Understanding the Best Seasons for Soil Sampling
Soil sampling is a crucial step to managing your agricultural success. Traditionally, fall has been a preferred time among farmers, but spring and summer also offer their own distinct advantages that can enhance your soil management strategies. Understanding the benefits of each season will help you make an informed decision about scheduling your soil sampling.
Benefits of Each Season
Fall Soil Sampling
- Post-Harvest Insights: Assess nutrient removal right after the growing season to effectively plan for the next planting season.
- Quality Samples: Soil profile can consistently produce quality soil cores if the soil is not disturbed by fall tillage.
- Prepare for Spring: Utilize data from the fall to strategize for winter/spring fertilizer applications.
Spring/Summer Soil Sampling (EIC)
- Optimal Soil Conditions: Consistent moisture levels and less soil disturbance allow for consistent sampling conditions.
- Timely Applications: Early data allows for rec creation and grower connection over the summer for timely fall fertilizer applications.
- Distributed Workload: Spring and summer sampling distributes your work more evenly throughout the year, reducing the fall rush.
What is EIC Sampling?
Early In Crop (EIC) soil sampling involves collecting soil samples from the time when a field is planted until the point when the crop height makes field entry challenging – typically when corn passes V4 stage and soybeans canopy. Soil conditions are uniform and soil profile is consistent during this season, and receiving your soil test analysis early in the year allows for grower connections over the summer months for fertility planning. This timing also allows for the assessment of soil nutrients when they are most available for early crop development.
Additional Considerations
While fall soil sampling remains popular, it presents challenges, such as hard, dry soils which can influence reported pH and potassium levels. Fall tillage and manure applications will drastically affect the reliability of soil test results and should be avoided at all costs. The unpredictability of spring weather can impact field accessibility during EIC soil sampling, and it is not recommended to soil sample close to any spring fertilizer applications. Our expert team is equipped to manage these challenges effectively, ensuring you always receive dependable results.
Choosing the Right Time for You
Both fall and EIC soil sampling have their merits, and the choice depends on your specific management practices and crop schedules. The best course of action is to utilize all sampling seasons available to you. Here are a few things to consider when finding the right time for soil sampling:
- Crop Cycle: Consider how the sampling time aligns with your crop’s lifecycle and your management strategy.
- Soil Conditions: Evaluate the typical soil and weather conditions during these periods and choose the time for each field that will provide the most consistent and reliable data.
- Workload Management: Consider your yearly operations schedule; EIC sampling can mitigate busy fall periods, providing strategic operational benefit for fall applications. Fall sampling works well when winter/spring applications can occur after sampling and recommendations are completed.
I have switched most of my soil sampling customers to summer sampling for a multitude of reasons, more consistent moisture in the summer months which leads to more consistent results. Sampling in the summer also allows us to be timelier with spreading in the fall, and it allows me more time to make recs before harvesting starts. Lastly and most important to the customer it allows them more time to look at their budgets and lock in their fertilizer purchases..
Owen H.
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