Agrononmists/Soil scientists

A posting here several days ago got me curious.....where are the "best" or 'most productive' soils located in USA? I believe there may be such a thing as a class A or a class #1 soil? Is there a map of the USA that shows where these soils are located? Lets say you had unlimited resources to throw away on a farm and your only criteria was that you wanted to buy only the best soils? What source of information would you use to isolate the area where you should buy? I suppose this could be crop dependent as well? That is, maybe the best soils for wheat are in eastern Nebraska but the best soils for soybeans are in central Indiana just speaking hypothetically. If that is true, maybe give me the best ones for corn, beans, and alfalfa.

Best are high organic, medium ph, loam soils.

Most productive are when those soils are in an area that gets enough rainfall that is evenly spaced for the growing season. And a climate that allows a long summer of sunshine.

Areas of northern Iowa and northern Illinois fall into that.

In general the upper Midwest from Ohio to Dakota's, down to Texas and back to Ohio can qualify and has some pockets that will qualify. In general the southern soils get too much sun, and are broken down and wore out; the northern soils are too cold and don’t get enough drainage and microbial action to have available nutrients.

That band across Iowa and Illinois that catches the best soils is closest to putting it all together.

Paul

David Hula of Charles City county Virginia set the all time corn yield record in 2019 of 616 bushels per acre on the real James River bottom land.Broke his own record.

The maps are very readily available. There is one on the wall in our town's main meeting room for consultation during planning meetings. You get them from your state's land grant university system.

I agree... it isn't just soil, but the climate in the area as well that makes things most productive.

And that area seems to be moving a bit... when my wife and I got married, her home county- McClean County, IL was the reigning king of average corn yields nationwide, year in, year out. In the past 10 years, its either been too wet, too dry, etc and the top county in IL (and maybe nationwide, haven't seen that figure in a while) has in general moved somewhat north from McClean. It's an interesting trend.

Oh if only it was so simple as that! Not everything can be turned into an elementary school project. There are other good posts on this thread that list a few reasons.

Well here in NW SC, most of our best soils are now covered by stupid lakes.
Beautiful river bottoms from the mountains on down.
Dikes saved a little of the best soil in the state because it was adjacent to Clemson's Death Valley.
By the way, Death Valley playing field is several feet below the water level of Lake Hartwell which is just a few hundred yards away.
Richard in NW SC who is a 1977 graduate of Agronomy at Clemson.

Soil organic matter content reigns king in terms of productivity. A relatively high percentage of OM keeps soil friable and helps with nutrient storage, drainage, and moisture retention.

Hula and the fella in Georgia that are breaking the corn yields have found a new angle.

Buy poorer sandy ground in a sunny warm location that is on a good aquifer. It costs less.

Then put in pivots with the money you saved, and water your crop. You can spoon feed nutrients to it through the pivots.

So, basically sunshine all the time, and feed water and nutrients as needed when needed. On ‘cheap’ poor ground.

I’m greatly simplifying their efforts, they work hard to make that work! And a hurricane can mess them up in a hurry, they have issues too.

My point is, they are not on the best, or most productive land. They produce high yields by sort of doing hydroponics in the fields.

Paul

Chernozem (Russian word for true "black" soil).... only two significant bands of it in the world, some of the YT'ers live in this North American zone, maybe some YT'ers in Europe as well. Much of the soil around where I live is black soil. Of course in any soil "zone", there are always outcroppings of other soil types to be found. There are also some smaller Chernozem soil areas as well in Texas, Hungary, Poland, China and Australia.

The name comes from the Russian terms for black and soil, earth or land (chorny + zemlya). The soil, rich in organic matter presenting a black color, was first identified by Russian geologist Vasily Dokuchaev in 1883 in the tallgrass steppe or prairie of European Russia.

Chernozems cover about 230 million hectares of land. There are two "chernozem belts" in the world. One is the Eurasian steppe which extends from eastern Croatia (Slavonia), along the Danube (northern Serbia, northern Bulgaria (Danubian Plain), southern and eastern Romania (Wallachian Plain and Moldavian Plain), and Moldova), to northeast Ukraine across the Central Black Earth Region of Central Russia, southern Russia into Siberia. The other stretches from the Canadian Prairie provinces through to the Great Plains of the US as far south as Kansas. Similar soil types occur in Texas and Hungary. Chernozem layer thickness may vary widely, from several centimetres up to 1.5 metres (60 inches) in Ukraine, as well as the Red River Valley region in the Northern US and Canada (location of the prehistoric Lake Agassiz).

Where do you come up with this stuff? Ever been down in that area along the James River? Nothing cheap or poor about the land on his farm.

The area that you describe from Eastern Europe into Ukraine and Russia was talked about in a class I took at Cornell many years ago. It was said that if political issues as well as technological problems could be solved like they were in the US and Canada that region would be number 1 in agricultural commodity production. That North America would clearly be second. This would mean that if after WWII as technology became increasingly important that the US and Canada would have not had some of the prosperous eras that they enjoyed such as the grain boom during the early 1970's.

It's been said that some of the best soils in the US are only a stone's throw away from me. Some of the soils around Phelps, Geneva, Seneca Castle, Hall, Benton can grow just about any vegetable crop that will endure the growing season which tends to support 105 day field corn and mid-Group 3 soybeans. There are other areas that have Ontario, Hilton, Honeoye soils but the area previously mentioned having a loamy sublayer which allows for increased moisture availability among other things. Depending on the crop some plants will readily root down past the topsoil layer.

J D gets a workout on some of the best soil in the USA @ Rantoul, Illinois, Half Century of Progress plow demonstration. That soil is black as coal and high in organic matter even if it is compacted in the picture. The area around this location and down toward Champaign, Ill would have excellent soil for corn - soybeans , some would say close to the best in the world. Also as mentioned by T F many river bottoms soils have really deep topsoil deposits some 2 to 25 ft below the surface and have extremely high natural fertility.(Thus record setting corn contest yields year after year) Also have heard areas in California central valley are some of the best soils in the western USA maybe on par with Midwest best soils.

(quoted from post at 08:11:25 12/28/20) Hula and the fella in Georgia that are breaking the corn yields have found a new angle.

Buy poorer sandy ground in a sunny warm location that is on a good aquifer. It costs less.

Then put in pivots with the money you saved, and water your crop. You can spoon feed nutrients to it through the pivots.

So, basically sunshine all the time, and feed water and nutrients as needed when needed. On cheap poor ground.

I m greatly simplifying their efforts, they work hard to make that work! And a hurricane can mess them up in a hurry, they have issues too.

My point is, they are not on the best, or most productive land. They produce high yields by sort of doing hydroponics in the fields.

Paul

Click to expand...

Oh but I thought they did it by sheer force of will, and the power of prayer and positive thinking! Massive quantities of chemicals and fertilizers had nothing to do with these record yields.

Got confused with Randy Dowdy. I’ve never been good with names. They are both ‘down south east’ from my northern location.

Only heard Hula talk a time or two, briefly. Heard Dowdy quite a few times. It’s pretty much exactly what he says.

Both are pretty sharp fellas. Attention to detail.

Paul
Yield

Really that river bottom land on about 100 mile stretch in VA is rich and deep, guess from the James flooding over the centuries,Charles City county was the site of the first farms once the settlers came over to Jamestown just down the river.Berkley Plantation site of the first Thanksgiving is just across the river.