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Today we focus on how agricultural research experiments actually happens in practice.
\\nNate Derby and Rod Utter are both Research Specialists with North Dakota State University. Nate shares his experience with researching soil physics and the movement of water through the field. Rod Utter discusses his expertise from years of researching the life cycle and origin of earthworms.
\\nBoth guests have done work with the SHARE (Soil Health and Agriculture Research Extension) Farm. While they mostly work on different projects, they bring a unique insight as those that are working with field scale ag research.
\\nWhile earthworms may not be considered an obvious top factor in farming production values, they provide far more benefit than composting and fish bait to the general public. Different species have adapted to different environments and different food sources making some more beneficial than others to farming especially in North Dakota.
\\n\\u201dThe earthworms themselves do a nice job. They create a lot of pore space for other organisms to go through, they turnover organic matter in the soil and on the surface they make nitrogen and phosphorus more available.\\u201d - Rod Utter
\\nVast amounts of soil samples and water samples are collected to further evaluate the soil on the SHARE farm and how it is affected by different practices. While the main focus of Nate\\u2019s research has been on no-till practices, he has also been able to monitor salinity and the effects of adding tile drainage to limit the reach of the water table.
\\n\\u201cIt just takes time. I think the longer you can monitor something like that, you\\u2019re going to continue to see changes.\\u201d - Nate Derby
\\nNate and Rod are able to use each other\\u2019s findings to create a more comprehensive assessment of the soil health and the effects different practices have on it. They have verified that different salinity levels directly affect the worm populations and how quickly they can infiltrate a field and provide their benefit.
\\n\\u201cRelated to worms on the SHARE Farm\\u2026.they are moving in somewhat from the edges and that correlates pretty well with what we\\u2019ve been seeing with the salts on the surface.\\u201d -Nate Derby
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\\nSoil Sense Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.
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