Soils to be surveyed in the South of England

The British Geological Society has told the NFU that it is carrying out a ‘low density geochemical soil survey of the South of England’ this September.

The survey is looking at the physical and trace elements naturally occurring in soil and the survey results will not identify individuals.

The BGS will be asking the farmers’ permission to access land in order to take the top 20cm of soil from a series of five auger holes. In one of the holes they will do a soil depth measurement up to a maximum of 1.2m.

The survey will be working in pairs travelling between sites in branded Enterprise minivans, which they will be parking on the side of the road while they take samples.

The sampling process should take no more than ten minutes and the BGS will give farmers the option of receiving ‘their’ results for free (albeit some significant time after the survey work concludes).