Stuttgart Soil Series

The Stuttgart soil series is Arkansas's official state soil. It sits on the flat, ancient terraces of the Grand Prairie in east and southeast Arkansas — level ground formed from silty and clayey alluvium deposited by the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers over thousands of years.

Stuttgart soil has two very different personalities. The surface is a dark, loose silt loam that drains well and is easy to work. The subsoil, starting about two feet down, is a dense, sticky clay that barely lets water through. That combination — easy-to-till top, water-holding bottom — makes it one of the best rice soils in the United States.

The push to name an official state soil came from Representative Wanda Northcutt, whose District 81 covered parts of five counties — Arkansas, Desha, Jefferson, Lonoke, and Prairie — all of them sitting on Stuttgart soil. She introduced the bill to recognize the soil that underpinned her district's entire agricultural economy.

The Stuttgart series had been an established and well-studied soil series since 1964, when it was first described in St. Francis County. By 1997 it was mapped across 200,000 acres of the Grand Prairie and recognized as the backbone of Arkansas's rice industry.

The Arkansas General Assembly passed Act 890 in 1997, making the Stuttgart series the official state soil. The designation tied the soil to two of Arkansas's other official symbols: rice is the state grain, and the duck-hunting culture that thrives on flooded Stuttgart fields is central to the state's identity.

Stuttgart soil has a distinctive profile: pale, silty layers near the surface, then a sharp transition to a deep red silty clay subsoil that is one of the most recognizable features of any Arkansas state soil. Below the red zone, the clay fades to gray — a sign of poor drainage and seasonal waterlogging.

Stuttgart soil is found on the Grand Prairie — a flat, ancient terrace system in east and southeast Arkansas that sits between the Arkansas River to the south and the White River to the north. About 200,000 acres have been mapped, and the soil gives the Grand Prairie its agricultural character.

The type location — the official reference site for the series — is in Lonoke County. The soil also extends into Louisiana's Lower Mississippi Valley, but Arkansas holds by far the largest concentration.

Rice is the dominant crop on Stuttgart soil, and Arkansas is the leading rice-producing state in the United States. The slow permeability of the clay subsoil keeps the flooded paddy water in place during the growing season — naturally, without expensive lining or engineering.

After rice harvest in the fall, Stuttgart fields flood again — and ducks arrive by the millions. Stuttgart calls itself the Rice and Duck Capital of the World, and the World's Championship Duck Calling Contest has been held there since 1936. The soil is as much a part of duck hunting culture as it is of farming.

Besides rice, Stuttgart soil supports soybeans, corn, and small grains. Farmers rotate these crops with rice to manage soil health and markets. Almost all Stuttgart soil in Arkansas is in active cropland — very little remains in its original natural vegetation.