Soil Compaction Is a Sneaky Enemy By Jim Gerrish

In this episode, grazing expert and longtime SGF contributor Jim Gerrish tackles a frequently overlooked threat to pasture health—soil compaction. While it’s easy to spot visible issues like weeds or bare patches, compaction is stealthy. It reduces infiltration, chokes out biology, and quietly erodes pasture productivity—even when everything above ground looks fine.

The episode explores how compaction develops in both dry and wet conditions, why certain grazing practices (like overstocking or ignoring soil moisture) make it worse, and how to manage your land in a way that protects the invisible ecosystem beneath your animals’ hooves.

Jim also dives into his personal experience observing compaction on both his Missouri and Idaho properties, highlighting how the signs and solutions vary by climate and soil type.

🔑 Key Points Covered:

1. What Compaction Looks Like: It doesn’t always show up as standing water or bare ground. Sometimes, it’s just lackluster growth and “off” grazing behavior.

2. The Role of Moisture: Pugging in wet conditions causes serious surface damage, while dry compaction happens deeper and more subtly.

3. Grazing Management and Movement: Why leaving animals too long—or returning too soon—can set back your pastures for years.

4. Biological Soil Health: Compaction strangles the biology that makes nutrient cycling possible. Without biology, the system falls apart.

5. Dealing with It: Jim shares simple, low-cost ways to start healing compacted ground—starting with observation, rest, and strategic animal impact.

🌱 Actionable Insights:

• Don’t just look at the top of your pasture—dig in and observe what’s happening below.

• Avoid grazing when soils are too wet or too dry to protect structure and infiltration.

• Move livestock before signs of pugging, and give compacted areas plenty of rest.

• Foster soil biology with diverse roots, living plants, and manure distribution.

• Use animal behavior as a barometer—if performance is off, your soil might be telling you something.

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🎧 Tune in with your favorite podcast app to The Stockman Grassfarmer Podcast and uncover what’s really happening beneath your pastures—because soil that looks good isn’t always soil that is good.