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Aberdeen MS | Generally after the bean crop is off or the wheat crop is off. Ideally tho, I'd prefer to do the early summer backed up with tissue samples.... both taken at the same time. But sidedressing, haying, and spraying, then a shower of rain now and then.... crap shoot at best. I don't personally sample really anymore, even on my own. A local consulting firm agrees to gps sample soil types with cores logged according to coordinates and adjusted for land terrain without squabbling about it for around $4/acre. My hips and knees are starting to be troublesome these days so I just let the youngsters take care of it now. The deduction is welcomed plus I get nice computer generated mapping of the sampling sites for future reference as well.
I've done winter sampling when I was in the "biz" 20 some years ago. I hated it and didn't feel I got good samples. Basically at the time.... it was all fall worked ground and a true 6" profile was impossible to get, especially in plowing. But on the flip side....a time or two... I hand probed alfalfa in Jan under a foot of snow.
Back then, a lot of it was in the spring prior to planting.... sometimes some really really wet ground. A rag soaked with Pam Cooking spray was standard carry on the belt so the dirt would slide in the tube. But to spread out a full day's sampling in the basement for 24 hrs of air drying....then busting the clumps apart for a finer sample being shipped made for a lot of work. Almost impossible when you were motelling it for a couple days and transporting a couple hundred pounds of dirt to ship. | |
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soil sampling frozen ground
