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Northwood Laboratory
804 Hwy 15 West
P.O. Box 510
Northwood, ND 58267
Phone: 701-587-6010
Fax: 701-587-6013
Benson Laboratory
902 13th Street North
P.O. Box 187
Benson, MN 56215
Phone: 320-843-4109
Fax: 320-843-2074
Canada Receiving Facility
380 Kimberly Road
Winkler, MB R6W 0H7
Phone: 701-587-6010
Fall-applied Nitrogen Fertilizer: A Couple Simple Rules
in Fertilizer Placement, Nitrogen/by John BrekerThis article is shared annually to help answer frequently asked questions about nitrogen fertilizer applications and nitrogen losses in the fall. October is here, and many people are preparing for fall nitrogen fertilizer applications. Before you hit the field, we want to share these important reminders about fall nitrogen application timing and placement to help […]
Sodic Soil Problems? Try the NDSU Gypsum Requirement Calculator
in Saline and Sodic Soil, Soil Amendment/by John BrekerThis article originally appeared in the AGVISE Laboratories Spring 2025 Newsletter. Salinity and sodicity are two related but distinct terms to describe salt-affected soils. Salinity is the overall abundance of soluble salts, which compete with plant water uptake and reduce crop productivity. Salinity is measured as soluble salts (mmhos/cm or dS/m) on soil test reports. […]
AGVISE Demonstration Project: Lowering Soil pH with Elemental Sulfur
in Research, Soil Amendment, Soil pH, Sulfur/by John BrekerThis article originally appeared in the AGVISE Laboratories Spring 2025 Newsletter. There may not be silly questions, but there are silly answers. Every so often, we get questions about unusual solutions to manage calcareous soils in the northern Great Plains and Canadian Prairies. The most frequent oddball “solutions” involve lowering soil pH with elemental sulfur […]
Start Strong, Finish Strong with Starter Phosphorus
in Corn, Phosphorus, Starter Fertilizer/by Brent JaenischThis article originally appeared in the AGVISE Laboratories Spring 2025 Newsletter. Cool and wet soil conditions can limit root growth and phosphorus uptake during the early growing growing season. This is why starter phosphorus placed with or near the seed can be so effective in enhancing early plant growth and development. In small grains, starter […]
Soil Sensors: Helpful Gadgets or Hapless Gimmicks?
in Equipment, Soil Chemical Analysis/by John BrekerThis article originally appeared in the AGVISE Laboratories Winter 2024 Newsletter. A number of new handheld sensors have hit the market, claiming to accurately and precisely measure soil nutrient content in the field, similar to traditional wet chemistry analysis at a soil testing laboratory. The draw for any person soil sampling is the ability to […]
Sticky Wet Soils? Try Adding a WD-40 Holster
in Equipment/by John BrekerThis article originally appeared in the AGVISE Laboratories Fall 2024 Newsletter. Do you have challenges collecting good quality soil cores in sticky wet soils? You are not the only one! WD-40 has been the soil probe lubricant of choice for over 30 years to help obtain better quality soil samples. University researchers have also tested […]
Soybean Cyst Nematode (SCN) Egg Numbers Continue to Increase
in Disease, Regional Data, Soybean/by Brent JaenischThis article originally appeared in the AGVISE Laboratories Spring 2024 Newsletter. Over the winter months, we received a lot of questions about the increasing soybean cyst nematode (SCN) egg count trends across the region. Soybean cyst nematode is the most damaging soybean pest in the United States, and the problem is becoming worse. The AGVISE […]
Zone Soil Sampling: How Many Zones?
in Precision Ag, Regional Data/by John BrekerZone soil sampling has become a standard practice in precision nutrient management, but the grand question remains – How many zones should you be soil sampling? Well, it depends! It just makes sense that a field with more variability requires more zones than a field with little variability. Zone soil sampling separates parts of fields […]
Winter Soil Sampling: You Need the Right Tools
in Equipment/by John BrekerSnowfall in late October and November slowed harvest and soil sampling across the region. This means some fields will be soil sampled in December and maybe January as harvest for late-season crops continues in the snow. The right equipment is the key to any project, and winter soil sampling is no different. AGVISE heavy-duty (HD) […]
Lime Works: The Results Are In
in Research, Soil Amendment, Soil pH/by Jodi BoeThis article was originally published in the AGVISE Laboratories Winter 2023 Newsletter. In the fall of 2022, I hired a custom applicator to haul and spread lime across 238 acres of my family’s farm in western North Dakota. The reason? To increase soil pH on five fields with very low soil pH. One field even […]
Soil Nitrogen Trends – Fall 2023: Some Up, Some Down
in Drought, Nitrogen, Regional Data, Wheat/by John BrekerThe 2023 drought was an all-too-soon reminder of the widespread 2021 drought. It covered much of the upper Midwest, Great Plains, and Canadian Prairies. From previous experience with droughts, we expected that residual soil nitrate-N following crops would be higher than normal, caused by the drought and reduced crop yields. The first wheat fields that […]
Choosing the Right Phosphorus Method
in Phosphorus, Soil Chemical Analysis/by Cindy EvensonThis article originally appeared in the AGVISE Laboratories Spring 2023 Newsletter under President’s Corner The phosphorus soil test debate never ends. Should I use the Olsen test, or maybe Bray-1 would be better? What about the Mehlich-3 method, and should that extract be analyzed on an ICP or with a colorimetric method? Perhaps, Bray-2 or […]
Are Soybean Iron Deficiency Chlorosis (IDC) Ratings Getting Worse?
in Iron, Soybean/by John BrekerThis article originally appeared in the AGVISE Laboratories Spring 2023 Newsletter For the past three years, we have seen severe and widespread soybean iron deficiency chlorosis (IDC) symptoms across the region. In fact, some seasoned agronomists have commented that 2022 was the worst soybean IDC year that they had experienced in decades. Soybean IDC is […]
Two Graphics You Should Know Before the 2023 Growing Season
in Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium/by Jodi BoeThis article originally appeared in the AGVISE Laboratories Spring 2023 Newsletter The goal of AGVISE Newsletters is to inform you and your customers of important soil fertility information relevant to our area. Often, visuals or graphs are much more powerful at communicating a message than words. With that in mind, I want to share two […]
John Breker Appointed to NAPT Oversight Committee
in Quality Control/by John BrekerThis article originally appeared in the AGVISE Laboratories Spring 2023 Newsletter John Breker was appointed to the North American Proficiency Testing Program Oversight Committee as the North Central Region representative, starting in January 2023. The North American Proficiency Testing (NAPT) Program assists soil, plant, and water laboratories with quality control and quality assurance through inter-laboratory […]