Soil Quality Responses to Land Management Uses.

To further our understanding of sustainable agriculture will require an increase in knowledge concerning soil quality. Modification of farming practices from conventional tillage to no-till or to organic based farming systems may alter soil quality. This study was designed to investigate the effects of different land management uses on soil quality in western Kentucky. Five land management types used in this experiment were conventional tillage system (CT), no-till system (NT), five year old organic farming (5OF), three year old organic farming (3OF) and a control (sod). Soil samples were collected from depth intervals of 0 to 7.5 cm and 7.5 to 15 cm with three replications from each treatment. Soil samples from various agricultural practices from Pullen Farm and West Farm at Murray State University Farm, KY were analyzed for soil bulk density, soil porosity, permeability, soil acidity, aggregate stability and soil nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Using the data gathered during fall 2010, we will show how different land management influences the level of soil quality.