Hi I'm Daniel Smith, southwest regional outreach specialist for the Nutrient and Pest Management
program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Today we're going to go out and soil
sample this five-acre field behind me. So, sampling is really important because it allows
us to gauge the soil fertility levels out in these fields for our crops, and allows us to
allocate the appropriate amount of manure and supplemental commercial fertilizer as needed.
Soil sampling is one of the best investments you can make agronomically on your farm.
This sample we're going to take today represents five acres, and it will cost us approximately $8
if we do the sampling ourselves. Per acre, per year, that's only 40 cents per acre.
The best time to soil sample is any time you have time to soil sample. We want to avoid excessively
wet and excessively dry soils, and we want to avoid frozen soil for obvious reasons. If you
typically soil sample in one season, we recommend soil sampling every four years in the same season
for consistency and the ability to track nutrients over the course of time. We typically recommend
soil sampling in the fall, as that allows us the most time to allocate nutrients before we plant
our next crop and apply any lime as needed. Now it's time to plan where we're going to take these
soil samples from. We're going to soil sample an approximate "W" pattern across this 5 acre field.
We're going to avoid any fence rows, dead furrows, headlands, old manure pile sites or old lime pile
sites... that way we avoid anything that skews our soil sample data. We're going to take 10
cores in this field to meet the minimum criteria of having one composite sample per 5 acres. A
composite sample consists of 10 cores of soil. Before we came out to the field this morning,
I took time to fill out my soil sample bags based on our sample locations. The sample bags ask for
a name, a field id, and a sample number. It's very important to properly fill out your soil
sample bags and keep track of that data. That way you know where those samples were taken
in future use. If you're using SnapPlus for a nutrient management plan and you're updating your
plan with new soil samples, be sure to use the existing field names in SnapPlus. That way these
samples will be imported into SnapPlus without any headaches. Now we're ready to soil sample.
I have my soil probe marked out to six inch depth. Six inches is the recommended sampling depth for
a no-till field. If we're using tillage in this farm, we would sample to the depth of tillage.
I have a tool to take the soil core out of the soil sampler and i also have a plastic bucket.
Plastic is best for mixing the soil in, to avoid contamination from a metal surface. Now we're
ready to take a soil core. We're going to push aside any residue that's on the soil surface.
We're going to keep the soil probe perpendicular to the ground. We're going to push the soil probe
into the ground until we reach our six inch depth marker. We're going to spin the soil
sampler to extract our six inch core. Now that we have our soil core, it's time to extract
our soil core out of our soil probe. We use the extraction tool and then pry the soil out of the
probe and put it into our plastic bucket. Now that we've taken our 10 soil cores, it's time
to put the sample in the bag. We're going to mix our sample together, break up any clumps,
any cores, in our bucket. We're going to pour the sample into our sample bag and then we're gonna
place our bag in a secondary bucket that's on the seat of the gator to keep track of throughout our
day of soil sampling. Now that we're done soil sampling, it's time to verify the information on
the soil sample submission sheet. Make sure that it's fully filled out; that way you get the best
recommendations back that accurately represent your farm, and include this in the box of soil
samples. If you're doing a SnapPlus nutrient management plan, it's only necessary to fill
out your personal information, the field id, and the sample number on the soil submission sheet.
The rest of the data will come from SnapPlus when you write your nutrient management plan.
For compliance, you'll need to submit your soil samples to a DATCP certified soil testing lab.
For more information on soil testing, reach out to your local land conservation or extension office.
They may have a soil probe that they'll rent or let you borrow for the day to soil sample.
Also additional information is included the links at the end of or below this video.