Soil Health Field Day

A Soil Health Field Day will be held in the Easton area hosted by the Faribault County Soil Health Team members will speak about their experience utilizing cover crops, different tillage practices, and equipment. A soil pit will also be available to view at this event. A FREE networking lunch will follow the field day.

BYOS: Bring Your Own Soil for a Slake Test

Slake Test Instructions

Use a shovel to collect soil aggregates. Size of aggregates used in the demonstration should be approximately 2.5" in diameter.
Randomly collect aggregates from two locations in the same field to show contrast in managment.
Coleect aggregates from heavily disturbe field, such as one wiht conventional tillage. Know the tillage history of the field for discussion purposes.
Collect aggregates fromt he edge of a field or at a fence row of the same field where the soil is undisurbed.
Remove and discard chunks of soil with grass and roots from the collected soil.
Dry all collected soil in a dark, low humidity environment for approximatly 7 days or dry in the microwave.

Bring your collected soil to the field day and we will have jars, screens and water to perfore the slake test. The slake test measures the stabily of soil when exposed to rapid wetting.