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Cattle Boards
Grasses, Pastures & Hay
Importance of a soil test
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<blockquote data-quote="Jogeephus" data-source="post: 1262453" data-attributes="member: 4362"><p>It really depends on how you are able to apply the fertilizer or lime. Ideally, you want to break the field into uniform units and fertilize each one according to its needs but you may not have that option. Its pretty common here. Say you have 20 acres of sloping land, 30 acres in the bottoms and 10 acres on ridge tops. This would be three different soil test areas. Ideally, you would want to take a sample of soil on each acre in each area and keep them separated by area. </p><p></p><p>In each of these areas the number of plugs should be equal to the acreage in each sample area. But that's ideally. I don't take that many but I don't have much variation because my variation is more on soil type and I know where these changes are. If you don't have the option to use a variable rate spreader tied to GPS then you are really have no choice but to take one sample made up of all your plugs. The important thing to remember is whatever number of plugs you take this number needs to be in proportion to the lay of the land. What I mean is, if you are only going to take a plug every 5 acres then you would need 4 on the slope, 6 in the bottoms and two on the ridge tops otherwise you will skew your sample because you don't want to take them all in the bottom or all on the top of the hill. You are just looking for a good average.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jogeephus, post: 1262453, member: 4362"] It really depends on how you are able to apply the fertilizer or lime. Ideally, you want to break the field into uniform units and fertilize each one according to its needs but you may not have that option. Its pretty common here. Say you have 20 acres of sloping land, 30 acres in the bottoms and 10 acres on ridge tops. This would be three different soil test areas. Ideally, you would want to take a sample of soil on each acre in each area and keep them separated by area. In each of these areas the number of plugs should be equal to the acreage in each sample area. But that's ideally. I don't take that many but I don't have much variation because my variation is more on soil type and I know where these changes are. If you don't have the option to use a variable rate spreader tied to GPS then you are really have no choice but to take one sample made up of all your plugs. The important thing to remember is whatever number of plugs you take this number needs to be in proportion to the lay of the land. What I mean is, if you are only going to take a plug every 5 acres then you would need 4 on the slope, 6 in the bottoms and two on the ridge tops otherwise you will skew your sample because you don't want to take them all in the bottom or all on the top of the hill. You are just looking for a good average. [/QUOTE]
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Importance of a soil test
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