Measuring and managing variability in potassium fertility for hill country pastures

The complex suite of factors controlling potassium (K) fertility of New Zealand hill country pastures results in a large variation in soil K content across both large- and small-scale topography. At the same time, the deposition of high K urine and dung patches by grazing animals increases the range in soil K levels likely to be detected and can have a large influence on the measured K content of bulked samples from multiple sampling sites. The potential exists to underestimate the K status of hill country paddocks using conventional sampling techniques. A survey undertaken on North Island hill country pastures identified typical distributions of soil K measurements and suggested more appropriate sampling strategies.

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