NEW infrared technology being used at a local laboratory is set to revolutionise soil sample testing, by extracting more specific and detailed information, more efficiently, saving growers time and money in the process.
Magill-based company Australian Precision Ag Laboratory bought the mid-infrared spectometer in 2015, after managing director Ryan Walker saw the technology at the 2014 International Soil & Plant Conference in the United States.
“Labs in America, Europe and New Zealand were already using this technology,” he said. “It is also used in other industries, such as environmental and geotechnical, but it has never gained traction commercially in the agricultural sector.”
This commercial focus on the ag industry saw Dr Walker become involved in a federal government Researcher in Business agreement through AusIndustry’s Entrepreneurs' Program, which connects small businesses with researchers.
APAL was partnered with the University of Adelaide to coinvest in a project titled New spectroscopic methods for high throughput soil analysis, aiming to provide an infrared service to farmers.
In the past year, APAL has put 20,000 soil samples through the machine to validate the process.
"This has helped us to create models that we have then validated against traditional lab tests," Dr Walker said.
“Typically, when a soil sample comes into the lab, we will prepare it, dry it, grind it and do specific extractions for specific tests.
“Infrared technology speeds up that process – after drying and grinding, the soil is scanned with infrared and that predicts a number of soil properties, including particle size, percentage of sand, silt and clay, organic carbon, carbonates, phosphorous buffering index and cation exchange.”
Dr Walker said the machine allowed farmers and agronomists to capture more detailed soil information faster than previously possible.
“It’s really going to change the way we interpret soil testing results,” he said.
“We can scan the soil and report within a couple of days, instead of 7-10 days like the traditional tests.
“It will never replace all the wet chemistry, as there are things we can’t do on the infrared, such as interpreting phosphorous, sulfur and nitrate ammonium levels, but it will be a tool incorporated in with traditional testing.
“And there will be less cost involved because it is just the one scan, instead of multiple scans for each soil property.”
Dr Walker said the technology was also exciting for precision agriculture croppers as the extra information meant they would be able to map specific soil properties more effectively on-farm.
“With the cost of production these days, farmers can’t afford to make bad decisions so we are trying to generate good data and information for growers to make better decisions to improve yield or returns,” he said.
Dr Walker said they aimed to have the technology integrated into APAL’s routine analysis in the next 6-12 months.
The company also has other projects on the horizon involving the technology, including predicting soil water properties and improving nitrogen management by incorporating more information such as particle size, total N and carbon and potentially carbon fractions in soil mineralisation calculations.
“This technology has huge implications for the conventional ways we have predicted or interpreted managed N,” he said.