The Foundation of a Good Soil Test

• Major schools of thought for how to pull samples and write recommendations
• What method Crop-Tech uses and why
• What the soil test can tell you
• Why we build zones in a field, and how that plays into a systems approach
• Using layers of data to build your zones (aerial, LiDAR, yield maps, soil lines)
• The importance of knowing before making a recommendation:
  • How the sample was pulled
  • When the sample was pulled
  • What lab ran the test, and what extraction method was used
  • What units are the results reported in

Reading Between the Lines on Your Soil Test

• How to read the values reported and how to interpret them to make the best management decisions regarding:
  • Organic Matter
  • Cation Exchange Capacity
  • P1 and P2
  • Base Saturation
  • pH

A Deep Dive into Phosphorus

• Availability in the soil, and the plant uptake process
• What role it plays in the plant
• Phosphorous tie-up and what that changes in terms of management
• All things starter fertilizer

Drilling Down on Calcium and pH

• Availability in the soil, and the plant uptake process
• What role it plays in the plant
• How to use the pH values on a soil test to decide when, how much, and what type of lime to apply
• What can cause false or varying pH results

Sifting out Lime Surprises

• How to evaluate a lime source
• Vocabulary for understanding acronyms on a lime sample
• How lime quality standards differ between states
• Why a good spread pattern matters and overcoming obstacles to achieve it

The ABCs of Potassium

• Availability in the soil and what affects it
• Plant uptake process and what impedes it
• What role it plays in the plant
• What causes a K+ deficiency, how to identify it, and what it does to the plant
• Effects of an abundance of K+ creating imbalances in the soil

All Things Nitrogen

• Different sources: Ammonium Nitrogen (NH4+), Nitrite (NO2-), Nitrate (NO3-)
• The conversion process between the different forms, and factors that influence it
• What source the soil microbes like best, and what the plants use most efficiently
• How and when to protect against volatilization and leaching
• Nitrogen Extenders
• Illinois Soil Nitrogen Test (ISNT) and how we use it to variable rate Nitrogen
• VRT Nitrogen and it’s affect on soil health and organic matter

Understanding the Soil Ecosystem

• Examining soil microbes’ role in growing a crop
  • Heterotrophs vs Autotrophs
  • Bacteria and fungi, small particles with big roles
  • Stages of organic matter
  • The carbon cycle and the importance of the carbon to nitrogen ratio
  • Nutrient cycling-what is involved and when do you see returns