Soil Health Buckets
Education & Follow Up
Utilizing funding provided through an agreement with the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service as well as donations made by Farm Credit Services of America, First Dakota National Bank, Ducks Unlimited Inc., and Dacotah Bank the SD Soil Health Coalition provides educational “Soil Health Buckets” and lessons to vocational agriculture classrooms, soil science classrooms and additional youth groups.
Each “Bucket” includes eighteen different lesson plans and the tools necessary to demonstrate the soil health principles and concepts included within the plans. Each bucket complete with all necessary items has a price tag of nearly $500. The SD Soil Health Coalition would like to thank the current contributors, and will continue to work to provide each classroom the bucket, lesson plans, and follow up to educate our youth about soil health!
Those interested in receiving a Soil Health Bucket or contributing towards this project should contact Cindy Zenk, SDSHC Coordinator, at (605) 280-4190 for additional information.
Interested In Results From A Soil Health Knowledge, Interest, & Awareness Survey Conducted In 2018
Soil Health Lesson Plans
Lesson 1 Soil Components-Physical Properties
Lesson 2 Soil Organic Matter
Lesson 3 Using Textural Triangle
Lesson 4 Soil Moisture by Feel and Appearance
Lesson 5 Soil Quality Measurement
Lesson 6 Soil Bulk Density
Lesson 7 Soil Respiration
Lesson 8 Soil Electrical Conductivity
Lesson 9 Web Soil Survey
Lesson 10 Soil pH: What Affects it, What it Affects,
Managing it and Testing it
Lesson 11 Soil Nitrogen
Lesson 12 Soil Phosphorus
Lesson 13 Soil Infiltration
Lesson 14 Scientific Method
Lesson 15 Soil Science Capstone Activity
Lesson 16 Rainfall Simulator
Lesson 17 Soil Microbiology – “Tighty Whities” Test 1
Lesson 18 Soil Aggregates
News & Events
Wet or dry, less stress: Father and son credit focus on healthy soils
Eli (left) and Barry Little. Photo courtesy of USDA-NRCS SD. By Lynn Betts For the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition “We feel like if we get the moisture that God gave us and leave it where it's supposed to be, we can get through most any year,” Barry Little...
Standing up to drought: No-till, cover crops build resilient soil for managing water
By Janelle Atyeo For the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition South Dakota farmers slogged through two wet years before the rain shut off in the middle of the last growing season. Now a warm start to winter without much snow cover has farmers heading into the next crop...
Maximum benefits seen when cover crops and cattle grazing added to no-till
By Lura Roti for South Dakota Soil Health Coalition Driving conditions were challenging as Brandt, S.D., farmer Tyler Brown made his way south to the Texas Panhandle this December. “I started out in a snowstorm, then it became a dirt storm. And it made me realize, we...