Does soil testing make a difference?

[El Wood]

I'll be planting about 7 acres of grass this spring around the house I just built. I don't plan on maintaining the entire 7 acres. I'll probably let some areas grow wild.

A friend suggested I pick up a soil test kit. I picked one up for $25 and plan on sending it in to Michigan State University.

Do soil test provide much useful data?

 

[RickB]

I'll be planting about 7 acres of grass this spring around the house I just built. I don't plan on maintaining the entire 7 acres. I'll probably let some areas grow wild.

A friend suggested I pick up a soil test kit. I picked one up for $25 and plan on sending it in to Michigan State University.

Do soil test provide much useful data?

Depends entirely on the individual macro- and micro-nutrients tested for, and what you do with the results.
The test is only worthwhile if the sample is representative of the field and results are incorporated into a management plan.

 

[motownbrowne]

They do provide good data. Interpreting soil tests is not a simple task, but I bet you'll learn a good amount for your $25 dollars. Might help you select a species that'll work there, rather than amending the whole acreage.

 

[JMER817]

Where did you get the soil test kit? I'm looking to do the same thing. With 7 acres you might want to get two kits. Then take soil samples from maybe 3 different areas for each kit. That should give you a better (average) results.

 

[RickB]

Where did you get the soil test kit? I'm looking to do the same thing. With 7 acres you might want to get two kits. Then take soil samples from maybe 3 different areas for each kit. That should give you a better (average) results.

Submitting one sample is adequate unless the OP is prepared to amend the field in different ways for the separate tests. The sample should be comprised of a mixture taken from a dozen or so probes or sub-samples taken from the field in grid pattern from the entire plow layer.

 

[El Wood]

Where did you get the soil test kit? I'm looking to do the same thing. With 7 acres you might want to get two kits. Then take soil samples from maybe 3 different areas for each kit. That should give you a better (average) results.

I picked up the kit at the Michigan State University extension office located in our county building. I was told that you can also buy them online at the MSU book store.

The test instructs me to collect 10 random soil samples (about 1/2 cup) from the lawn area. The slice of soil should be about 3 inches down. Then mix 10 sub-samples together and allow then to dry entirely. Place 1 cup of well-mixed soil into the sample bag and send it in.

 

[Gunny]

I do testing every year on my garden spots, mainly so I don't over fertilize/lime and to make sure everything is in a proper balance. They only charge $5 per test here, so it's no big deal, money wise, to be on the safe side.
The first year I bought the place, I was amazed at how much it took to get the garden spots back to normal. I found out that the previous owner raised a lot of burley and corn and never was known to do enough fertilizing.

 

[AlanB]

Yes, if as Rick said you are willing to follow their recommendations. If say you want to be organic, and you are sending in that sample, I suspect you are wasting your time and money as the state institutions I am familiar with do not make organic recommendations.

I guess, BLUF would be, make sure you have the folks doing the test, and giving you recommendations that are following the type of management practice that you desire.

Another side note would be that you can look at the plants that are growing there, and see what is needed by interpreting what the plants are doing. Nature has a way of trying to heal everything so looking closely you can make a good guess as to what you are shy of without the test. There are books etc. on this as well.

Good luck.

Alan B

 

[RickB]

Yes, if as Rick said you are willing to follow their recommendations. If say you want to be organic, and you are sending in that sample, I suspect you are wasting your time and money as the state institutions I am familiar with do not make organic recommendations.

I guess, BLUF would be, make sure you have the folks doing the test, and giving you recommendations that are following the type of management practice that you desire.

Another side note would be that you can look at the plants that are growing there, and see what is needed by interpreting what the plants are doing. Nature has a way of trying to heal everything so looking closely you can make a good guess as to what you are shy of without the test. There are books etc. on this as well.

Good luck.

Alan B

Soil test results generally contain recommendations for amendments based on intended crops as submitted with the sample. How the grower chooses to supply needed macro- and micro-nutrients and other amendments is his choice, whether via organic or conventional practices.

 

[ajamesshaw]

With that much area I would be tempted to call my local farm co-op and get it sampled and mapped. Many are offering that service at a reasonable price. It would likely be a contour-type map interpolated from a lot more test points than you are doing on your own.

Good luck. Personally speaking, I don't know what this costs, but my 20 acres of tillable was tested by a co-op for my tenant and I don't think it cost that much, but they were regular customers at the co-op for seed, anhydrous, etc.

 

[Soggy Bottom Outdoors]

When I go visit a farmer/landowner to do soil sampling as a service of my employer in hopes of selling some fertilizer I ask lots of question before I ever start. What is the crop history/crop future of the field? For example if it was and will continue to be in a low dollar crop(grass/legume pasture or hay) then a test for micronutrients may not be needed. But if the field was or will be in silage or tobacco then lots of "juice" will be needed. Was any fertilizer or lime added recently? Was a soil test taken recently? What are the customers expectations? 250 bushel corn or 150? 40 bushel beans or 75? Multiple applications or just one? Most times a "field" will be singular and fertilized as one so you need a "average" of the field. I do this by taking a sample or core ar every "terrain feature change". Take a few in the bottoms a few on hill sides(all of them) and a few on the hill tops, put them all in a bucket and mix or average them and put a ample in a box or bag. If you have more hillsides than bottoms then the samples should reflect that. Don't get caught up to much in the acreage because the test results will give you pounds of nutrients(not material) per acre. It will also give you a pH value. Try to take samples 4-6 inches deep, most of the nutrients and roots are in this area. Also try to take the samples the same time each year(month) so you can compare apples and apples. So back to the question, Does soil sampling pay? In my location Urea is $525 a ton, DAP is $580 and Potash is $440. More later if you like.

 

[smstonypoint]

When I go visit a farmer/landowner to do soil sampling as a service of my employer in hopes of selling some fertilizer I ask lots of question before I ever start.

Are any farmers in your area using variable fertilizer application rates?

Steve

 

[Soggy Bottom Outdoors]

Yes, thats a large part of my job. We have "grided" about 3000 acres so far with another 1000 or so pending. Cost is about $7 per acre. We use a Viper controller in a Rogator machine with a twin compartment bed. We have also set up a lime truck with VRT. How familiar are you with VRT?

 

[smstonypoint]

How familiar are you with VRT?

I know next to nothing about the technical aspects of VRT, but I had a nodding acquaintance with the literature on the economics of precision ag. before I retired back in 2007.

As I recall, the ROI didn't look that great at that time with relatively low crop prices and relatively high costs of the technology. Am I correct in thinking that the real cost of the technology has decreased and its capabilities have increased over time?

Steve

 

[Soggy Bottom Outdoors]

The R7 biomass satellite imagery from the Winfield Solutions Company coupled with John Deeres(and others) Greenstar Yield Monitor from the combine gives you a pretty amazing inside look at your fields. Like I said the "griding" costs $7 per acre and the spreading with our VRT machine is $7 per acre. (Consider that spreading with our older "spinner" truck is $6 a acre) It wouldn't take much of putting fertilizer in the right place instead of the wrong place to equal $14 per acre. Lets just say you have 100 acres you'd like to try. I'll come out with my "gadgets" and a GPS/satellite mark/trace the boundary of your field, the program will then generate "target points" randomly for your field on 2.5 acre grids. I will take samples at each of these target points as individual samples. A couple days after I submit the samples I'll get the results. With the fields crop history and your yield projections I can load a "fertilizer prescription" into a flash drive/thumb drive that is plugged into the Viper on the Rogator. The two bins on the Rogator are loaded, one with DAP and the other with potash and as the machine moves across the field the correct analysis of fertilizer is blended and spread on the correct grid. If the machine is in the wrong field it wont come on. Or if the machine goes outside the field boundary the bed will shut off, like if you cross a waterway. Parts of the that needs more getts more and what needs less gets less. Try that with an old fertilizer buggy. We can talk more if you need to.....I like it.