Monitoring Regional Soil Test Data

Agvise has released its annual summary of regional soil test data. Agvise Soil Scientist John Breker says nitrogen is the nutrient that sees the most change from year to year. “That’s the one thing that has a lot of environmental variables, whether it be soil temperature and moisture conditions that drive both crop yield, nitrogen uptake and mineralization potential, as well as potential losses,” said Breker. “There were some areas in the southern parts of Minnesota that were extremely wet this past year, and they had more nitrogen losses, whereas up in the northern Red River Valley, we were quite dry throughout most of the season so we didn’t really have much nitrogen losses through May, June, and July until some of the late-season rains came.” When looking at phosphorus, potassium, or any of the micronutrients, Breker sees a lot of regionality in the soil samples. Agvise is hosting its winter meetings this week in Willmar, Watertown, and Grand Forks.