When soil scientists started miniaturizing and making small soil monitoring devices more rugged 10 years ago, the farming world mostly ignored it. There were calls for something more practical. Fast forward a decade and soil scientists around the world now offer in-field, real-time, hand-held soil testing laboratories. Simranjit Singh is product manager at ATP Nutrition […] Read more
Tag Archives soil testing — page 2
System reduces human touch in soil sampling
Company says it helps agronomists spend more of their time making recommendations in the field with customers
Precision Planting has come to market with a new system designed to eliminate some of the drudgery from soil sampling. Dale Koch, product lead for the platform dubbed Radicle Agronomics, said it was designed for professional crop consultants and eliminates several manual steps from the traditional soil sampling and testing process. “There are really three […] Read more
Fall soil sampling must be done at the right time
Samples that are collected too early could still have biological activity, and nutrient levels may still be changing
The grain is safely in the bin and fall spraying efforts are starting to wind down with the arrival of colder temperatures. If farmers haven’t turned their attention to fall soil sampling yet, now is the perfect time to do so, says Warren Ward, an agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada. “We’re coming […] Read more
Soil analysis business booms
A Canadian agricultural tech company is rapidly growing as its gamma ray-based soil analysis system gets adopted around the globe. Practical Precision was founded in 2017 by Paul Raymer and his parents Barry and Elizabeth Raymer, and it developed a soil sensor called SoilOptix that provides a detailed view of soil contents. Paul Raymer said […] Read more
Last season’s drought could cause unpredictable soil N
Western Canadian crop rotations are being thrown off by residual fertilizer left from crops that never were
A good portion of the plant nutrients applied last spring still sits in prairie soils. Some agronomists have even found granular pellets of fertilizer still intact when taking soil tests this fall. In most areas, there was enough moisture to dissolve fertilizer applied in the spring. However, drought conditions prevented crops from using these inputs […] Read more
