Such soils occupy about 20 million hectares of land in Alberta, of which about 3.2 million are occupied and 1.6 million are cultivated. They are the dominant soils in much of the potentially arable, unsettled land of Alberta.
Luvisolic soils present farmers with several management problems.
They have poor physical condition, are generally low in plant nutrients and are moderately acidic. Soil Survey of St. Ann sheet. Within a few years the findings of the work at the Breton Plots enabled farmers to greatly improve production on Luvisolic soils. It was learned very soon that the Luvisolic soils were quite deficient in the plant nutrient sulfur as well as nitrogen and phosphorus. With the addition of sulphur fertilizer, excellent crops of legume-grass forages could be grown.