The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Soil Acidity and Soil Health Workshop in Fort Benton

The Chouteau County Soil Acidity Working Group through the Chouteau County Conservation District, Big Sandy Conservation District, NRCS and MSU Extension has organized a soil acidity and soil health workshop at the Ag Center in Fort Benton on February 27, 2018. The Ag Center is located at 1205 20th Street. Registration will begin at 9:30 a.m. The workshop will begin at 10:00 a.m.

Most agricultural soils in Montana have near-neutral to basic conditions with surface soil pH 6.5 to 8. However, some areas of Montana have developed acidic soil layers near the surface. The phenomena of soil acidification in Montana is largely confined to the upper 6” of soil.

The morning presentations will include a producer report and presentations from NRCS, Conservation District, Montana State University researchers and Montana State University Extension.

The afternoon programs will all be via telecommunications, and include soil specialists from Washington State and North Dakota.

A brief Chouteau County Soil Acidity Working Group meeting will follow the workshop.

Presentations will include:

Identifying Soil Acidity in your Fields: Kent Squires and Bill Summers Geraldine producers.

Identifying Soil Acidity issues when looking at Soil Tests: Marni Thompson NRCS Resource Conservationist.

Chouteau County Conservation District Update: Dale Krause Ag Consultant and Certified Crop Advisor for Chouteau County Conservation District. Dale will update producers on the CCCD Cover Crop Acidity project.

Preventing Acidification: Clain Jones MSU Extension Soil Fertility Specialist.

Soil acidity tolerance in cereal grain varieties: Jason Cook MSU Plant Sciences and Pathology.

Soil Acidity and Soil Health: Jon Stika Dickinson North Dakota Research and Extension Center Agronomist (via tele-communications). Jon will cover increasing soil organic matter and discuss how improving soil biology can assist with soil acidity.

Lime Materials and Application: Dr. Dave Huggins USDA-ARS in Washington State (via tele-communications). Dr. Huggins will discuss options for choosing lime materials, as well as considerations such as particle size and percent calcium carbonate. The differences between pH and buffer pH will also be addressed.

Managing soil acidity in no-till systems: Dr. Dave Franzen Extension Soil Specialist at North Dakota State University (via tele-communications) Dr. Franzen will discuss the importance of no-till and drawbacks to deep tillage. He will also cover why and how soil acidity develops and cover liming material success of surface lime applications in no-till studies.

A special thanks to A MSU grant from USDA’s Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (WSARE), Chouteau County Extension and the Chouteau County Conservation District for funding the workshop.

Lunch will be provided. For any questions regarding the event or to RSVP, please contact Tyler Lane (MSU Extension – Chouteau County, 622-3751, tyler.lane@montana.edu). Please RSVP by Friday, February 23 to make sure you get on the lunch list.

Montana State University U.S. Department of Agriculture and Montana Counties Cooperating. MSU Extension is an equal opportunity/affirmative action provider of educational outreach.