It’s summertime and everyone is pulling out the grills and getting their swimming pools ready. It’s also a great time to get your soil ready for the summer.
The first step is to pull a soil sample from your yard, pastures and fields to send it to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture laboratory in Raleigh. You can come into our office and check out a soil probe to borrow or you can use a shovel (not as accurate). What you need to do is get several samples throughout your yard or field (4-8 inches deep depending on the root area of the grass or crop), mix them together, and then put some of the soil into a box that we have available in our office.
We can also help you fill out the necessary paperwork to send with your sample. You can then mail the box of soil and paperwork yourself or you can bring it into our office and we will mail it for you. If you send your sample in before the end of November, it is still a free service. Around the beginning of November through April, the soil lab in Raleigh charges $4 per sample. This is because it is their busiest time of the year for samples, so they would like to encourage everyone to mail their samples in the off-season, which is now.
Results are normally accurate for 2 years, so there is no need to wait! After the lab analyzes your soil, they will then put your results on their website. You can then go to the website to see how much lime and fertilizer you will need. If you don’t have a computer or a printer, you can call us for help and we can print or mail a copy for you. If you do have a computer and don’t understand the results, you can ask us for help.
It also helps to take your report to your local farm store and they can help you find the fertilizer that your soil needs depending on what type of grass or crop you have or will plant. The reason why it is a good idea to get your soil samples in now is because most of our soils require lime.
Lime needs around 6 months in order to break itself down so that it is available for your grass or crop to use. You can go ahead and get the lime out so that it can start working for you. Lots of you are planning ahead and will be purchasing hay soon. You can borrow our forage probe if you would like to test your hay.
For only $10, you can get your sample analyzed to find out how much protein, energy and minerals are in your hay. You can then substitute feed for whatever the hay may be missing.
If your hay is high in nitrates, you can find that out also and make management decisions such as limiting the amount of hay your animals get each day or not feeding pregnant animals the higher-risk hay. All you need to use the forage probe is a cordless electric drill.
If you need help testing your soil or hay, we would be glad to help you. Please call our office at 997-8255 for assistance.
Tiffanee Conrad is the livestock agent at the N.C. Cooperative Extension’s Richmond County Center.