Soil Health Explained

Dr. Jean Eells met with the LWV UMRR Board and guests, sharing her expansive knowledge of adult learning styles as she talked about soil health.  

In the video at the right, Dr. Eells discusses the different ways that women and men are conditioned to respond to information, and how best to reach women with soil health messaging.   This is critical because about half the farmland is owned by women, and women express different values for the land than do men.

Different types of meetings and styles of communication make messaging more acceptable to women audiences. Older women were not encouraged to study science and may find it off-putting to be given information in a science-first manner.  They also may not be accustomed to speaking up in a room full of men who are talking among themselves.  Being in situations like this is not conducive to effective learning.

​At about 20 minutes into the video, Dr. Eells shows how soil with healthy roots and soil microbes (bacteria and fungi) is able to withstand submersion in water without dissolving, unlike the tilled soil she has in comparison.  When soils can't hold together, they erode off fields and are lost to the farmer.  The sediment that washes downstream is not only a great loss to agricultural production, but it chokes streams and the creatures that live there, and carries nutrients away, polluting water bodies and causing algae blooms.

This photo shows tilled soil on the right. When placed in water, this soil quickly dissolved, sending sediment to the bottom of the jar.  The soil on the left has healthy roots and microbes, which bind the soil and holds it together in the water.

In a second demonstration, Dr. Eells showed that water drains much more quickly through soil with healthy roots and microbes.  This is important because ti allows the soil to dry enough for planting, but retains just the right amount of water to nurture the seeds that are planted.  Water lays on the tilled soil, leading land owners to think that the land needs more drainage, when what is actually needed is more roots and microbes, and less tillage.

In a test of the water than runs through both soils, Dr. Eels and her lovely assistants showed that water that passed through the healthy soil had a nitrate level of only 2 ppm; while the tilled soil could not retain nitrate resulting in a level of 50 ppm in that water.  The 'safe' level for nitrate in drinking water is 10 ppm.

Dr. Jean Eells is an advocate for advancing conservation practices and improving natural resources management by women land owners. She has a Ph.D. in agricultural education from Iowa State University and operates E Resources Group LLC.   

LWV UMRR was very fortunate to have Dr. Eells at our meeting on October 7, and we thank her greatly for sharing her message with us.

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