Analysis unlocks soil health
23 August 2023
Our soil tests can help farmers and agronomists understand soil in a more detailed way than ever before. The tests are available in the UK and Ireland to provide chemical, physical, and biological insight, offering farmers a better way to monitor, manage and improve the health and fertility of their soil.
Three products are available: Fertilisation Manager®, Soil Crop Monitor® and Soil Life Monitor®, which combined offer the most comprehensive way to analyse and improve soil health.
Fertilisation Manager measures soil fertility. This includes the chemical values of macro and micronutrients. Soil pH and the overall structure of the soil is also analysed in conjunction with biological components such as fungi and bacteria.
The microbial biomass from the sample can help farmers to understand the sensitivity of the soil to conventional farming methods such as ploughing. The number and nature of the bacteria present in a soil sample will also facilitate the accurate calculation of what nutrients need to be added to the soil to optimise plant health and growth.
Soil Crop Monitor provides the most accurate means of testing soil during a growing season. Unlike some tests, Soil Crop Monitor analyses both the soil and the plant. This measures the plant available nutrients and the nutrients absorbed by the crop.
Soil Life Monitor determines the total microbial biomass, fungi, bacteria and protozoa. It also identifies some physical characteristics such as pH and the quality of organic matter. PLFA (phospholipid fatty acids) found in soil can be measured to provide a fingerprint of the soil content. PLFAs are degraded quickly in the soil, so the analysis gives an indication of the amount of living biomass.
Our tests are the most detailed routine analysis of soil life available and have countless applications for agriculture.