SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report
Sections
Status: Approved
Basic Information
- Project No. and Title: NCERA_old13 : Soil Testing and Plant Analysis
- Period Covered: 10/01/2016 to 05/22/2017
- Date of Report: 05/23/2017
- Annual Meeting Dates: 02/13/2017 to 02/14/2017
Participants
Culman, Steve – Ohio State University Dahl, Jon – Michigan State University Florence, Robert – University of Wisconsin-Madison Kaiser, Daniel – University of Minnesota Laboski, Carrie – University of Wisconsin-Madison Mallarino, Antonio - Iowa State University Nathan, Manjula – University of Missouri Ruiz-Diaz, Dorivar – Kansas State University Stammer, Andrew – Kansas State University
- The meeting began at 1 pm, 2/14/2017.
- Committee membership discussion: Some states do not have a representative, and some current representatives are not in the NIMMS web site. A new Nebraska representative is listed on the NIMMS web site but the committee Chair was not contacted. Mallarino will contact the person listed and will include the name in the committee email addresses list. Illinois and South Dakota have no representative since previous ones left retired. North Dakota and Ohio have representatives but are not listed in the NIMMS web site. The new Chair will make contacts to update representation and listing.
- Update about the 2017 North-Central Region Soil and Plant Analyst Workshop will be held after this committee meeting ends, from 1 pm February 14 until noon February 15. Everything is ready, and its organization through committee members’ work with Brent Pringnitz, Coordinator of the Iowa State University Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension Programming Office has been very good. A specific website for the workshop includes information. Attendee fees were set at $70 or $90 for early or late (and on-site) registrations.
- Committee website update: Nothing to report. Nathan posts information when needed
- NAPT report: Robert Florence is the current NCERA-13 representative until Fall 2018. There was discussion about improving plant analysis proficiency. Solvita (CO2 burst) is offered by some labs separately or as part of the Haney’s assessment tool. There is ongoing research in the region about its actual significance for N fertilization needs and as part of a soil health assessment tool. There is concern in that if the NAPT includes proficiency testing for the Solvita test, it will suggest that it should be done. For any test, there should be at least 6 labs doing it.
- Hot topic discussion 1: 360 SoilScan for field measurement of soil nitrate – Several issues were discussed. There are no university or USDA/ARS comparisons of this method with the traditional laboratory method. Since this is a field test, involving sample handling procedures and extraction/analysis methods, how should we evaluate/certify this and others like it? Should we develop a one page set of criteria for adding a method to our methods publication? The committee decided that Culman will lead a subcommittee to discuss this.
- Hot topic discussion 2: Challenges created by a colleague from another state of the region saying things that discredit the value of soil testing and suggest using only nutrient removal only for fertilizer recommendations. Could this be addressed with a joint newsletter article?
- Hot topic discussion 3: Value of a public laboratories – Is a regional NCERA-13 white paper needed? Could use a as a starting point a very good article written by David Kissel. There was no decision; perhaps a topic for next meeting.
- Next committee meeting: It was decided that it will be held on November 14-15, 2017.
- The meeting adjourned at 11:45 am 2/15/2017. Members will attend the Workshop which begins at 1 pm.
Accomplishments
The main outreach activity of the committee is the North-Central Region Soil-Plant Analyst Workshop that is held every two years. The 2017 workshop was completed successfully, with 77 attendees from private laboratories, soil-testing equipment industry, and universities of the region. All attendees paid a registration fee to support workshop costs. A proceedings of the workshop with articles or abstracts is being prepared to be posted online.
The committee advanced work to update several chapters of the committee publication Recommended Chemical Soil Test Procedures for the North Central Region. In the previous year we completed the update of the sulfur methods chapter. During this year, we continued work in the chapters Organic Matter, Micronutrients, Phosphorus, and Potassium.
Impacts
- The committee completed successfully a major educational effort focusing on appropriate procedures for soil and plant analysis and its use to assess nutrient status targeted to mainly to the private sector. During the 2017 North-Central Region Soil-Plant Analyst Workshop, we addresses and educated about several current most relevant issues. Results of an evaluation completed by 38 of 68 attendees who were not committee members were very positive. For example, for the question “The workshop was a good value for the price and was a good professional development opportunity” answers were: 0 for Strongly Disagree, 0 for Disagree, 2 for Neutral, 17 for Agree, and 19 for Strongly Agree.
- The committee website was updated with information on soil and plant analysis methods and information on education activities, such as the North central Region workshop.
Publications
Dick, W.A., and Steven W. Culman. 2017. Biological and biochemical tests for assessing soil fertility. Soil Fert. Manag. Agroecosyst. p. 134-147.
Jones, J.D., and A.P. Mallarino. 2016. Influence of source and particle size on agricultural limestone efficiency at increasing soil pH. p. 91-96. In 65th North-Central Extension-Industry Soil Fertility Conf. Proceedings. Nov. 2-3 2016. Vol. 32. Des Moines, IA. International Plant Nutrition Institute, Brookings, SD.
Sawyer, J.E., and A.P. Mallarino. 2016. Using manure nutrients for crop production. Publ. PMR 1003 (Revised). Iowa State Univ. Extension. Ames.
Sutradhar, A.K., D.E. Kaiser, and L.M. Behnken. 2017. Soybean response to broadcast application of boron, chlorine, manganese, and zinc. Agron. J. 109:1048-1059.
Sutradhar, A.K., D.E. Kaiser, C. Rosen, and J.A. Lamb. 2016. Boron for crop production. Publ.AG-FO-0723-C (Rev. 2016). Univ. of Minnesota Extension.
Sutradhar, A.K., D.E. Kaiser, C. Rosen, and J.A. Lamb. 2016. Zinc for crop production. Publ. FO-0720-C (Rev. 2016). Univ. of Minnesota Extension.