COMING SOON
Welcome to the second course in our progressive learning series – Understanding Soil and Plant Nutrition
You’ve mastered the fundamentals for soil and plant nutrition. Let’s develop some more practical skills!
This course aims to develop practical application of skills and knowledge for understanding sampling limitations, provides information on critical benchmarks for a range of analytical methods, steps through how to read sample test reports, and will give you a deeper understanding of some of the major cycles occurring within soil with a particular focus on their impact on nutrient availability for crops.
Building on concepts introduced in <i>Fundamental Soil and Plant Nutrition</i>, you will look at some Western Australian-focused test reports and use your understanding of nutrient cycles to interpret what the results mean. We highlight factors to consider when deciding if a soil is fit for purpose, and list common ways to assess this – including what to consider when designing your own sample plan or on farm trial, and tools to help identify which analyses are appropriate, interpretable and practical for given situations.
While the content is tailored to Western Australian broadacre farming systems, the principles you’ll gain—understanding soil quality, processes, and functions—are universal and can be applied across diverse agricultural sectors and environments. By the end of this course, your practical understanding of soil and plant nutrition will include:
- Identifying key considerations when designing a farm sampling plan for monitoring or on-farm trials
- Understanding and using basic statistics to interpret site variability and trends in results over time
- Identifying the analyses required for your purpose and important aspects of choosing your service delivery
- Appreciating why critical benchmarks are important for a range of analyses
- Reading and interpreting soil and plant tissue test reports
- Knowing what factors to consider when deciding if a soil is fit for purpose
- Understanding and being able to describe important cycles within soils (carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium) and how they are influenced by management
- Recognising how three key soil properties (organic matter, pH, texture) impact nutrient availability
- Building your awareness of some of the external drivers influencing agriculture (e.g. environmental risk, reporting requirements, market regulations or access)
