Farmers are busy preparing for Spring Seeding.

For some that didn’t do a soil test in the Fall, that means doing one this Spring.

Patrick Mooleki is a Soil Nutrient Management Specialist with Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Agriculture.

He says in the south and western area of the province we had a warm fall with some late season moisture:

"Last year, we ended up with a warm fall with a lot of excess moisture. So you have a lots of micro-organisms breaking down the nutrients in the soil and mineralizing them - so you end up with a lot of extra nitrites in the soil. Again last year," he said. "We had a lot of growth of weeds after harvest. Those could have sucked nutrients after harvest- so you really want to know how much is in your soil as you go into the spring seeding."

He says it’s important to take about 20, 25, 30 different soil samples randomly throughout the field at varying depths in order to get a good reading on what nutrients you already have in the soil to work with.