Course: SLF 150 Pasture Management

Reading & Audio Visual

What is Soil?
Content adapted from Boundless Biology, Soil and Plant Nutrition, CC BY-SA 3.0
https://www.boundless.com/biology/soil-and-plant-nutrition/
What is Soil?

The largest percentage of soil consists of weathered inorganic rock material. The  amounts of different sizes and types of rock particles or grains determines the soil's texture. The three main types of rock grains found in soil are sand, silt, and clay.

A hectare of pasture land in a humid mid-latitude climate can contain more than a million earthworms and several million insects, which are vital because of their ability to mix and aerate soil. Increasing air and water availability to plant roots which greatly improves plant productivity.

Earthworms and insects also produce most of the humus found in a soil through the incomplete digestion of organic matter.