got me a root pitt. How am I doing on my beans? hahaha

So... They put a pipe through my soybean fields. I was really surprised to see the lack of topsoil I have. I knew it was bad, I didn't think it was THIS BAD. There is no topsoil! It's all clay! I made 165 bushel corn on tis ground last year. my soil tests show I am good to 24 inches. Looking at what they opened up, I'd say I am NOT GOOD! how am I farming this land?!?!

I'm glad that I get a crop at all, after seeing what they opened. I did pull some roots and counted the nodules on the roots of a single plant. I counted 14 nodules on that plant. they have a reddish fluid in them and they are big. I can say that I did my due diligence to get the inoculant on the seed. I can't say much more about the soil they are growing in. Am I the only one growing a good crop is such horrible soil? I wish the picture would show the line of limestone and the black layer below, where the lime has dissolved into the clay, but how solid that layer is.

I have learned a lot about my farm having a pipe cross it. Tonight, I will thank Jesus, and all my ancestors for farming this rotten land. I guess I should move out to more fertile soils. I just can't leave my farm. I do have a passion for being here.


I just never knew it was this bad. Just to see my roots going down 2 feet below the surface to pick up moisture and nutrients... wow... I hope the picture shows the root tips. These beans are about 14 inches high on july 26th. They were planted June 17th. They are setting nice pods, but, I just can't look past how poor this land is.


I hope everyone decides to dig a pit and see how their land really is. I am floored by what I see. If anyone has any input about what I should do, please let me know. I wish you could see this in person. I'm blown away.

Not much you can do about the ground,but,my question is. What is the pipeline for,and,who is putting it in?

John_Pa,
We buried a horse this summer. It too was not what I hoped to see. The dark layer was very thin. And the roots didn't go beyond that layer. We started farming this place 15 years ago and it was very poor and had been mined/farmed to death. So I have been rotational grazing and making sure that it has plenty of ground cover left. I did grow one crop of corn with minimum tillage.

I've done a lot of digging around here, and am convinced that if my forefathers knew what was down there, they would have kept on going!

We have wonderful topsoil. Just about enough to work. Under that can be a yellowish sandy clay, full of water, or gray hardpan, full of limestone, that you almost can't dig through.

One thing we have going for us is high lime soil.

John just a few miles west of me right around Masonville, Iowa, they installed a cross country gas line about ten years ago. This is a big line I think it is around 24-36 inches in diameter. On a good friend of mine's farm the gas line company cut through a hill on his place to keep the line as flat as they could. At 22 feet they where still in good topsoil. No misprint or typo that was 22 feet!!! LOL He took pictures of that. Out on the flatter ground they would hit some lighter soil at around eight feet. That is the reason his farm has a CSR (Corn suitability Rating) in the 90s. (100% being the best)

A forty acre ,100% tillable, tract next to him sold just this last week. it brought $17500 per acre.

So there is "good" soil in many places.

On my place here it is all over the place. On some of my steeper side hills there is only 8-12 inches. In my flatter ground it can run 2-3 feet in most places. On some rented ground, just east of me, the topsoil is only 6-8 inches deep. You had to watch plowing or you brought up clay if you plowed too deep.

Thats kind of funny in a way. Not the soil, but the pipe. I just did a telephone repair for a place in the Midwest this past Friday, and I was in the control room. About every second there was an annoying "ding" coming across overhead speakers. I asked what it was, and they told me that it was a ping of a signal that was being injected in Texas and was travelling to somewhere in Canada, and back to Texas all in about 1 second total travel time, all under ground. They said that they can speed it way up too. I remember reading about one in the Midwest and a larger one in Texas, but I sure don't remember reading about one that was buried under ground that looped from Texas to Canada and back to Texas, and I sure didn't see anyone buring anything that big. They told me that they get used to hearing the beeping to the point that they don't hear the beeping, but should the beeping stop, that silence becomes deafening and its all hands on deck. Somehow, I don't think the pipe in your picture is it, especially with those kinds of bends. I don't think thats it, but in case it is, don't try to open the pipe, and if you do, say goodbye to your family and friends before you do it. Thats all that I'm going to say and lets leave it at that.

Mark

Mark,

This 12 inch pipe is going to carry wet gas up to 2000 psi. So no pinging signals, but guaranteed we had them put it at a minimum depth of 6 feet. In some spots they went 10-15 feet deep. Right here, in this picture, it is about 8 feet deep. I would be kissing my butt goodbye if I were to put a subsoiler shank into that!

I have seen even the small vertical wells have a wellhead pressure of 800 psi, regulated down to 250 psi through a 6 inch line. What is amazing is that all of this comes from an 8 inch well bore.

JD Seller,

I'll be over tomorrow with my dump truck to get a load! I think it's only a 14 hour drive.


Actually, I wonder if anyone ever thought to get a whole unit train of topsoil, like they do with coal around here? With the price of topsoil here, at $17,500 per acre, you could skim 6 feet of topsoil off of a farm and still have plenty of topsoil left for farming, and pay for the farm! lol

Masonville, Iowa is just where the glaciers stopped from the last ice age. All that top soil was scraped off the land in Minnesota and Canada. As you head North you can find areas of good top soil and other areas filled with glacial rocks, all ground round and smooth.