Arable crops

Applying nitrogen and sulphur together just makes sense

Combining nitrogen and sulphur together increases nitrogen use efficiency so means more for your money with less wastage

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Get the Most Out of that Little Bag of Soil

Whilst harvest is underway it’s easy to forget about planning soil sampling. Post-harvest is a good time to take soil samples, before you get into drilling the next crop. UK soils have to be tested under the Farming Rules for Water, but don’t let legislation be the only reason to test your soils.

Basic soil analysis will give you P, K, Mg and pH; which is a good start but there are a lot of other important nutrients that can cause issues if deficient. A topic that’s increasingly important is that of soil health, but where do you begin?

Firstly, you need to get the basics right of course, this includes ensuring the correct pH, identifying your P and K indices and organic matter levels. On top of that, knowing the levels of micronutrients will also be useful to plan fertiliser strategies and budgets for the coming year.

By taking a broad spectrum soil sample you’ll get all this data which will help make informed decisions on-farm, but there is still an element that is missing and that’s the microorganisms that live in the soil; which are vital for a number of processes in the soil including enabling nutrient availability and breaking down material into organic matter to name a couple.

There are a few tests that can be carried out in the lab to begin to monitor your soil’s ‘health’. The Solvita Test is a test of how much respiration, and therefore ‘life’, there is in your soil. A low score shows that the soil is lacking something these microorganisms require e.g. oxygen due to lack of soil pores caused by compaction. Whereas a high score shows a good level of organisms present which improve the soil, making it more fertile. Another test is the Labile Amino Nitrogen test (SLAN) which measures the biologically associated nitrogen that is present as amino carbohydrates.

Having these results allows you to judge whether your soils are functioning in a way that enables soil biota to thrive, in turn benefiting the crops you grow. Soil health scores can then monitor over time, showing whether they are generally improving or if specific practices are having a positive/negative effect on your soil.