Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Update of Methods Publication Chapters being Revised Sulfur methods chapter: David Franzen updated the group about his leadership for updating the committee S methods chapter and also a regional paper on S management in general. The methods chapter was discussed and approved by the committee and both Franzen and Nathan will work at preparing for uploading to the online version of the committee methods publication. Organic matter chapter: Manjula Nathan shared a draft of the updated organic matter chapter she is working on with the collaboration of Robert Florence. Work on this chapter revision will continue. P methods chapter: Antonio Mallarino and Manjula Nathan, in charge of leading the update of the P methods chapter provided an update of work conducted and indicated they would have a draft later in 2015. Also, Mallarino indicated that his is working together with others on a draft for a regional paper about P management and testing, which was decided is a priority need by this committee and the north-central region universities Extension group. Proposed Methods Publication Chapters to Revise or New Chapters The committee discussed options to continue revising the current methods publication chapters and possible new chapters. It was decided to begin working on the following chapters: Micronutrients chapter revision: Dan Kaiser offered to lead work to update this chapter of the methods book, mainly to include the Mehlich-3 extractant and ICP determination for various extraction methods. The collaboration from other committee members is to be determined. New correlation/calibration chapter: It was decided to reactivate this subcommittee to focus on including a new “soil-test correlation and calibration” chapter in the Methods publication. Dorivar Ruiz-Diaz offered to lead the work for this with collaboration from Carrie Laboski, others committee members to be determined. Subcommittee Reports/Updates a) NAPT representative report: There was no report or discussion because our representative (Brad Joern) could not attend the meeting. b) Education: The committee decided to continue having this Workshop every other year (next in February 2017) and there was discussion about formalizing better the people in charge of its organization. It was decided that Antonio Mallarino will chair a specific Workshop organization subcommittee with the collaboration of David Franzen and possibly Robert Florence (to be confirmed). c) Soil sampling: It was decided to re-activate this subcommittee after being inactive for some time. Carrie Laboski will chair it with the collaboration mainly of David Franzen, Daniel Kaiser and Antonio Mallarino. d) Sulfur: The committee decided to refocus the sulfur subcommittee work to address new issues concerning extraction and determination. David Franzen will chair it with the participation mainly of Carrie Laboski and Renuka Mathur. e) Website: Manjula Nathan updated the group about the web site, and solicited input from all members to improve it and add more information. f) pH/Buffer pH: The committee decided to discontinue this subcommittee because the Methods book chapter update was completed recently and there is no related current work by the committee. g) Moist soil K testing: The committee decided to discontinue this subcommittee because the sample preparation Methods book chapter update was completed recently and there is no related current work by the committee. h) Remote sensing subcommittee: The committee decided to discontinue this subcommittee because is not within soil testing or plant analysis main objectives. General Discussion and New Initiatives: NCERA-13 committee renewal: There was a general informal discussion about objectives for the committee renewal request, which will be due in September 2015. However, no specifics were decided and Chair Ruiz-Diaz plan to continue discussions via teleconference or email during the summer to complete the needed documents by early fall. Joint soil testing committees meeting: A joint meeting of the soil testing committees like NCERA-13 has been held every three or four years. The last one was held in 2012 in Madison, Wisconsin. It was decided to begin contacts with other regional soil testing committees to organize a joint meeting sometime in 2016. Soil health measurements: There was much discussion about soil health measurements issues, mainly those related to soil chemical and biological properties, but there was no specific decision as of possible future work by the committee, mainly because expectations of clarification of many issues during the special symposium about this topic that the committee organized for the North-Central Region Soil-Plant Analyst Workshop that will be held right after this meeting ends. Seasonal soil-test variation: K Franzen and Mallarino continue research work on seasonal K variability and some issues were discussed. Soil sampling and testing should be more frequent (less than 4 years). There is knowledge on the effects of unusual years. More “stable” timing may be spring (but is inconvenient). Mallarino said that data suggests that sampling in early summer (June) when fertilizer wasn’t applied the previous fall or spring is more stable than in the fall or early spring. There was discussion on fall vs spring nitrate testing. There was discussion of creating a subcommittee to focus work on K, pH and N (no major issue for P).

The North-Central Region Soil-Plant Analyst Workshop 2015 was completed successfully, with strong participation from industry and universities. Update of Methods Publication Chapters: Sulfur methods chapter was updated. In addition, a regional paper on S management in general is under development. Organic matter chapter is currently ongoing. Phosphorus methods chapter is currently ongoing.