingme exactly where in the field
that I've got differentvegetative growth potentials.
So, for example, again let'sthink about when these soil
surveys were made.
A lot of them were made 60years ago and they're not meant
to be specific for every singlefield.
There weren't soil surveyorsthat went out to every single
(12:54):
field and dug a soil pit andcharacterized every single field
.
They're really looking at thelandscape position here and
making generalities over alandscape, and so they're not
exact those lines.
They're not exact to yourspecific field.
You want to get more specificto that when you're making your
zone maps, and so they're afantastic tool to have to help
(13:16):
learn more about what's going onin the field, why you might be
seeing certain things in thefield, but it's a layer that I'm
not going to average into orjust use as my base zone map.
Sarah (13:31):
I think that's a great point.
I actually am aware of.
Well, there's a place right outhere by Halstead on the North
Dakota side, where, for, quitefrankly, miles and miles, the
soil survey is mapped as justFargo-Hegney.
So yeah, one soil type for along way out there, and when you
hear the name Fargo-Hegney,that's actually Hegney is
(13:52):
another soil series.
But what we're saying is thatwithin that area you've got a
percentage of characteristicsfrom each one of those soil
series.
But what we're saying is thatwithin that area, you've got a
percentage of characteristicsfrom each one of those soil
series, so you're not actuallyidentifying just one or the
other.
You're saying it's a complex ofboth and so oftentimes, and the
first one is the one that'sdominating, but you're going to
have those characteristics ofthe other.
Okay, Anyway, throughout thisarea outside of Halstead,
(14:16):
there's places there where formiles and miles, it's mapped as
one soil series.
And so there was a company thatwas making zones just from soil
series data, so it brought up ahalf section from that area and
they couldn't do it because itwas only one soil series on that
(14:40):
same field, because drainage issuch a big issue, Even using
some of the topography featuresof the field along with because
there's ditching and everythingthat happens in potholes, that
happen in this neck of the woods.
You can bring those topographyfeatures up and then bring in
some satellite imagery and it'samazing the zones that you can
get from that combination.
And of course those are justtwo different data layers.
Other places it might be moreappropriate to be bringing in
(15:02):
salinity data or those kinds ofthings.
But it makes the point thatsometimes it's nice to use that
layer.
Oftentimes I'm always turningon my soils map just so I can
verify where the soil changesare occurring in that field,
especially in relationship tothe zones that I'm making.
But I'm not going to use it asa standalone option.
Jodi (15:24):
So a couple of things I want to add to this too, and
just A to add on to what Sarahsaid about the Fargo-Brenshaw no
Fargo-Hegney, Fargo-Hegney andthen also talk a little bit
about where you can find thisinformation.
So first let's talk about whereyou can find this information.
So first let's talk about whereyou can find this.
The NRCS hosts this informationonline, and so if you just look
up Web Soil Survey, it'll bringyou to a portal.
(15:45):
It can be a little bitcumbersome to use.
Personally, I have downloaded aKMZ that I can just pop into my
Google Earth, and I also havedata with an ADMS as a data
layer so that I can just pop itover the maps and I'm making an
ADMS.
So there's a couple ofdifferent ways that you can
access this.
Sarah (16:04):
If you are an ADMS user, we do actually have that
formatted into county datafolders that are accessible.
If you talk to us here, Keep inmind it's free data.
Anybody can download it and goand find that data from the NRCS
and create your own data layerfor your own.
(16:24):
But if you need help with that,we certainly have that
capability here as well.
Jodi (16:28):
One other thing, too, is on your phone you can also
download the soil survey.
Is it called soil survey, websoil, web soil?
And if you use your locationservices on your phone, it can
tell you what the soil beneathyour feet is mapped as.
And what I want to point outabout this is that when you're
(16:50):
on the web soil survey or you'relooking at the soil data in
ADMS, you'll notice that it'snot just telling you one soil
Like.
There might be a dominant soilthere the soil series might be
called something but there'salso percentages of other soil
types listed there too.
Again, this comes back to thefact that when we're looking at
(17:10):
soil survey, what they're tryingto do is map a whole landscape
of soils, and so they can't belike.
There might be some cases wherethis is 100% this soil, but
we're living in and soils arecomplex and there can be
inclusions of these other soiltypes as you go across that area
.
That's mapped as one thing, sojust keep that in mind.
When you're looking throughthis data, you might see more
(17:32):
than just one name pop up.
Sarah (17:34):
But if you are going on a big road trip to someplace that
you haven't visited, I will behonest.
I use web soil all the time,mostly for entertainment
purposes as I'm driving down theroad, because I could find out
what soil I'm on.
It's super fun.
You should try it.
Jodi (17:49):
Please invite both Sarah and I on any road trips.
We are super fun as road tripcompanions and party companions,
yeah.
Sarah (17:58):
I'll go wow, this is now now complex of Hegney and Fargo.
Hegney is now the dominant soilseries.
It's super fun.
Jodi (18:05):
Learning more about soils and soil series is really fun,
and what I would encourage allof you guys to do is go out,
figure out what the soil ismapped as underneath your feet
or in the areas that you cover,what your favorite soil is,
figure out the name of it and,if you don't have one of those
in mind, Google your own name,for example.
Sarah (18:29):
I'm looking at the Ryan series here because it's a close
competitor to Fargo, believe itor not.
But the Ryan soil series isactually also a more sodic
version of basically a Fargo,believe it or not, but the Ryan
soil series is actually also amore sodic version of basically
a Fargo soil.
So you can like Google a firstname or and and put like Ryan
soil series, if you're trying todo that, and then then you'll
(18:52):
see a soil series pops up andthen you can check it out.
Jodi (18:56):
There is a whole lot of fun to be had here, and so, as
you're exploring soils.
Sarah (19:02):
Go ahead and respond to our social media posts.
Give us a review on our podcastand let us know in the review
what your favorite soil seriesis.
Tune in next time for a tinybite of knowledge from GK
Technology where?
We have a map and an app forthat.
And now it's time for a tiny bite of knowledge.
Sarah (00:12):
When we think of a name, for instance, like a name of a
person like Darin Johnson, forexample, we think of somebody
who is really good at buildingcomputers, computer programming,
has a fantastic voice for radio.
Has a fantastic voice for radio.
I mean, these are some of thecharacteristics that you know.
(00:35):
Helps me identify who DarinJohnson is.
But did you know that soilshave names as well, Jodi?
Have you ever thought aboutwhat's in a name for a soil?
Jodi (00:51):
I have, and I was lucky to take some classes in college
about it, which was amazing, butthe information that's
contained in those soils namesis also available to all of us
as well.
Talk about today what a soilseries name is, where you can
find that information and why itmight be helpful when we're
making maps to know a little bitabout what is actually behind a
(01:12):
soil's name, Absolutely so.
Sarah (01:16):
the name of a soil is called the soil series.
So oftentimes a soil series, itliterally is a name.
So some of the ones I can thinkof off the top of my head would
be Fargo, Williams, Glyndon,Renshaw, Daiglin.
There's tons of different namesout there for soils, but they
(01:38):
are unique and they can beidentified by different
characteristics of that soil.
So when you think of a name ofa soil, you're going to think
about a particular soil color, atexture.
You know how sandy, how clayeyis it, the structure within that
(01:58):
soil, the soil pH, what type ofparent material, and how was
that soil formed?
What climate is that soil in?
Jodi (02:09):
So, for example, you can have a soil that has very
similar color and texture but ifit's a North Dakota versus
Arkansas, it's going to havevery different uses, simply
because of the climate that it'ssurrounded in, absolutely, and
that's the fun part like, if youreally dig into this, there's
almost a soil series name,almost any soil series name you
(02:32):
can think of.
Well, they're mostly based ontowns or like areas where that
soil series was first named.
But we'll get into that laterabout why that is and who does
those namings and stuff.
But, as sarah was saying, like,as you move across the country
as climate changes, as your fivesoil forming factors change
right when we think aboutclorped climate, living
(02:54):
organisms, relief, parentmaterial and time, those things
change as you move across theregion, north and south and east
to west, and so in the UnitedStates alone we have hundreds,
even thousands of different soilseries that describe and really
classify the different soilsthat are found across this
(03:15):
country.
Sarah (03:16):
One of the places where you can find the information for
all of these soil series is ina soil survey.
The soil survey is actually allof these soils mapped out with
lines.
Usually, when you find thisinformation, it tends to be in a
vector file format.
It's lines, it's not colors,and that's very normal.
Jodi (03:43):
Right and that's very normal Right, like if you look,
if you look at a soil seriesmaps, it's a lot of like
squiggly lines demarcating wherethose different soil series are
Right.
And if this was, you know, the1960s or the 1970s when a lot of
these soil surveys were made,at least for the for North
Dakota you would find thisinformation in a soil survey
book for North Dakota.
You would find this informationin a soil survey book and maybe
(04:04):
that'd be at your local FSAoffice or your local library or
maybe, like me, you just havethese in your library for
whatever reason, because you'recool.
Sarah (04:10):
That's one of the characteristics of Jodi.
It's who she is.
That's what it means for it tobe a Jodi name person.
You have to own soil seriesbooks.
Having saying that, I'm veryjealous.
Jodi (04:21):
I?
I would suspect you have one inyour office someplace.
I have one.
I don't have very many exactly.
Okay anyways.
But my point is is like whenyou open that soil survey book
or you find this soil surveyinformation online or you bring
it up in your GIS software, it'soften going to be of these maps
are going to be you know,squiggly lines that have a
(04:43):
letter and maybe a number thatrefer back to a soil series that
that refers to for that area,and this is the same information
.
Say, if you're looking at anauction for some soil that's
coming up for sale, they willmost likely have the soil survey
data there, so telling whatname of the soil is there, how
much of that area of the landthat's for sale is covered by
(05:04):
that soil series.
Same thing for when you go andlook at the productivity index
the productivity index, exactly.
So all this information that'sgenerated from that is based on
this classification system ofsoil survey that was done to
name and classify these soils.
Sarah (05:21):
Absolutely so.
Jodi nailed it the soil surveyreally is basically a bunch of
squiggly lines showing theboundaries between where these
soils begin and end.
And yeah, a lot of these soilsurveys were determined by
scientists who are soilclassifiers, very specialized
people who know how to look atthe soils and analyze where they
(05:43):
fall on the landscape and takea look at the pedons, which is
basically a big, huge soilsample in a block format, so you
can really see what's going ongoing down.
That's kind of what it's like.
But anyway, they started doingthis back in like the 1960s.
That's when they startedclassifying some of these soils
and these soil surveys.
(06:04):
In some places they have beenupdated, but in many places they
haven't, and what's interestingabout that is how accurate they
actually were for identifyingthese soils.
So it's just it's fun to seethe maps, it's fun to see where
they fall in the landscape andinteresting to think at how well
(06:25):
people did back in the 1960s.
So, Jodi, what is your favoritesoil series?
Jodi (06:33):
My favorite soil series is the Williams soil series.
And why is that?
The Williams soil series is myfavorite soil series and like I
sound like every sixth graderthat's ever studied any fun
facts about North Dakota,because the William soil is the
state soil of North Dakota.
But, more importantly, on myfarm in Western North Dakota
(06:54):
we've got a couple of fieldsthat have William soils and it's
it's hands down the mostproductive on our farm.
It's got a lot of organicmatter.
It's probably the darkest soilthat we have.
That isn't in an area.
That's really wet, it's reallyfriable.
You pick it up in your handsand it's dark and it just kind
of crumples and it feels moist.
It's an awesome soil.
I love it.
(07:14):
It's my favorite.
That's why it's my favorite.
Sarah, what's your favoritesoil?
Sarah (07:18):
series.
So my favorite soil series is aFargo, and there are some
people out there that are goingto kind of probably question why
.
I think that you see, a Fargoclay is characterized by its
high clay content.
It is a very sticky soil.
It has it's it.
It's a smectitic clay, whichmeans it's a very active,
(07:41):
chemically active clay.
It's got a very high cationexchange capacity.
Generally it's got very it'svery dark soils, very, very dark
, high organic matter it has.
A Fargo clay actually is notnecessarily considered to be a
prairie soil.
It is considered to besomething that can have that
(08:05):
prairie concept on the soilsurface, but it's got more clay
content to it and so it's a verydynamic soil, to be honest with
you, and it can be verycharacter building.
In some places the farmers liketo call it a 10-minute soil
because it will go from being aplace where it can really be
worked with tillage equipment totoo dry really quick.
(08:29):
But it will start off too wetand you'll just make a big, huge
smeary mess out there and thenit'll be about right and then 10
minutes later it's going to betoo dry and then you make
another big mess on the otherside with a lot of soil lumps in
it.
Jodi (08:41):
So why are we talking about this?
Why should we even care aboutsoil series in the first place?
And that's a good question.
Why we care is that thesecharacteristics can be really,
really helpful in determiningsome generalities when we're
approaching these areas.
So, for example, when I amlooking at for me on my own farm
(09:03):
, as we look at new farmland torent new places where we might
want to consider breaking upthings, if I'm looking at a web
soil survey and I see thatthere's an area of a field
that's Williams that we haven'tbroken up yet, that's an area
that I'd really want to considerputting crop onto because it is
a fantastic soil series.
(09:25):
On the other hand, as you'veheard me talk about before,
there are some pH issues inWestern North Dakota and there
are a couple of soil series thatI closely associate with being
problematic and potentiallyhaving low pH.
For me in my area.
Specifically, if I see a lephersoil series, it's a pretty good
indication that it probably haskaolinidic clay, doesn't have a
(09:49):
very good CEC, doesn't have avery good ability to buffer pH
and may have a pH problem, andso just knowing a little bit
about these characteristics ofthese soil series can be really
helpful in predicting how theymight act when we start putting
crops on those soils.
Sarah (10:07):
I think that's really a great segue.
I'm going to talk just for twoseconds about another soil
series called Renshaw, and I'mgoing to bring that up because a
Renshaw soil series is oftenfound further west in North
Dakota, but it definitely hasgravel underneath in the soil
layers definitely prone todrought issues.
(10:28):
I actually have a little bit offarmland that I work with right
outside my backyard here thathas that soil series in it, and
routinely there's going to beissues with with drought on that
particular little spot withinthe field.
It's not that soil series doesnot predominate the entire field
that I'm thinking of, but it isin a spot and it is on a top of
(10:49):
a hill.
I cannot get my soil probe togo down within that.
It crunches all the way downand bends tips and probes
because it's so rocky andgravelly and consistently the
yield is much lower, alsobecause of its sand content.
Along with that, it doesn'thave the cation exchange
capacity, and so I've noticedthat oftentimes nutrients like
(11:12):
to leach through there.
So these are things that we canthink about when we're seeing,
but I think it's alsointeresting to note that while I
have taken a look at soilseries information and I use it
in this manner all of the time,just as we're having a
conversation.
I have only used it to put itover the top of my zones when
(11:33):
I'm making zone maps to help meverify where these soils might
be occurring in relationship tozones that I'm making.
And that's because the zonesthat I make tend to be
reflective of crop response,whether that's using imagery
with vegetative index in imagery, indicating where plant
(11:55):
material might be more or lessgreen across the field, or yield
data itself.
I really want to understand theproductivity potential and what
the plant is feeling and wherethe plant has that opportunity
for better growth or maybe notquite as good a growth.
Jodi (12:12):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think I hear exactly whatyou're saying, sarah.
These are really handy mapsthat we can help to kind of see
where soil changes in our fieldsor where that has the potential
to change.
But it's not something that Iwould ever use as a single layer
to make a zone map out of.
It's information about somegeneralities and characteristics
(12:33):
of soil, but it's not tellingme exactly where in the field
that I've got differentvegetative growth potentials.
So, for example, again let'sthink about when these soil
surveys were made.
A lot of them were made 60years ago and they're not meant
to be specific for every singlefield.
There weren't soil surveyorsthat went out to every single
(12:54):
field and dug a soil pit andcharacterized every single field
.
They're really looking at thelandscape position here and
making generalities over alandscape, and so they're not
exact those lines.
They're not exact to yourspecific field.
You want to get more specificto that when you're making your
zone maps, and so they're afantastic tool to have to help
(13:16):
learn more about what's going onin the field, why you might be
seeing certain things in thefield, but it's a layer that I'm
not going to average into orjust use as my base zone map.
Sarah (13:31):
I think that's a great point.
I actually am aware of.
Well, there's a place right outhere by Halstead on the North
Dakota side, where, for, quitefrankly, miles and miles, the
soil survey is mapped as justFargo-Hegney.
So yeah, one soil type for along way out there, and when you
hear the name Fargo-Hegney,that's actually Hegney is
(13:52):
another soil series.
But what we're saying is thatwithin that area you've got a
percentage of characteristicsfrom each one of those soil
series.
But what we're saying is thatwithin that area, you've got a
percentage of characteristicsfrom each one of those soil
series, so you're not actuallyidentifying just one or the
other.
You're saying it's a complex ofboth and so oftentimes, and the
first one is the one that'sdominating, but you're going to
have those characteristics ofthe other.
Okay, Anyway, throughout thisarea outside of Halstead,
(14:16):
there's places there where formiles and miles, it's mapped as
one soil series.
And so there was a company thatwas making zones just from soil
series data, so it brought up ahalf section from that area and
they couldn't do it because itwas only one soil series on that
(14:40):
same field, because drainage issuch a big issue, Even using
some of the topography featuresof the field along with because
there's ditching and everythingthat happens in potholes, that
happen in this neck of the woods.
You can bring those topographyfeatures up and then bring in
some satellite imagery and it'samazing the zones that you can
get from that combination.
And of course those are justtwo different data layers.
Other places it might be moreappropriate to be bringing in
(15:02):
salinity data or those kinds ofthings.
But it makes the point thatsometimes it's nice to use that
layer.
Oftentimes I'm always turningon my soils map just so I can
verify where the soil changesare occurring in that field,
especially in relationship tothe zones that I'm making.
But I'm not going to use it asa standalone option.
Jodi (15:24):
So a couple of things I want to add to this too, and
just A to add on to what Sarahsaid about the Fargo-Brenshaw no
Fargo-Hegney, Fargo-Hegney andthen also talk a little bit
about where you can find thisinformation.
So first let's talk about whereyou can find this information.
So first let's talk about whereyou can find this.
The NRCS hosts this informationonline, and so if you just look
up Web Soil Survey, it'll bringyou to a portal.
(15:45):
It can be a little bitcumbersome to use.
Personally, I have downloaded aKMZ that I can just pop into my
Google Earth, and I also havedata with an ADMS as a data
layer so that I can just pop itover the maps and I'm making an
ADMS.
So there's a couple ofdifferent ways that you can
access this.
Sarah (16:04):
If you are an ADMS user, we do actually have that
formatted into county datafolders that are accessible.
If you talk to us here, Keep inmind it's free data.
Anybody can download it and goand find that data from the NRCS
and create your own data layerfor your own.
(16:24):
But if you need help with that,we certainly have that
capability here as well.
Jodi (16:28):
One other thing, too, is on your phone you can also
download the soil survey.
Is it called soil survey, websoil, web soil?
And if you use your locationservices on your phone, it can
tell you what the soil beneathyour feet is mapped as.
And what I want to point outabout this is that when you're
(16:50):
on the web soil survey or you'relooking at the soil data in
ADMS, you'll notice that it'snot just telling you one soil
Like.
There might be a dominant soilthere the soil series might be
called something but there'salso percentages of other soil
types listed there too.
Again, this comes back to thefact that when we're looking at
(17:10):
soil survey, what they're tryingto do is map a whole landscape
of soils, and so they can't belike.
There might be some cases wherethis is 100% this soil, but
we're living in and soils arecomplex and there can be
inclusions of these other soiltypes as you go across that area
.
That's mapped as one thing, sojust keep that in mind.
When you're looking throughthis data, you might see more
(17:32):
than just one name pop up.
Sarah (17:34):
But if you are going on a big road trip to someplace that
you haven't visited, I will behonest.
I use web soil all the time,mostly for entertainment
purposes as I'm driving down theroad, because I could find out
what soil I'm on.
It's super fun.
You should try it.
Jodi (17:49):
Please invite both Sarah and I on any road trips.
We are super fun as road tripcompanions and party companions,
yeah.
Sarah (17:58):
I'll go wow, this is now now complex of Hegney and Fargo.
Hegney is now the dominant soilseries.
It's super fun.
Jodi (18:05):
Learning more about soils and soil series is really fun,
and what I would encourage allof you guys to do is go out,
figure out what the soil ismapped as underneath your feet
or in the areas that you cover,what your favorite soil is,
figure out the name of it and,if you don't have one of those
in mind, Google your own name,for example.
Sarah (18:29):
I'm looking at the Ryan series here because it's a close
competitor to Fargo, believe itor not.
But the Ryan soil series isactually also a more sodic
version of basically a Fargo,believe it or not, but the Ryan
soil series is actually also amore sodic version of basically
a Fargo soil.
So you can like Google a firstname or and and put like Ryan
soil series, if you're trying todo that, and then then you'll
(18:52):
see a soil series pops up andthen you can check it out.
Jodi (18:56):
There is a whole lot of fun to be had here, and so, as
you're exploring soils.
Sarah (19:02):
Go ahead and respond to our social media posts.
Give us a review on our podcastand let us know in the review
what your favorite soil seriesis.
Tune in next time for a tinybite of knowledge from GK
Technology where?
We have a map and an app forthat.
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