Hans Klopp, PhD

Hans Klopp is the SDSU Extension Soil Health Field Specialist, based at the Watertown Regional Center since 2023. He helps South Dakota producers build soil health through no-till, cover crops, residue management, and livestock integration. He leads Soil Health Hour, SDSU Extension’s monthly soil health webinar, and writes extension articles on topics from bulk density as a soil health indicator to leaving crop residue in place instead of fall tillage. Hans holds a BS in water resources from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, an MS in soil science from North Dakota State University, and a PhD in soil science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research covers soil salinity and sodicity, corn residue removal, cover crops, tillage, and non-invasive methods for estimating soil water content. Before SDSU, he was a postdoctoral researcher with USDA-ARS in Bushland, Texas, worked in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and earlier served as a USDA-ARS technician in Sidney, Montana. On Soil Health Exchange, Hans answers soil health questions from across the Northern Great Plains and the western Midwest, connecting what the research shows with what producers can put to work in the field.