In the Corangamite region SFS has been delivering the Improving On Farm Soil Project that is supported by Corangamite CMA, through funding from Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.

This year is the third round of 100 sites being soil tested in the exact same locations.  Soil samples have been taken in 2013 and 2018 to detect soil changes and trends within the region. 10 cores down to 30cm are taken from each site, with GPS locations used to ensure each core is taken from the same point as five years ago. The soil is then taken back to the lab, broken into samples of 0-10cm, 10-20cm and 20-30cm and sent to an external lab for testing of pH, carbon and soil macronutrients.

In the Glenelg Hopkins Region SFS has been delivering Soils 4 Farms project that is supported by Glenelg Hopkins CMA, through funding from Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.

This year is the second round of 100 sites being soil tested in the exact same locations.  Soil samples have been taken in 2019 to detect soil changes and trends within the region. 10 cores down to 30cm are taken from each site, with GPS locations used to ensure each core is taken from the same point as four years ago. The soil is then taken back to the lab, broken into samples of 0-10cm, 10-20cm and 20-30cm and sent to an external lab for testing of pH, carbon and soil macronutrients.

At the beginning of this week, our team will have tested 90% of the 200 sites across the CCMA and GHCMA regions. This has been a massive team effort from staff in an already busy time of year with sowing, spraying and other operations happening at the same time. This has meant many long days and nights away to get everything done.

A big thank you also to those farmers who have continued to be a part of this project, even allowing us to drive over sown paddocks!

Results and reports will be published later in the year after being analysed by Lisa Miller, SFS.

To access the 2019 Glenelg Hopkins CMA Report, Insight into the health of soils in the Glenelg Hopkins Catchment: https://maynard.cerdi.edu.au/view_resource.php?resource_id=4891&account=3817ce75cf365e79fc5aad26383c6347

By Jessie Wettenhall, Graduate Research & Extension