The benefits of healthy soil
Healthy soils have high levels of carbon and good soil structure. They exhibit good drainage, provide good levels of essential nutrients and low weed pressure. There are threats to soil health in the Limestone Coast such as soil erosion and acidity.Â
It is important to understand your property's soil health through sampling, testing and interpreting results. Understanding your property's soil health will assist with your management decisions.Â
Access local knowledge
Having a wide network of experts to call on will ensure you make the right decisions for your property.Â
The Limestone Coast Landscape Board's Soil Extension Officer has local knowledge and expertise and can provide free advice on:
- Identifying soil health issues on your property.
- Putting in place soil sampling strategies that work for you.
- Making the right fertiliser application decision for your business.
- Making connections with relevant industry bodies and information.
- Establishing a soil trial site on your property.
- Undertaking a soil carbon audit.
Contact our Soil Extension Officer today
Benefits of the National Soil Monitoring Program
In South Australia, the Limestone Coast Landscape Board has been selected as CSIRO’s project partner for the National Soil Monitoring Program – South Australia Field Activities.
Commencing in the Limestone Coast, we are liaising with landholders to collect soil samples for analysis that will correlate land use, land management practices and productivity.
The results contribute to the NSMP Natsoil database and will be made publicly available. Sites will be resampled every five years to monitor changes in soil properties.
Maintaining healthy soils is critical to the Limestone Coast’s productivity. If we can better understand the nature of our soils and their vulnerability, we can better manage our environment. For example, we can improve our resilience to natural disasters and improve the efficient use of water.
We are seeking vibrant and prosperous communities across the state and understanding the health of our soil will help land managers to make decisions about their management practices long into the future.
This project has been supported by funding through the Australian Government Natural Heritage Trust (Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) under the National Soil Monitoring Program in collaboration with CSIRO.
Local farmers on the importance of soil
Hear from local land managers about the benefits of maximising soil health to build resilience in your property to maximise productivity.
