What is a Soilmentor sample?
When setting up your Soilmentor account, you will need to add at least one sample within each field you have added, with the plan to return to within a 5m circular area of that spot each time you do the tests again.
By returning to the same approximate location you will see how the soil progresses over time and with changes to your management. Saving the GPS locations of your chosen sample sites in Soilmentor helps you to return to the same area.
This sample is where you will record your soil health and ground cover results, such as earthworm counts, infiltration rates & basal ground cover transects.
You can choose to create multiple sample locations within each field, but we recommend starting with just one, to ensure you can build soil monitoring into your farming routine in a manageable way.
For recording more general observations across a field, such as wildlife spotted, crop observations, treatments added, or animal movements, go to the ‘Fields & Biodiversity’ area in the Soilmentor app.
Example Session
- Choose a field you’re interested in monitoring, and add it to Soilmentor (you can upload the field boundaries if you’d like to see them mapped out in the app!)
- While out on the field you’ve chosen and ready to start monitoring, choose a place to dig a hole, and add a sample in Soilmentor – this is where you’ll be adding your soil test & ground cover results. If you’re doing a transect test, you can start the transect walk from this sample, and record the results at the same sample.
- Map the sample’s location using GPS in the Soilmentor app.
- Next time you go out testing, open your Soilmentor app, follow the map to the sample you’ve already set up, and open it again to collect another set of results – this will allow you to monitor the progress of results collected at this sample over time.
