Cultivation Of Crops: Soil Moisture

Showing posts with label Soil Moisture. Show all posts

Apr 10, 2017

Topsoil Moisture

We sampled North of Springfield today. Topsoil moisture is good. Some of the low ground was wet, even though it has been 3 days since rain.

Mar 31, 2017

We have been hearing some concerns expressed about dry soils in our area. Rainfall the past week should have relieved that concern in the short run.

Topsoil moisture on Wednesday when we went to the field was just OK. Topsoil should be well soaked at this point. Septic tank borings through the winter to a depth of 5 feet have showed that subsoil was at least moist and in some places saturated,

Soil Moisture does not change much until tillage and transpiration start. In a dry period it is easy to mess up your topsoil moisture with too much tillage. With wetter topsoil, that is even easier to do.

The real problem is that through the winter, the rainfall pattern was a dry one. Until the past 2 days, I can't remember the last time we had at least an inch of rain. If that dry pattern were to continue into the summer, crop yields would suffer. The fact is that we cannot grow top yielding crops without timely rains in June, July, and August.

Mar 1, 2016

Soil Moisture Report

Soil Moisture

I got to work outdoors today. I had a septic investigation in Ramsey, and late in the day another near Hillsboro. There are still puddles out there, and near Ramsey, there was a water table at about 20 inches. It was quite a mess to pull soil from 5 feet deep. Southeast of Hillsboro, I pulled into the field with the truck. The soil was still fairly damp, but firm. One boring had a water table at 30 inches, but the other 2 had none within 5 feet. Landscape was fairly uniform, so I am had pressed to say why. There was some machinery moving on the roads, but I did not see anyone attempting field work.

Feb 6, 2016

Soil Moisture

I did a septic tank evaluation today near Irving. It was in a fairly flat area. The ground was covered with weed residue. There was no frost at all in the afternoon. The soil had a water table at a depth of 2 feet.

Dec 24, 2015

Very Wet

Soil Moisture

NWS radar shows we had a little under and inch to a little over an inch. I made a trip to Shipman today and it looks much wetter.

Dec 12, 2015

Fulton and Schuyler Counties

corn cribs Soil Moisture

I worked in the Bader area today. In contrast to yesterday, soil moisture was short in some of the topsoil borings.

I also got a good shot of a purple corn crib.

Dec 10, 2015

Subsoil Moisture Report

Soil Moisture

I did a septic tank investigation today near Herrick in Shelby County. The soil was moist to about 30 inches. Below that depth, moisture is short. We just finished the 3rd wettest November on record in Illinois. In my opinion, we are headed into winter with adequate moisture. We are likely to recharge that soil easily by April 1 planting time.