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Thinking About Soil
Soil has been defined as
“The collection of natural bodies occupying parts of the Earth’s surface that
is capable of supporting plant growth and that has the properties resulting
from the integrated effects of climate and living organisms acting upon parent
material [bedrock], as conditioned by topography, over periods of time.”
Brady & Weil, 2010
Hours
Minutes
Months
Years
Decades
Centuries
Inches
Yards
Feet
Acres
Miles
One microbe needs
a fraction of an inch
for its body
It takes 50 acres
to feed a cow calf pair
for 12 months
Average ranch sizes
New Mexico 2.8 sq mi
Colorado 1.5 sq mi
Microbes grow
and reproduce every
10 to 15 minutes
Plant growth is seasonal -
high in the summer months
and low in winter
Natural processes can
take 5 centuries to form
one inch of topsoil
Days