July 16, 2018
“Soil, plant and grain testing play an important part in my clients’ decision-making, so it’s important to use a laboratory I trust,” he says.
Craig says he uses the information to help growers make key decisions on farm, including:
• Matching fertiliser applications to crop requirements,
• Managing soil acidity or alkalinity, and
• Planning a capital investment such as soil amelioration.
Private agronomist
Grains and livestock
Mid-North and Yorke Peninsula, South Australia
He says his growers’ return on investment from testing is very strong.
“In a lot of cases, especially when we do deep nitrogen testing, we find we can reduce the fertiliser requirements because there is more nitrogen there than the grower had realised,” he says.
Craig says he chooses APAL because of his trust in the results and the ease of submitting samples.
“The new Farm2Lab app really streamlines the process,” he says.
“I can just go out into the field and scan the sample bag barcode and it will record the GPS coordinates of the sample. I then post the bag into APAL, and when the results come back I can see exactly where each sample came from.
“The benefit of this is I can go and take samples from the exact same spot over the course of a year, or multiple years, and take soil samples, plant samples, and grain samples from the same location.
“This gives me a really clear understanding of what is going on in both the soil and the plant.”
Craig says he can also use the geolocation service by importing a sampling map which segregates paddocks by soil type.
He says he will continue to choose APAL for his clients.