The Evolution of Soil Sample Submission

Over the last 4 to 5 decades, the process of getting soil samples from the field to the laboratory has changed quite a bit.

Commercial soil testing labs were not common until the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Prior to this, soil testing was generally done through land grant university laboratories.  At this time, a soil sample was generally collected to represent an entire field and to try to diagnose a problem. The sample would have been shipped through the postal service and accompanied by a letter describing the field conditions and any observations that might help determine what corrective measures needed to be taken to alleviate the issues. The handwritten or typed results and recommendations would then be sent back a few weeks later.

For the next couple of decades, soil testing continued to become an increasingly common practice for agricultural producers. However, very little has changed in the submission process. Forms were developed to more efficiently convey the needed information to determine appropriate tests to be done, but it was still a “one at a time” process. Each sample bag had to be manually labeled. It was a time-consuming process.

In the mid 1990’s things began to change with the invention of GPS technology and the development of software to geo-reference soil sampling locations. Along with this technology, the ability to produce submittal forms and sample bag labels was also developed. This greatly saved time and labor as the number of samples per field increased as well as the frequency in which the samples were collected. Through the early 2000’s this became the standard practice for service providers who offered precision soil sampling. However, most production acres were still not utilizing precision agricultural technologies and what soil sampling was done was still utilizing the same submittal process as decades prior.

Over the last ten to twenty years, the adoption of precision ag technology has continued to grow and access to it for growers and service providers of any size has become much more attainable. With growing demand for soil sampling and increasing number of samples, the technology has also evolved to make the submission process to the laboratory more efficient. Today, precision ag software can utilize pre-labeled soil sample bags with QR or bar codes to simply be scanned at the point of sample collection and tie the grower, farm and field information to that uniquely identified bag. When the samples are received at the laboratory, the bar code is simply scanned and all the information that had once been completely hand-written is downloaded in seconds.

With the current abilities of GPS technology, precision ag software, soil sampling and laboratory automation, it has become possible for a field to be soil sampled by a custom soil sampling service with the click of a button without a human hand touching the actual soil samples until it gets unpacked upon receipt at the laboratory. While most soil sampling services still prefer some level of boots on the ground and hands on assurance that they are collecting and shipping good quality soil samples, the technology allowing for nearly autonomous soil sampling and laboratory submission is a reality.

At A&L Great Lakes Laboratories, our position is not to invent new sampling and submission technologies, but to optimize the available technologies so that our customers can effectively utilize the newest products available. We are proud to have a wide range of customers, from home gardeners and wildlife food plot enthusiasts to some of the largest retailers, cooperatives, and most progressive consultants. This means that our goal is to offer the smoothest soil submission process to all our customers regardless of size and technical capabilities. From hand-written notes to a box of QR-coded bags, we strive to provide the same level of service to all.