You can come back to this description periodically to track improvements. Listing your current soil management practices will help you examine their effects and will give you a baseline for tracking changes. You might develop this list by going through the six soil-friendly practices for improving soil health, and describing your current practices in each category. Corn roots and residue are added every other year. Only corn stubble is left on field X, when we harvest silage.
Liquid manure is applied to field A and B every year.
Leave room for comments and move on to the next category. Review the six soil-friendly practices and ask which ones might address your problem areas. Examine the other publications in this series for more ideas. If the system is not working well, the land is less productive, pollution is more likely, and the soil shows signs of degradation, such as erosion, salinization, or compaction. The purpose of monitoring and record keeping is to find the link between soil quality and the management practices you use.