The Weekly NE Ohio Crop Weather Report – December 29, 2009 gives an excellent summary of 2009 along with some lessons learned. A lot of valuable lessons were learned in 2009 : Dealing with high moisture corn – some grain bins may need to be purchased in the future. The need for testing corn for…
Nitrogen is, of course, an essential plant nutrient – but it also can negatively affect both growth and quality of a crop and so must be carefully managed. Crops take up nitrogen that is released to the soil as a direct result of several catalysts, including atmospheric deposition … soil organic matter mineralization … crop…
Soil testing company, Midwest Laboratories, is able to determine the presence and concentrations of various common soil containments in the environment from heavy industry and transport infrastructure. A soil test allows a land owner to balance the potential impact of harm from soil contamination against the cost of undertaking a cleanup operation with the…
Soil can be contaminated by any of a number of ways, rendering the land it occupies unsuitable for crops and livestock, illegal to develop, and potentially toxic to the human environment. Soil testing represents the key first and last steps of any cleanup operation. Depending on the levels and type of toxicity, a cleanup…
Estimated Nitrogen Release or ENR is a calculated estimate of how much nitrogen will be released through the growing season from the organic matter (O.M.) or humus-like materials. Therefore, as the % O.M. increases, so will the ENR. This calculation is based on the “rule of thumb” that organic matter contains 5% nitrogen. The rate…
1. Fertilizer or liming materials improperly applied or not thoroughly mixed in soil: (a) Material still on top of soil – poor incorporation or drought. (b) Coarse materials not dissolved or not extract-soluble. (c) Row fertilizer applications not constituting a proper proportion of sample. 2. Leaching of certain elements due to materials used, rates of…
1. Varied depth of sampling (Sample at tillage depth). 2. Combining unlike soil areas into one composite sample. 3. Combining soil areas with different past liming, fertilizer, or cropping histories into one composite sample. 4. Combining an insufficient number of sub-samples into composite from extremely varied or land-leveled fields. 5. Attempting to use single composite…
Soil testing can yield important information for growers and grazers about the general health, fertility, structure, and physical properties of any given land and its suitability for different crops. By combining diligent record keeping with professional soil testing, it is possible for modern farmers to build up knowledge about the characteristics of their farm and…
Percent Organic Matter – An overnight digestion process that shows a level of humus and protein materials. It should contain a minimum of field residues visible to the eye. For herbicides, consider visible residues in addition to the % O.M. reading. ENR – Estimated nitrogen release from the O.M. to the next crop. It is…
In mineral soils, a 6 2/3″ plow depth is considered to weigh 2,000,000 lbs/A, but organic soils may average only 1,300,000 lbs/A. Organic soils by definition contain over 20% organic matter and may range up to 85%. To show this high organic matter a “combustible O.M. test” must be used. Tucas and Warncke have both…