No products in the cart.
ONLINE SOIL MANAGEMENT COURSE
Agricultural soil management
- Understand soil management for profitable farming.
- Learn about problems that can affect soil and how to deal with them
- Essential for anyone working with the soil.
Course Aims
- Develop a broad understanding of the physical and chemical properties of soils.
- Develop skills in sampling and field testing soils for basic physical and chemical properties
- Understand the principles, methods and techniques of sustainable soils management.
- Understand the principles and practices of earthworks.
- Understand causes and remediation methods of land degradation and soil problems.
- Develop a broad knowledge in the use of growing containers for agriculture.
- Develop strong understanding of soil science and its impact on plant growth.
- Develop practical knowledge about managing soil for particular cropping uses.
Course Outline
There are 8 lessons in this course:
- Introduction: Soils And Soil Classification
- Soil health and Agricultural soils
- What is soil health?
- Soil Composition and Formation
- Classifying Soil Groups and Soil Landscapes
- Soil Profiles
- Soil Horizons
- Key Properties of Selected Soil Groups
- Parent Materials
- Classifying Soils According to Hydrological Properties
- Soil hydrology Groups: Uniform Coarse-textured Soils, Permeability Contrast Soils; Cracking Clays; Medium to Fine Textured soils
- Properties of Soils and Plant Nutrition
- Understanding Soils
- Mineral and Rock
- How Soils Develop Naturally
- Mechanical Weathering
- Chemical Weathering
- Geo-chemical Weathering Processes
- Pedo-chemical Weathering
- Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition
- Organic Carbon
- Soil Colour
- Texture and its Effect on Plant Growth
- Structure and its Effect on Plant Growth
- Consistence and its Effect on Plant Growth
- Depth of Profile and how it Relates to Plant Growth
- PH and Plant Growth
- Porosity and Plant Growth
- Plant Nutrition and Nutrient Toxicity
- Soil Testing Methods
- Tilth and Organic Matter
- Soil Sampling for Chemical Analysis
- General Principles of Soil Analysis
- Tools for Field Sampling and Soil Investigation
- Digging a Sample Pit or Hole
- Finding Out about your Soil
- Settlement Activity
- Soil Structure Activity
- Recording Soil Colour
- Testing Consistence
- Describing Texture
- Test for Free Carbonates
- Soil pH Testing
- Stability of Clods to Wetting (Slaking and Dispersion)
- Bulk Density Testing
- Measurement of Organic Matter Content of Soil
- Measuring Salinity
- Measuring Water Content
- Fertiliser Solubility
- Affect of Lime on Soil
- Laboratory Testing of Soils
- Land Degradation and Other Soil Problems
- Soil Structure Decline
- Water Repellence
- Erosion
- Hard-Layers in Soils
- Transient Bonding; Compaction; Cementation; and Natural Rigidity
- Sub-Soil Compaction: Compression, shearing and smearing
- Soil Acidification
- Alkalinity and Sodicity
- Water-logging
- Salinity
- Chemical Residues
- Soil Management on Farms
- Conservation Farming
- No-Tillage (Zero tillage)
- Minimum Tillage
- Trap Cropping
- Cover Crops and Green Manure Cropping
- Alley Farming (AF)
- Contour Farming and Strip Farming
- Controlled Traffic Farming
- Stubble Management
- Establishing Water and Nutrient Management Plans
- Soil Conservation Earthworks
- Integrated Pest Management
- Direct Drilling in Pasture Establishment
- Soil Management in Orchards
- Soil Management in Market Gardens
- Crops: Soil and Nutrient Requirements (Part A)
- Wheat
- Oat
- Barley
- Crops: Soil and Nutrient Requirements (Part B)
- Narrow-Leafed Lupins
- Canola
- Faba Beans
- Grapes
- PBL Soil project – Soil Investigation and Report
- evaluate a range of soils for a given situation
- determine soil problems or limitations that exist for a given land use
- decide on suitable soil management strategies for the selected land
