How to go about doing a soil sample?
It is important to get good representation of the farm-soil sampled. Random sampling throughout your field is essential. The area that is to be included in a sample should be not more than 20 acres. Smaller acreage may be sampled when the soil is not uniform throughout the field. For example, if a small field of 20 acres has half of the area on a slope, then two samples should be taken; one for the flat area and one for the sloping area. This applies also to areas that present more than one different types of soil (Figure 1). Avoid small areas that are different such as poorly drained areas, corners of fields, ends of rows, areas near houses, fence and roads. For the soil sampling collection make sure you use a clean plastic container. Never use a metal container. Make sure that the container has never been used to hold any chemicals, especially fertilizers or lime. Never take samples near lime or manure piles since this might alter the results. Take 15 to 20 samples in the pattern sho
