Great question, have read this thread several times, really important as we farm the top and don't look at the bottom.

A long tile spade works best to dig them out, a spray bottle of water helps as you dig, long, tedious job if you do it right.

If they are brittle, something is out of whack you can improve.

I remember this savy SWCD tech north of Columbus Ohio, maybe Knox County, the father of notill in Ohio standing in that pit and showing me things I knew but never saw.  He showed me a lot I didn't know, too.  It is all an exchange of knowledge and experience and this is why NAT is so very successful.  I am sorry I cannot remember his name.

A farmer naturally wants to rip the plant out as fast as possible and that is the wrong thing to do to look at root growth.

The more I dig the I think we know too little about roots, especially soybeans.

You show me soybean roots with little nodules scattered amongst the roots and I think you have less yield and profit.

Show me big nodules near the tap and I think you will be very happy.  The more the merrier as they say.

Nodules should have been deep pink or red and large near the taproot in June.  I rarely find that.

As we go into more corn we will find more corn pests on the roots.  I don't think GMO fixes all the problems, just mimicks them.

Ed Winkle