1) We will present our data at the SHARE Farm Annual Field day in Richland County and Sargent County Field Day. The 2013, 2014, and 2015 SHARE Farm field days, and the 2014 and 2015 Sargent County Field Days allowed over 800 farmers, professionals, students, and government employees to learn about water management and sodic soils. In addition, the team presented findings at numerous workshops and Café Talks.
2) In 2016, a soil health tour is being planned to showcase commodity funded soil health projects in Sargent and Richland counties. Research plots associated with this study will be one stop on the tour. If this tour is a success, we will adopt this approach to other parts of the state (where soil health projects are in place) to reach farmers with important, timely information for making on farm decisions.
3) We will also present our information at conferences, meetings, workshops, and will contribute information for Dr. Wick’s Extension circulars and videos.
4) We will generate peer-reviewed publications from this work too.
The leveraging of funds will include “no-cost” for most of the technical support that is required for this project. Research being conducted about 2 miles east of this funded-research site has different types of sodic soils, and the amendments and rates of application are also different. Potential barriers include alfalfa failure due to environmental conditions or reduced growth due to pests and weather conditions. However, even if crop failure occurs the amendment part of the study will still yield significant results. The timeline for this project is 4 years (years 1 and 2 have been funded by NDSC).
5) The first year was amendment application, crop establishment, harvest yields, and soil sampling/analysis.
6) The second year was monitoring plant yields and quality, soil sampling/analysis, and development of laboratory experiments looking at how the amendments impact soil-microbial activity.
7) This funding cycle (third year) will investigate yield, soil swelling, aggregate stabilities, soil enzyme concentrations, in-field carbon dioxide generation, and saturated hydraulic conductivities (water movement).

Updated June 25, 2018:
Sodium is a natural dispersant. Soil dispersion reduces pore sizes which leads to the blocking or clogging of soil pores and ultimately reduces the function of the soil. In addition, after drying, sodium-affected soils (sodic soils) become “hard-set” which inhibits proper root and plant growth. Unfortunately, millions of acres of North Dakota soils suffer from too much sodium which ultimately reduces their productivity potentials. Identification and understanding of these problem soils is key to proper management, and for understanding these soils’ economic potentials.

We conducted a four-year field study, starting in spring of 2014, looking at if sodic-soil amendments and alfalfa could improve soil health for long-term improved soybean production on soils impacted by sodium and salinity. Amendments included three rates each of flue-gas desulfurization gypsum (5, 15, and 30 tons/acre), sugar beet spent lime (5, 15, and 30 tons/acre), and potassium-magnesium sulfate (1, 2.5, and 5 tons/acre). The two soils used for this study were in the same NRCS soil-mapping unit but varied in properties, and one soil was tiled and the other soil was not tiled. The fundamental objective of this study was to improve soil properties for improved soybean production.

View uploaded report

Overall, the amendments and their rates of application neither decreased or increased alfalfa yields or quality compared to control plots. However, the two highest application rates of gypsum and the highest rate of K-Mg to the tiled site increased the IDC rating to ‘very high’ compared to the control plot. No changes to IDC rating was observed at the non-tiled site. The two highest rates of gypsum, the highest rate of spent lime, and the highest rate of K-Mg reduced the potential for swelling and/or dispersion to ‘medium’ compared to the control, which was ‘high.’ The potential for swelling and/or dispersion was ‘low’ in all plots at the non-tiled site.