Get out the soil sampler this winter

This time of the year is ideal for soil sampling, especially seeing as the weather has been good and ground is relatively dry.

If you need an up-to-date set of soil samples, then you should sample as soon as possible in order to get results back quickly.

This will then allow you to complete a nutrient management plan and calculate your fertiliser requirements.

Many companies or merchants will take soil samples for you, but some farmers prefer to take the samples themselves. This allows you to take samples where you think there are fertility issues or where you had issues with crops.

Pattern

Make sure you take a representative sample. If sampling a field, you should walk the field in a W pattern and take about 20 samples with a soil core to 10cm.

Avoid spots where farmyard manure or lime was left to sit or anywhere else where there would be something that would skew the soil sample to an unrealistic situation.

If you are concerned about a certain area of a field, then take a representative sample from that area in the same way as you would take a sample for the field.

Requirements

The soil sample should only cover an area of 4ha, but you can take them every 5ha. Ideally, you should soil sample every three years, but samples are needed every four years for nitrates.

If your soil samples were not taken within this time, then you do not have any phosphorus allowance and cannot spread chemical phosphorus and you will not be able to import slurry.

You should not soil sample land that has received lime, phosphorus or potassium in the past three to six months.