Mapping our soils

Thanks to the services of SoilQuest, we have recently mapped soils and nutrients across all the agricultural land in our School Farm demonstration catchment at Loddington.  SoilQuest have also installed soil moisture and temperature sensors in some fields.  Together, these will help us to understand better how our catchment 'works'.  We will have a better idea of how variations in crop yields relate to variations in soil
type and nutrients within fields, how crop growth reflects soil moisture and temperature, and how stream flow and water quality are influenced by soil conditions.

Soil map for one of the arable fields in the Water Friendly Farming project

We have also mapped soil and nutrients across several fields in the Water Friendly Farming project catchments in the upper Eye Brook and Stonton Brook.  These will provide participating farmers with information that will help inform their decisions on soil management and fertiliser applications.  Understanding our soils is essential to improving our crop production, as well as to reducing our impact on water.