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Martinsville, Ohio | It really does depend on the situation and every outfit is different. I have seen people pull one sample per grid or even 3-4 but yes, most farmers don't want to pay for the cost you describe.
I have always pulled about one sample per acre and sample per field or per soil type or zone. I have a system I am comfortable with in each field and each farm. I pull tissue samples the same way. They help me finetune the fertility program from the soil test recommendations.
I just pulled both on a 10 acre field and the soil is low in P, K, Mn and Boron. The plant samples showed low in K and deficient in Mn and Boron. This is quite typical to what I find in southern Ohio.
I do this once per year or once per crop rotation. I try to tissue sample every field every year. The farmers and consultants I have talked to on grids sample once per rotation and some skip or have skipped many rotations because of the expense and the lack of information they got from the procedure. Or they took it as gospel and build their fertility program out of that one sampling for many years. I have seen this time and time again.
If you do a good job and charge a reasonable fee and the farmer gets value from your program, he will do more. I wouldn't guess how many actually do that but I know it's less than half.
You name it, it is out there but actually doesn't represent that many acres done consistently in my area each year.
Ed Winkle | |
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Soil/Plant tissue testing
