New Soil Test for Biological Analysis

Lorrie Boyer

Reporter

Waypoint Analytical, a subsidiary of nutrient ag solutions, operates independently to provide strategic soil testing with a focus on soil health through biology based analysis. Dr Lizzie French, soil biology manager at Waypoint Analytical, explains how this testing works and how it can benefit producers.

I manage the soil biology team, so we've developed a new test for Waypoint analytical that allows us to look at the biological aspect of soil health using DNA based analysis. So we actually use the exact same soil that you'd use for your traditional soil test. So we'll continue to do your soil fertility testing, and then we extract the DNA from the microbes living in that soil, the DNA being the blueprint for life. And with that information, we can then answer the questions of, what microbes are there? What are they able to do, and how many of them are there?”

Dr French says this can be a strategic technology for producers to use to really hone in on the needs of their soil.

“We recommend that you follow with your soil biology test the same pattern that you would do for your soil fertility testing. So if you're on a two year rotation or four year rotation, that you would just add on that soil biology test on there, and that gives you a good, good look over the long term. One of the great things about soil biology testing is that it really unlocks a new dimension of the kinds of things that we can recommend with soil testing, which helps farmers to make soil health and biological product decisions.:

Dr. Lizzie French, with Waypoint Analytics.