Farm/ Soil Question

[Monmouth Matt]

Hi Crew,

Off base question here,but I'm always impressed with the answers and advice I get on this site.
I've been looking in eastern Pa. for a horse farm for the past few months. I'm on the racing side of the business,but see some potential for a small operation in Pa. over the next 10 years. One of my chief concerns is soil quality. Is there a test kit available to get a soil quality report?
The difference in price and cost between Chester/Bucks/Lehigh Valley is significant and I want to see if the soil in Northern Bucks/Lehigh Valley can be fertile enough to support proper grazing nutrition.It appears to me that Chester is the best soil and land,but it is quite pricey.
Anyway...thanks for any help you can offer.

[Roguelet]

Usually you can go to your local Co-Op and either ask for a soil collection kit that you can use to get a sample with yourself, then send it in, or sometimes they have agents who will come do the whole thing, collection and all, for you. I'm not from around there so I don't know who your local Co-Op would be... is it Southern States out there? Not much help, I know, but at least maybe it's a start...

[summerhorse]

Usually you can get soil analyzed through your local extension office, if not many big nurseries can also tell you how to get it done.

[madelyn]

Ours was done by a seed company so they could formulate seed for it for good pasture. No charge.

[bcassidy]

Monmouth matt- here in NJ you can go to the county for very detailed analysis of the soil, I am not sure if they do the same thing in PA. We also used an engineering firm to do the same type of analysis and they were able to give us very detailed information but it was very expensive to have done. You may want to use the county (?) information to narrow down your search and then use a private engineering firm when you find a specific piece of property you may be interested in buying. Hope that helps.

[Monmouth Matt]

Great info. Thank-you very much.

[Gerry]

Matt...I went to a seminar today (in NY) hosted by Penn State and it was on Grasses for Grazing. Very informative even if I was the only person under 60 and only female there! Lots of dairy farmers Anyways....he opened the discussion by stating that County Ag extensions or coop's or whatever they are called in the area that you are looking, usually have land maps by county with soil types, acidity ect....then you can ask them to do individual soil samples for the properties you are considering. He then went into great detail about what type of grasses to plant so that you have a pasture that lasts all year (except under snow). When I left I went to my local Agway and scheduled our soil tests for next week, its alittle late already to plan a good pasture for this year but I can get started now for next year. I can get his name, email address and phone # for you if you would like more information. Its out in my truck at the moment.

Gerry

[DreamersPrincess]

When I was looking in western PA, the soil and water actually gave me the book of the most recent soil maps to take with me no charge. This was about the size of a phone book and contained detailed arial photos with the soil types over layed... was great, because the different classifications also tell you about soil depths and other usefull info.

3 years ago, the local extension office (western PA) was charging $6 for soil test bags (you buy the bag, fill it according to instructions and send it in to Penn State Ag Dept). That extension office also had specialty equipment for rent (like no-till seeder for legumes) at very low rates.

Kami