Maximizing Your Soil Data on a Budget: Streamlining Analysis for New Farmers
Belhaven, NC|Jan 27, 2023
This is my first year farming ground on my own. I am renting ground from my Father in law, although I have been working this ground for him for the last 10 years, this is my first time making all the decisions. Unfortunately I’m not getting a lot of mentorship in this endeavor.. I have chosen to do all my own soil samples on 1 acre grids to get a good view of what I am dealing with. Out of the 400 ac I currently have 177 that is going into corn this spring. I now have 177 individual data points each of which have some 24 pages of data to go along with them. I am trying to learn the Agronomy piece but feel a little overwhelmed with all the information. Being on a tight budget I want to make the right decisions on fertility to be the best steward of the land we rent that will one day be ours. Is there a platform I can import all this data into to get a composite view of what I have instead of looking at it page by page and field by field?? Again being on a tight budget it has to be affordable. I have already made a significant investment in getting the most detailed soil test I could… Thanks from an overwhelmed new farmer….
Answers (6):
Feb 10, 2023
Congrats to you on your commitment to being a steward of the land. We’re cohosting Anna agronomy conference down in Virginia next week I think it could really help you make sound decisions for your farm. If you would be open to attending shoot me a message.
Jan 31, 2023
In my opinion while I admire your effort you are, again in my opinion, going about this the hard way. For the most part I would suggest meeting with a local agronomist to review your data. You can expend a lot of resources trying to analyze your test results yourself, and the insight may not be worth the effort.
How did you geo reference your test results?
If you feel you must do it yourself, for whatever reason, then I would suggest AgLeader SMS. Import you soil tests, and with some help from an extension agent you can write your own scripts.
Or, save your self the agony and hire a consultant to work with.
Jan 30, 2023
What sort of result are you wanting from compiling this information? Is it being able to see all soil sample results in one place, tracking where samples were taken, or something else?
Jan 29, 2023
You've done a good job of gathering some base information. However, the interpretation and developing an execution strategy will require someone with good experience. I would suggest you reach out to someone on this platform and engage them as a consultant for you. There's a lot that can be gained with someone who has deep domain experience.
Jan 27, 2023
You can look into soil test pro in the future to manage collection.
Jan 27, 2023
Are you looking to see all of your data points on a single map? I.e. All fields with all sample locations?