Such marketing factors can change rapidly. They are seldom within our control and most often at the mercy of weather conditions or the demand for food and feed in other regions of the world. Thus, a commitment to planting a crop becomes a commitment to providing the essential ingredients for high yield crop production. One such ingredient is an adequate and balanced crop nutrition program.
Soil testing provides valuable decision making information essential for good nutrient management.
Specifically, it gives the best possible measure of the level of acidity and a prediction of availability of essential nutrients such as potassium and phosphorus. Equally valuable is the measure of change in fertility level over time by comparing soil test values from the same field year after year. A vital component of high yield production is to maintain a highly productive and fertile soil. A recent summary of soil test results for agronomic crops on a state by state basis indicates that 26 to 75 percent of the soils in the Southeast are inadequate in phosphorus and 23 to 74 percent inadequate in potassium for optimum crop production. The survey evaluated 1.8 million soil samples collected across the U.S. in the fall of 1996 and spring of 1997 and analyzed by private and university labs.