Agronomy Support Services - Sprucedale Agromart

Agronomy Support

Providing services by high-level professionals to maximize profit from crop production and your agricultural business.

Certified Crop Advisors (CCA)

Proud to be part of the Agricultural community!

At Sprucedale, we understand the importance of providing sound, educated advice to our growers.

To provide the best agronomy support to our clients, we are very pleased to have 7 Certified Crop Advisors on staff. CCA’s are agronomy experts with a strong knowledge basis of science, technology, food safety, the environment, and economics.

CCA’s provide honest feedback and advice to farmers about growing their crops, while offering expertise on crop production, crop protection and natural resource management. They will assist and guide producers in making informed decision based on their experience and knowledge.

Agronomy Support & Services

Crop Scouting

No two years are the same, and by keeping a regular eye on the fields throughout the season we hope to help the crop meet its harvest goals. Multiple walks through the field help assess population, early season growth and stay on top of any emerging insect or disease pressures. By catching anything that will impact yield in its early stages, yield damage can be limited keeping the crop healthy until the end of the season. Please ask us about our tailored scouting programs.

Soil Sampling

The first step in a comprehensive fertilizer plan is to take a soil sample to see what nutrient reserves are present in the soil to work with. Sprucedale Agromart has the ability to take composite, zone and grid samples that will give the grower a better understanding of the soil on their farms. The smaller the sample size, the more fine tuned the results, but no matter how in depth the sampling process is, having current soil samples is the best way to know where you want to strive for in the future.

Tissue Sampling

Many nutrient deficiencies are easy to correct but go undetected until yield damage has already occurred. Some nutrients impact the plants ability to use others, and by ensuring everything is in the right balance, the crop will have access to everything it needs to achieve it’s highest yield. By taking periodic samples through the season these deficiencies can be addressed when the sprayer is scheduled to be going through the field for a routine application, this keeps an eye on the crop health as well as the growers pocket book to make the most of their trips through the field.

Sap Sampling

This testing allows producers to gain specific insight into the needs of their fruit bearing plants such as apple and plum trees. We have seen numerous benefits in the orchards by identifying nutrient deficiencies through this method. A sap sample is a close relative of a tissue sample, but instead of doing an ash test on the entire leaf, the sap is extracted from the leaf and tested independently of the tissue. This way the only nutrients analyzed are those that are truly within the leaf and available to the crop, instead of what could be sitting on top of the leaf, unabsorbable by the plant.

In addition, two samples are taken that make up each nutrient report, one old leaf sample and one young leaf sample. These two samples are compared against each other to show if there are nutrient reserves in the old tissue that will feed the new growth, or if the whole plant is low and looking for additional nutrients.

Nutrient Management

Trying to build a barn, or manure storage? We know… who would have thought it could be so complicated? What is the Nutrient Management Act? What do they mean by “Minimum distance of separation (MDS), Source Water Protection and Conservation Regulated areas”?

Agency regulations and Governmental legislations can be complex – but we are here to help. Whether you need the development of a Nutrient Management Plan and or Strategy, our licenced staff can help in assessing the options that are available to your operation in complying with the Nutrient Management Act.