Topics for discussion

Soil compaction is critical to drought resilience, plant health. A plants root exerts 300psi when its growing.....it uses up more energy to break up hard soils. Thus, impacts yield potential and soil health. Use a penetrometer to understand your soils more....they are cheap to buy and simple to use. Basically insert the penetrometer inthe ground. keep the pressure dial at between 200 to 400 psi and measure on the rod how far you went into the soil! thats how far your roots will go.

Precision agriculture means different things to different people. From our perspective, precision agriculture is about optimising the growth of both soils and plants. At MADE, we have experimented with handheld and in-paddock devices equipped with a wide range of sensors and functions.

Handheld devices, costing around $2,500 each, can instantly measure key soil parameters such as NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) levels, moisture, temperature, electrical conductivity (EC), and pH. In our trials, these tools enabled us to gather real-time data and predict when the soil profile would begin to dry out—up to three weeks before any visible impact on plant health.

Our more advanced in-paddock precision agriculture systems offer even greater capabilities. These systems can monitor weather microclimates, NPK, EC, soil temperature, moisture, and pH. The device can connect to up to 250 sensors, including cameras, fuel and water level sensors, CO2 emission monitors, or virtually any IoT sensor imaginable. All features are fully controllable and customisable from your smartphone. In the future we how to be able to add instant soil health monitoring

Weeds can be a pain for farmers to deal with when it comes to specifications for crops set by processors etc. But a weed is natures way of repairing our soils which are out of balance. So next time you see a weed ask why is growing in that particular spot. Then compare your soil test to see what the weed is preferring to grow in! For example, thistles typically indicate a lack of boron, calcium etc.

Personally, we sometimes find soil test categorisation confusing. So here is a table with the scientific definitions to understand your own soil types. Clay content generally drives the size of your soil bank account, aka CEC or another way of putting it....how much energy or nutrient capacity you soil is able to provide to your crop.

We have research best practise from around the globe to produce a simple high level guide to Regenerative Farming. Get in touch to find out more about how you can start your regenerative journey.