Publication Reveals Soil Lab Use, Fertility Findings for Blackberries, Row Crops, Forages

By Maddie Johnson

When you test more than 200,000 soil samples in a year, you not only learn something about how Arkansans grow crops, gardens and lawns, but also the value of recommendations that result from soil test results.

Each year, the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station publishes the Wayne E. Sabbe Arkansas Soil Fertility Studies. The latest edition, released in spring, features 12 research reports prepared by scientists with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture and the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas.

This edition includes investigations into the effects of fertilization on row crops, blackberries, forage and soil, plant tissue nutrient testing and perceptions of stakeholders when it comes to the state’s public soil testing program.

Each year, the feature article summarizes the chemical properties of soil samples to the Arkansas Soil Testing Program. In 2023, Arkansas clients submitted a record of 201,896 soil samples  representing approximately 1.5 million acres of land  to the experiment station’s Marianna Soil Test Lab. The article found that row crop use accounted for 74 percent of sampled acreage, hay and pasture uses accounted for 15 percent, and home lawns and gardens accounted for 2.3 percent. Mississippi County submitted the most samples, with 26,953; Clay was next at 23,141 and Poinsett County was third with 22,669 samples.

A study led by Aurelie Poncet, assistant professor with the crop, soil, and environmental sciences department, found that 81 percent of those who submitted samples to the soil test lab used lime and fertilizer recommendations from the Division of Agriculture to improve soil fertility.

“We have a very comprehensive record each year about the status of soil fertility across the state of Arkansas,” said Nathan Slaton, who edited the publication and serves as associate vice president for agriculture and assistant director of the experiment station.