The farmers’ pride: DIRT
Written by Jonathan Eisenthal
Dirt. Should basic knowledge about dirt be a qualification for holding public office, a question in a citizenship exam or a bullet point in your child’s civics curriculum?
Maybe if farmers ran the world the facts about dirt would be considered essential knowledge, because, according to enthusiast John Heard, “Farmers are very proud of their dirt! They all think theirs is the best!”
Heard, a farm extension agent in Manitoba, Canada, may have one of the more obscure hobbies around. He travels to places where he can examine, photograph and admire samples of the state/provincial soil of each state and province in the US and Canada. A rapt audience at the 2015 Conservation Tillage Conference in Willmar on Tuesday shouted the answers to his questions, “What’s Minnesota’s state bird? State Flower?” (Loon and Ladyslipper, respectively.)
Being that most in the audience were farmers, there were even a few who knew the answer to the next question, “What is Minnesota’s state soil?” (Lester). University of Minnesota Extension Educator Brad Carlson was Heard’s “safari guide” when he was on the hunt for Lester. Carlson brought him to a farm field in rural Northfield, near the Big Steer truck stop along I-35.
“We used that trick — we staked out a spot located right next to a natural reserve, so we were able to lure the Lester out onto open ground, and nab it,” Heard joked.
Heard gave the big picture explanation for the richness of most American soils: “Glaciers pushed the soils south off the Canadian shield…so, you’re welcome!”
Heard told his audience all about his adventures traveling to sites where he can see each state’s chosen representative soil: to date he has examined and photographed 35 soils. It’s not as easy as it might appear, considering that dirt is just about everywhere. Particular soils are found in specific places — to find them one has to know their genetics — the vegetation, geology and climate that generate each soil. The soils in America’s Farm Belt are by-and-large very young. The various glacial tills are about 11,000 years old. On the other hand, some of the soils found in Texas date to the age of dinosaurs, 65 million years ago.
Heard doesn’t take home any samples, for a number of reasons.
“I’m shoot and release,” Heard told the crowd. “This is my 22-gauge…my dutch auger is my weapon of choice. I use it to take a four foot core sample.”
Soil often contains living organisms, not all of them beneficial: “We don’t want what you’ve got!” Heard said, provoking audience laughter. “So far, we haven’t had any occurrence of cyst nematode north of the 49th parallel.”
This tiny critter devastates US soybean crops.
During his hunt for Lester, Heard also met with Prof. Carl Rosen, Department of Soils and Climate, at University of Minnesota. Rosen was one of the key players in the 25-year quest to get Lester named the Minnesota state soil.
Asked what’s so great about Lester soil, Heard demurred, laughing, “That’s like asking me to recommend someone else’s wife, other than my own. The state soil is not always the best, most productive soil. A friend of mine reacted to the selection of a prairie soil in Ohio, called the ‘Miami’ after a regional Indian tribe. ‘Why did they pick the Miami? Why not the nice Chalmers, that’s rich and dark?’
“But it’s not always the best soil. Miami is a soil that requires some management and responds to management. It’s very representative of the state. The beauty of the Lester is that it is not produced purely by prairie alone, nor by forest alone, but it’s transitional. Over the last few thousands of years, the transition between those two types of ecosystems has produced Lester soils, so it’s representative of the history of the state. I’m sure it’s a highly productive soil. I’m sure, in fact, that it’s the second best soil on the Continent, after Newdale Clay Loam (the provincial soil of his home province, Manitoba).”
A list of state soils reads like an intriguing menagerie, each soil with its own story to tell: Drummer (Illinois), Honeoye (New York), Monongahela (West Virginia), Stuttgart (Arkansas), Scobie (Montana), Oxbow (Saskatchewan), Tama (Iowa)…and so on.
What’s the next great trophy Heard wants to bag?
“I’m quite intrigued by the Paloose Area in Washington State. I’ve never been up there in that area. They have huge, large slopes, volcanic hills, where they grow wheat — dryland wheat. They use big, heavy seeders to penetrate and they do zero till. I’ve never been to that area.”
If Heard had his way, soil tourism would be the next big thing.
“I am glad that Michigan has its state soil noted with symbols in their travel guides. Other states should too. Minnesota should have it too. The maps and tourist information centers should ask, ‘You want to know about Lester? Here are the three sites in the state you can visit to see it and learn more.’”
Heard’s keynote celebrated the rich heritage to be found in the soil and told his audience that knowing their dirt can be yet another motivation to conserve soil and engage in farm practices like minimal tillage that keep the soil intact on the landscape. The 2015 Conservation Tillage Conference, the largest gathering of its kind in the upper Midwest, is organized in a partnership between the extension services of University of Minnesota and North Dakota State University. The conference receives support from the Minnesota Corn Growers Association.
