Rainmaker
Member
- Location
- Canterbury,NZ
Neither, We have a eurofinns soil lab opened up here who are not giving away free soil tests like the local fertilizer co op. Have half a mind to try them.
Who does your soil tests?
- Thread starter SilliamWhale
- Start date
ollie989898
Member
Always used Yara/Lancrop. Insist any sample reports you have include Yara's recommendations- that way you can't be conned by the person doing the tests. You don't need to follow Yara's advice either, but the P and K values and recommendations they give are basically from RB209 anyway. Don't be trusting the sole word of some rep saying you need 4 CWT of MOP.
Is their accuracy demonstrably better in order to justify the extra expense?
- Location
- East yorks
Lancrop in Pock, used to drop em in and email results not sure for this year whether I will have to post em
- Location
- Shropshire
An agronomist told me he was concerned about soil lab results, so got a sample from a field in a bucket, mixed it well, split into 3 and sent to 3 different labs, all came back no where near the same as each other! Very varied results.
SilliamWhale
Member
As I say - whats the bloody point?!
Steevo
Member
- Location
- Gloucestershire
Makes for a nice story. Without doing it for myself I’m not sure I’m willing to accept that as true.
Boohoo
Member
- Location
- Newtownabbey
Thought some of our results from tests in the spring were a bit odd and I've queried results in the past. Just dug out the report, NRM.
- Location
- Chipping Norton
We don’t use Kinsey. All our regular soil analysis is done through NRM.
HolzKopf
Member
- Location
- Kent&Snuffit
Rainmaker
Member
- Location
- Canterbury,NZ
Also depends what extraction methods each lab is using one would think.
- Location
- Shropshire
Well that’s what he told me and he’s not the sort to make it up!
why don’t you give it a go and see for yourself and let us all know as it would be good to hear if things are better now as this was a few years ago?
His conclusion was that soil tests can only be used as a guide and that to get the best results you need to sample at the same time of year, send to the same lab and try to take samples from the same areas each time you do it to see the improvements you are making. So I divide fields into a grid system and number those then I can compare readings in those fields with fresh results every four years approximately.
- Location
- Darlington
Isn't @York doing a similar test to Kinsey?
My mistake. What were you & I talking about for soil tests sent to USA a couple of years ago? Haney test?
- Location
- Chipping Norton
We have done some Haney tests (sent to the US) but have not managed to put the data to good use .... yet. Still trying.
- Location
- Chipping Norton
I think @York uses Kinsey or to be more precise Perry Labs in the US.
ollie989898
Member
I've used NRM a bit in the past but having seen the Lancrop labs and how they do what they do, they are pretty good at it and have my confidence. That equipment they have isn't cheap and they are big on quality control.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Its far from an exact science, dont be surprised if the indices go up after 2 years of no fert.
As others have said, different labs can give different results. So whichever lab you use, use the same for all tests and when comparing with results from other labs or years use caution
Ultimately, the samples from the same lab are relative to each other. So may not be 100% correct, but can least show trends
Ultimately, the samples from the same lab are relative to each other. So may not be 100% correct, but can least show trends
- Location
- south norfolk