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  • From: Allan Balliett <igg AT igg.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] kinsey ag
  • Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2005 07:37:25 -0500

Marcy -

Here's what ATTRA says about state tests vs consultant tests:

Most land-grant universities offer free or low-cost soil testing services to farmers, gardeners, and landowners. The benefit of in-state analysis is that fertilizer recommendations are calibrated to soils in the region. These calibrations and associated fertilizer recommendations have been determined through decades of field trials at agricultural experiment stations.

The standard soil test - readily available through both land-grant university and commercial labs - provides data on soil nutrient levels (N,P,K, Ca, Mg) and a few soil chemical characteristics (pH and CEC). These parameters form the basis of fertilizer and liming recommendations. However, translating the results of a standard soil test into useful organic fertilizer recommendations is not a simple matter. Most university soil testing labs don't provide practical fertilizer recommendations suited to commercial organic farming.

Here's ATTRA's list of alternative soil labs: http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/soil-lab.html (interesting that it contains neither Jerry Brunetti nor Logan Labs. As usual, ATTRA is the place to START your research, but not a place to stop your research.)

I don't think that I stated this initially: Aside from the fact that they operate from different principles and different extraction methods (State labs operate within the NPK (chemical fertilizer) model and alternative labs tend to work within an organic trace mineral 'soil balancing' model), when you pay the higher alternative lab soil test fees, most of the alternative labs provide detailed analysis of what the tests mean on your soil and how you should approach balancing that soil in an economical fashion, for either NPK or organic management. Most of these consultants are charging $150 and up an hour otherwise for consultation.

-Allan
(Who saw a the results of a poll somewhere that said that 82% of farmers think that soil testing is essential to farming success, but only about 23% actually get them.)




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