Comparing Agricultural Soil Properties in Northern and Southern Kentucky

Soil quality indicators are beneficial in agriculture when it comes to understanding soil type and its effects on productivity. The objective of this study was to evaluate several soil properties including bulk density, soil organic matter, soil pH, soil water holding capacity, soil water at field capacity, macroporosity, and total porosity under four different land uses in Northern and Southern Kentucky. The study was conducted on two farms in Meade county (North) and in Christian county (South) Kentucky, respectively. Soil samples were taken from four different land use systems on each farm which inlcude rowcrop, hay, pasture, and forrest. Three sample replications were taken from each site. Twenty four samples were taken using soil cores and another twenty four samples were collected using a shovel. Each site from each farm have been occupied by the same land use system for at least the past fifty years. Soil cores were collected at depths of 0 to 7.5 cm in order to measure bulk density, macroporosity, total porosity, water holding capactiy, and water at field capacity while samples taken using a shovel were collected in order to measure soil organic matter along with soil pH. Data was analyzed using microsoft excel. Data shows that the most significant change occurred between the bulk density of Southern Kentucky cropland of 1.45 g/cm^3 and Northern Kentucky forrest of 1.09 g/cm^3. Compaction was more prevelant in high traffic areas such as Southern Kentucky cropland due to higher clay contents. Typically, cropland in Southern Kentucky and hay fields in Northern Kentucky had higher bulk densities at 1.45 g/cm^3 and 1.32 g/cm^3, respectively. This study provides important information about the potential differences of soil properties in different regions of Kentucky, in this case the Northern and Southern regions