 My name is Jeff Hemingway. I'm a state soil quality specialist with NRCS. We're going to go through and talk About a number of different characteristics today that we have to do with soil quality We're going to use our rainfall simulator to do just that first of all the rainfall simulator is built to do just this put on about an inch and a half to two inches of water on simulated soil conditions so that we can look at different parameters infiltration runoff Raindrop detachment aggregate stability We'll be talking about each one of those independently, but we'll be trying to define those more and Explaining that further but first of all let's explain just this is that the rainfall simulator has several different vegetation conditions land use conditions if you want to go at that The first one over here is is a pasture. It's was cut out of my pasture this morning It's basically a loam soil that is in the blue grass and a brown grass sod The next one is is a no-till soil actually and the adjacent field so still my same field Two months ago. I seeded that down to a cover crop and you can actually see that here The no-till field that we're talking about With residue. This is wheat residue No-till field with out residue and then my neighbor's conventionally till field What we're actually going to be looking at is the runoff that's associated coming off The rainfall simulator and that's depicted it'll actually show up in the front set of jars here And then if you can actually see that behind here We actually had another another set of jars and that second set of jars it will actually capture the infiltrated water That is the water that's moving through the soil As we go through the demonstration so with that what I'm going to do is I'm going to start the rainfall simulator And we're going to start to talk a little bit more about some of those characteristics Okay, one of the first things I like to talk about is some of the first things that that we're going to see and Raindrop impact on the soil surface is extremely important. We've got During a rain event we've got that raindrop hitting the soil surface Detaching that soil it has a lot of kinetic energy. We don't really understand that very well I don't think and we don't see that very much because we don't typically stand out in the rain And watch it but as the example here is if you see that we have a soil that's that's covered versus a soil That's not covered and when I say covered it actually can't even have surface residues or it can have a crop canopy on it That's protecting that soil if it's not protected that raindrop actually hits the soil surface That is goes through a process of detachment and then that soil particle goes into transport what we call transport and it's moved And the positive either locally or and or off-site We've got a a depiction of that raindrop hitting the soil surface right here. It's blown up many times It looks like a very small explosion that raindrop hits the soil surface again. Those those raindrops bounce up Into the air and you can actually see that on the rainfall simulator right over here On the back you can actually see those soil particles actually have been detached and they're bouncing up And at some point almost immediately one of the first things that I like to point out was just this So we've got a conventionally tilled soil on the far right Which one actually started runoff event first the conventionally tilt one Okay, why was that? Well, you know, we've been taught I think through our educational process that that if we go until a soil that's beneficial Well, let's talk some more about that Infiltration is actually that process of water moving through the soil It has to be maintained if we're going to continue to move water in the soil And if it's if we end up with that raindrop hitting a soil surface We not only end up with that erosion process starting, but we also end up with what we end up with those soil particles Actually being detached reoriented on the soil surface and actually plugging the soil matrix the pores the macro pores and what happens We end up with Roth Very simple thing to understand and we can actually see it being depicted here very quickly Now what happens in those other conditions if we have something that's interfering something that's in the way That's absorbing that kinetic energy of that raindrop then that Energy is not expressed on the soil surface We don't end up with that detachment of the soil particle and we end up with infiltration actually being maintained over time Any individual that that talks about residue is being extremely important really understands this process and you can't over and emphasize that just The impacts of residue itself Residue on the soil surface or a crop canopy absorbs that energy and maintains that Infiltration water continues to move down through that soil profile. All right Now one of the things that that I like to really talk a little bit about is soils are made up of poor space In some cases it might be half of the profile that we're actually talking about actually might be poor space That is either air or and or water the other that we typically think about is either mineral material and or organic material What we don't think about very much is that additional? Organic material that's in there that's actually living soils are Full of life to have bacterial fungal Root systems from the plants we typically think about but that life interacts and actually produces That interaction produces a variety of products associated one of those that we do understand a little bit about Is a another depiction I have here of a stained Microisophungi that is the residual of microisophungi called glumalin is a glycoprotein That glycoprotein actually shows up brown and soils actually staying green here That was actually discovered by Sarah Wright with ARS in 1996 So when we start really looking at those characteristics we need to understand That they have major impacts on the soil surface Now the other thing that I guess I really like to to point out Is just this what what what are you actually seeing here right? We end up with quite a bit of runoff actually occurring from Our conventionally till and or no till the no till with a residue versus without the residue You see the impact of residue same soil No joke today a difference there is having residue on the soil surface You see the jar on the back is actually where infiltrated water Our cover crop and our piece of side Now the color of the the water going through the side today is basically I think just because I cut it out today But continue to notice what that runoff event actually looks like After you've gone through this this Class and you've talked a little bit more about Runoff and water quality associated we know that As we run off and that soil particle actually is moved off site What impact does that have on surface waters? Well sediment is a pollutant itself, but it also has what nutrients and our pesticides that we've applied As crop protected products on that soil moved into our surface waters, right? So from an erosion standpoint, we're not only just concerned about the impacts on the soil itself the erosion the loss But what about the water quality also other aspects? I'd like to show you a little short demonstration on aggregate stability I've got a Conventionally tilled and a no till cloud And we'll just drop them in here My no till cloud conventionally till cloud And what I wanted to show is immediately Is I don't know if you can see that But here's my no till cloud Here's my conventionally till cloud, but you can see that because it has Really poor aggregate stability. It's starting to degrade once it's immersed almost immediately. See that? Or the no till cloud which has high aggregate stability higher gating matter Is holding together better than that one. See that? How clear that water is comparatively This is a really simple little test You know when I go out and try to collect soil for a rainfall simulator This is what I do. It's a really simple thing to do Well, I want to find something that has low aggregate stability I just pour some water in a jar and Throw in the cloud Go for it This is my no till tray, right? I'm gonna wind out of your day. It's not being helpful This is the runoff So is that tray actually wet? Dry We put on how much water About about an inch and a quarter on Well, let's flip it over Wet to the bottom, right? Eventually tilled That one went to the bottom too Still dry on the bottom I think this is a really good standard demonstration from my standpoint because it it really With most producers anyway They've been taught to believe That if we increase the amount of tillage we increase the infiltration rates And that's just not the truth. What happens In conventionally tilled is we dry out that surface But what about subsequent rain events? What about the reactivity of the soils? No till We typically talk about macro pore development That was those major pores Good soil structure aggregate stability conventionally tilled We're actually oxidizing that organic material In other words, we're reducing the amount of organic matter within those soils And subsequently we affect aggregate stability And infiltration rates