FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Whether you’re new to soil science or been at it for years, there’s never a bad time to review the basics, and that’s what the March 11 soil fertility training workshop at Marianna is all about.
The workshop will be facilitated by Trent Roberts, professor of soil fertility, soil testing, and Bronc Finch, assistant professor and extension soil fertility specialist, and Chandler Arel, extension crop, soils and environmental sciences, all of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
The March 11 soil workshop will include a tour of the state's soil test lab (U of A System Division of Agriculture file photo).
The event will be held at the Lon Mann Cotton Research Station, 3121 Highway 1 South, Marianna, and opens with on-site check-in at 8 a.m.
Lunch will be provided to participants who register by March 4. Participants may register online.
“This is the first soil fertility workshop that we have hosted in several years,” Roberts said. “We are going to get back to basics and cover some introductory topics so that we can build on them going forward.”
Finch called the workshop “an opportunity to refresh or gain new knowledge about some of the basics principles of soil fertility.”
“We hope that this workshop will lay the groundwork for future educational activities,” Roberts said.
The event will include sessions on:
Plant essential nutrients.
Soil basics.
Soil and water conservation.
Soil testing philosophy/interpretation.
Additionally, the workshop will include a tour of the Division of Agriculture’s Soil Testing and Research Lab, located at the cotton station. Since it opened in 1976, the lab has tested an estimated 5.7 million soil samples. In 2023 alone, the lab tested a record 220,032 soil samples.
The workshop is being presented by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, the Arkansas Plant Food Association and the Arkansas Soil Testing Board.
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