Agricultural Soils of Saskatchewan

By Austin Baron PAg, Agri-Environmental Specialist, Swift Current

June 2025

Although soil is the foundation for all we grow whether plants or animals we don't often talk about how the types of soil on our operations impact our practices. You may also wonder what the difference between soil and dirt is. Soil is often thought of as a living being; it is a complex web of biological, chemical, geological and physical interactions and can sustain growth and life.

When soil is removed from a place where it can carry out these functions (under your nails, on your floor, or in the box of a truck) it becomes dirt. Soil scientist, Hans Jenny, originally describes the soil formation factors as climate, organisms, topography, parent material and time. Because there are so many variations to this formula, soil varies greatly when you travel even a short distance.

The parent material here in Saskatchewan has a wide range, from glacial till (sediment carried by moving glaciers,) to lacustrine (deposits left by large glacial lakes.) Parent material will influence soil texture; where glaciers ground up rocks, we tend to see mixed textures, but with lacustrine we see well sorted or stratified textures (mostly clay, mostly silt or mostly sand.) The different particles of sand, silt and clay influence the ability of water to move throughout the soil profile along with retaining and providing nutrients to the plants that grow there. Moisture will move downward faster in soil with a sandy texture, where it will infiltrate more slowly through soils with heavy clay content. Clay particles have a higher cation exchange capacity, meaning they have a higher ability to hold on and exchange other cations (ionic nutrient forms of magnesium, calcium, sodium, potassium, and others.) Although there are many types of soil in Saskatchewan, there are three main orders we see in agricultural land: chernozemic; solonetzic; and vertisolic.

Chernozemic soils are the most abundant soils in Saskatchewan. These soils were developed under grassland conditions which created what soil scientists call an Ah horizon. This layer of soil is developed by the long-term addition of organic matter from the historical grasslands. Chernozems can develop on any soil texture, from heavy clay to sand. In chernozemic soils with higher clay content, there is the possibility to see the clay from the top layer having leached into the lower horizons. This creates a layer with higher content of fine clay that give the soil a plate-like structure that breaks horizontally. This layer may be mistaken for a plow sheer layer, but actually is formed by the movement of clay, not implements.

Solonetzic soils are formed under the influence of sodium. The sodium can be present from marine shale or ground water over long periods. Due to sandy soils having a lower ability to hold onto cations (such as sodium), solonetzic soils are more likely to have a clay or loam texture, though not always. These soils can develop a hard pan, and sometimes have round topped columns present below the initial topsoil. Because of the salinity and potential hard structure, these soils can inhibit root growth and restrict which crops grow here.

Vertisolic soils in the prairies are found in regions with parent material consisting of at least 60 per cent clay. These soils are found in flat areas historically covered in glacial lakes (e.g. the Regina Plains and Eston area.) The clay in these soils swells with moisture and shrinks when drying, creating slickensides. This feature is an almost shiny surface where the clay rubs together. It is also known to crack when it dries out. This cycle causes mixing of the soil and can look like tiger stripes when a soil pit is dug.

If you are wondering how to find out what kind of soil you have on your operation, you can visit the Saskatchewan Soil Information System website. This is an online database where historical soil maps are compiled, and you can find texture, salinity, agricultural capability ratings and more. If you have questions about what annual or forage crop will do best on your soil, please reach out to your local Crops Extension Specialist or Agri-Environmental Specialist, or you can contact the Agriculture Knowledge Centre at 1-866-457-2377.