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3. Basic Soil Monitoring and Evaluation
In the agricultural regions of New Mexico and Colorado,
we generally encounter five soil orders:
Identify what soil orders to expect
Soils you might encounter in New Mexico and
Colorado vary in their physical, chemical, and
biological characteristics but are classified
in broad categories called orders and then
further subdivided into more specific groups.
It is more important that you pay attention to
whether soils in an area are in different orders
than memorize all of the characteristics of
each order. We introduce these concepts
here to make you aware of the soil orders
common to your area, and we encourage
you to learn more about them and what they
mean for the characteristics of your soils.
The soil order that you are working with on
your ranch, farm, orchard or garden is useful
to know because it will give you a starting
point to set your expectations, a general
overview of what soils might look like in a
place. Some things a soil order might help
you understand is what type, if any, profile to
expect, what pH to expect, or what kind of
plant community grows or could grow there.
Different soils form because the soil forming
factors occur to differing degrees during the
soil formation process (see page 12). The
broad categories can be further subdivided
and categorized, and thus you will always see
additional technical terms on soil maps. These
broad geographic trends will not apply to all
fields, pastures, or topographic features within
the area that is mapped as a given category,
but they are a good starting point.
Where to Sample