Every piece of land-buying advice I ever got focused on soil fertility — pH, organic matter, NPK levels. I spent months obsessing over those numbers on a parcel I nearly purchased outside Marshall. Clean test results, decent organic matter. I was ready to sign.
What nobody told me to check was compaction depth. That ground had been under row crops with heavy equipment for fifteen years straight. A basic penetrometer reading — something I could have done with a $40 tool — would have shown me tillage pan sitting at six inches across the entire field. Meaningful vegetable production there would have required years of subsoiling, deep-rooting cover crops, and waiting before I'd see real yields.
Fertility amendments are relatively cheap and fast. Breaking up a hardpan layer that's been compacted for over a decade is a multi-year rehabilitation project that will cost you in time, inputs, and lease revenue you're not collecting.
If you're evaluating farmland for intensive production, a penetrometer walk should happen before you ever commission a soil fertility test. Anyone here prioritize compaction data differently in their region?