Have you ever heard the quote by Paul Harvey, “despite all our accomplishments, we owe our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and that fact that it rains?” Of course, the topsoil situation varies on where you are in Clinton County.
For this reason, we need to have a healthy relationship with our soils, and part of having a healthy relationship is having a good understanding of our soils. One of the ways we can get to know our soils better is by having a soil analysis done in our fields. Through soil tests we can see the conditions in our soils like, how much nutrient our soil can hold, how much we need to apply, or what our soil pH is.
Sometimes our soils have the nutrients we need, but the soil is too acidic to make those nutrients available to the crops, this is why sometimes lime is the best “fertilizer.” With the cost of inputs today it is crucial that we know exactly the rate of fertilizer that needs applied, and sometimes this varies throughout a single field.
OSU Extension is offering free soil health testing as part of a project funded by Ohio Soybean Farmers and their checkoff. The project is helping us learn about available soil tests for soil health, how farm management impacts soil health, and how changes in soil health impact crop yields.
You will be asked to share management history and average crop yields for fields that are sampled. We will collect the soil samples and share the testing results. Check out what we’ve learned so far in our eFields reports at eFields.osu.edu.
If you are interested, please contact Brooks Warner, Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension Educator.
Phone: 937-382-0901
Email: [email protected]
