• By April W Bowman
• Posted Friday, October 22, 2021

Soil Sampling and Fertilizer Costs

Synthetic fertilizer prices are drastically increasing! Consider these tips:

• Recycle your own animal waste whenever possible by rotationally grazing fields.
• Consider unrolling hay when you can this winter and/or move your bale feeders to allow animals to spread their waste as they eat, versus having all your manure concentrated in one area.
• Apply fertilizer to hayfields where you are removing nutrients and not adding any animal waste back.
• TAKE SOIL TESTS so that you know which fields have the lowest values and which fields need fertilizer the most.
• Consider frost seeding some clover in late winter to add some natural Nitrogen to your fields.

Click here to read the full article.

To pick up your free soil sample kit visit our Demonstration Gardens where we have set up a station for pick up. The kits include 3 items:

• A brochure about how to test your soil
• A form to include with your soil test boxes (there’s a form for home gardeners or one for farmers)
• The soil testing boxes

To pick up your kit, visit our office at 1450 Fairchild Rd, Winston-Salem, NC 27105 . Drive to the east end of our parking lot. Kits are available in the brochure holder below our Demonstration Garden sign. Please close the lid to protect the papers from the weather! And don’t forget, all visitors to county buildings are asked to wear a mask.

After you collect your soil samples, you will need to mail them to the NCDA’s soil testing lab in Raleigh – see your form for the address. Tests are $4 each Thanksgiving through March 31 and FREE April 1 through Thanksgiving. They will email you the test results. If you can’t find that email, use this website to search for your soil test. If you need help interpreting a soil test report, contact your local Extension Agent .

For more information, email, April Bowman, Extension Agent, Livestock, Forages, and 4-H Youth Development at awbowman@ncsu.edu or call 336-703-2855.

For more up-to-date information visit https://forsyth.ces.ncsu.edu/2021/02/soil-test-kits/.