North Carolina Soil-Health Demo Checklist — Catawba Attachments

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What Changed After the Pass
Return to the same marked area once the attachment has passed through. Look at the soil, check where water moved after the next rain, and compare it with what was there before. If you keep using the same spot each season, the changes become much easier to see.
Residue cover: Use one marked spot as your reference point and take a photo before the equipment goes through. Come back to that exact spot afterward and compare what is still covering the soil.
Runoff: The next good rain can tell you quite a bit. Check where water moves, where it slows down, and whether any soil washes with it.
Compaction: A penetrometer works well if you have one, but a spade can tell you plenty too. Dig into a few areas and see where the ground starts getting noticeably harder.
Operator feedback: Ask the person on the tractor what they noticed while running the attachment. Write down speed, rough spots, further corrections, or anything that made the tool easier or harder to handle.

Keeping the measurements simple makes it more likely the same tests will be repeated later, giving farmers something useful to compare over time.

Different attachments affect the surface in different ways, so it helps to decide ahead of time what you want to watch during the demonstration.

Rotary Tillers (Phoenix T5 Series Tiller): Watch how deeply the tiller works, how well it mixes residue, and what happens when the soil is a little wetter. Watch whether repeated passes leave the ground packed along the edges or underneath the worked layer.
Box Blades & Land Levelers (Box Blades and Land Leveler): Try them on a section where runoff already gives you trouble. After a pass, see whether water has a cleaner path or if low spots still hold it.
Landscape Rakes (Landscape Swivel Rake): Run the rake where the surface is crusted or covered with loose residue. Watch how deep the tines bite and whether wetter ground makes the rake pull differently.
Compost spreader and amendment demonstrations: Look at how evenly the material spreads and whether different loads change coverage. Also note whether another pass is needed to work the material into the ground.

After each pass, write down one thing you can compare later—for example, how much of the surface was disturbed or whether the tractor needed an extra pass to finish the strip.

Those observations give farmers something practical to work with when deciding whether an attachment fits both the soil-health goal and the day-to-day job.

Catawba’s role with the NC Soil Health Coalition

Catawba Attachments partners with the https://www.ncsoilhealth.org/North Carolina Soil Health Coalition to provide equipment for field days and help set up demonstrations that reflect the kind of work farmers are actually doing.

We want farmers to leave the demo knowing how an attachment handled their soil and whether it is something they would actually use on their own ground.

We can also help with attachment selection, hitch requirements, and the basic setup before a demonstration.

If you would like Catawba equipment included in a field day or on-farm demo, contact us through the site so we can work out the equipment and test plan ahead of time.ing practical to work with when deciding whether an attachment fits both the soil-health goal and the day-to-day job.

This checklist is focused on North Carolina conditions and our work with the NC Soil Health Coalition, but many of the same questions come up in other parts of the country.

For a Midwest look at similar soil-health work, see Midwestern Roots: Supporting Soil Health with the Minnesota Soil Health Coalition.

Our Sustainable Agriculture Series also covers related topics such as compost, cover crops, and tillage choices. Those articles can be useful when planning a demonstration because they help connect the equipment being tested with the larger soil-management goal.

If you are interested in hosting a demonstration or looking at attachments for your own operation, contact Catawba through our site. We can help you work through the equipment side and connect the demonstration to the field conditions you want to evaluate.