Treaty Silt Loam

We were repairing a tile near a main outlet yesterday where the field voles had chewed through and my excavator guy Jack asked what in the world is this stuff?  I couldn't remember so I called Bill at NRCS and told him where I was standing and he looked up the soil type for me.  It is a rare soil type called Treaty Silt Loam.

Jack had asked because it was black goo at 3-5 feet deep.  It is a glacial overwash as the soil scientist call it.  Here is a better explanation if I can get this formatted:

TpA—Treaty silt loam, 0 to 1 percent slopes, overwash
Landform: Flats and depressions on the Wisconsinan till plain

Position on the landform: Summits(this is unusual as our farm is the highest point around here)

Treaty and similar components: 90 percent Contrasting Components: Reesville soils: 10 percent

Land capability classification: 2w(That is a Class II wet with I being prime farm land and VIII mountainous)

Prime farmland: Prime farmland if drained
Soil Properties and Qualities
Available water capacity: About 10.2 inches to a depth of 60 inches

Cation-exchange capacity of the surface layer: 9 to 17 meq per 100 grams

Depth class: Very deep

Depth to root restrictive feature: Greater than 80 inches

Depth to the top of the seasonal high water table: At or near the surface  Water table kind: Apparent

Ponding: Very long  Depth of ponding: 0.0 to 0.5 feet    Drainage class: Poorly drained

Flooding: None(actually that is near where they have put the flooding sign on SR 28 a few times during record rainfall the past 8 years.)

Organic matter content in the surface layer: 4.0 to6.0 percent

Wow, it took me 10 minutes to format this from the website explanation to my blog but this hits the high spots, HyMark High Spots, get it?  This is what you learned in my sophomore soils class.  We spent the best days of fall in soil pits.  You don't have to be a farmer, excavator or soil scientist to appreciate this knowledge in application to life as food is applicable to all!

I told LuAnn if we had 1000 acres of this we might be in the position of the young man who came to Jesus this week in the Parable I told.  I figure I can increase grain production in this little patch about 200 bushels per year so that translates into $2000 more income per year with a $1000 repair.  That patch drowned out from the tile break the last two season and had been getting worse each year.  The big one inch stone should help too, and leveling the depression around the tile.

I hope we can finish the project today.

Ed