Soil Type

“Across 41 farm sites and five soil series in Central Ohio, woodland soils had consistently lower bulk density and penetration resistance and higher porosity than cropland or meadow, while no-till and minimum till fields showed no clear physical advantage over conventional tillage even after 15+ years. Soil organic carbon explained a moderate share of variation in porosity, bulk density, and compaction (R² ≥ 0.33), suggesting building SOC is the lever — and that structural gains from reduced tillage may take longer than 15 years to show up.”

“Across 50 commercial corn-belt fields in Ohio and Indiana, manure application rate was the strongest and most consistent driver of better soil health across six indicators (organic matter, respiration, POX-C, protein, aggregate stability, bulk density). Reduced tillage helped soil protein and respiration but lowered POX-C, while living cover and crop diversity showed little measurable effect; soil texture explained much of the field-to-field variation, and using 5 years of management history predicted better than 3.”