Willington Crop Services

'precision farming services - from soil sampling to GPS farm mapping and crop services'

Soil Sampling for Nutrient Management and Fertilizer Requirements

Soil Sampling Fields in a Conventional W Pattern

In its simplest form conventional soil sampling is the collection of one set of soils per field whether the field is 5ha or 50ha.
This one set of soils is made up from 25 soil cores taken in a w pattern across field - hence the term W soil sampling or sometimes called conventional soil sampling as opposed to GPS Soil sampling. soil sampling

 

This soil sampling can be across a whole field or part of field. But for fields larger than 10ha, it is more useful to divide the field into approximate 4ha blocks and collecting soil samples from within these 4ha area of fields. This identifies any differences within the field. Soils sampling is by collecting soils from each 4ha area in W pattern to produce a single soil sample for laboratory analysis.w soil sampling part field
w soil samping field
Sampling pattern for field.    Sampling pattern for part field.

Soil samples or plant samples are analysed for what ever elements the farmer requires. A Standard soil analysis for fertilizer requirements is pH, P, K, Mg but other elements can be analysed such as soil texture, organic matter, boron etc.. Laboratory results are returned with recommendation to interpret results for nutrient management.

Method for Soil Sampling Fields to enable calculation of Fertiliser Needs and Nutrient Management
  • Soil sampling cores are collected in a W pattern across the whole field or part of field in Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire in the UK. All these cores are amalgamated to give a single soil sample for laboratory analysis. The exact soil sampling pattern used depends on the analysis required.
  • Conventional W soil sampling pattern, 25 soil cores are taken throughout W soil sampling pattern across field. An alternative more detailed conventional W soil testing pattern can be a W pattern within approx 4ha areas to be amalgamated into 1 soil sample per 4 ha.
  • Soil cores from each W are amalgamated into a single sample for analysis.
  • Soil results are interpreted with recommendations on nutrient management needed - example shown below.
  • Previous years data included in data sheet when available, to build full picture of field reserves.
Willington Crop Services offers crop services including soil sampling, precision farming UK, GPS soil sampling, GPS mapping, GPS nutrient maps, nutrient management, crop advice and agronomy service.
Willington Crop Services is located in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK. Working on farms with farmers in agriculture in Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire in East Anglia, UK.