Dairy One Cooperative, Inc. services

Soil sampling allows you to optimize yields, minimize fertilizer costs. Managing the nutrient content of the soil is one key to optimum performance of any plant whether it is your lawn or a commercial crop like alfalfa, corn, apples, turf or pumpkins. Over or under application of these essential plant nutrients is very costly in terms of lost yield or quality. The environmental impact from over application or misapplication of plant nutrients can have significant and costly consequences as well. For that reason, soil testing should be the foundation of any crop management plan whether it is for the home gardener or the commercial farm operation.

As an information technology organization, our goal is to bring data and information back to the farm for profit-making decisions. Determining the nutrient content of your soil will provide you with the background information necessary to determine what crops will thrive best and the amendments needed to optimize growth. Follow this with a manure analysis to determine the nutrients that you can readily supply from the farm and minimize your purchased fertilizer costs. As a final test, plant tissue analyses can be used as a diagnostic tool to identify nutrient excesses or deficiencies.