Waters Agricultural Laboratories has partnered with Biome Makers to offer BeCrop® DNA Analysis—a high-resolution analysis of the soil microbiome and its capacity to perform essential agronomic functions.
Every soil is defined by physical, chemical, and biological characteristics.
You can think of physical traits as the soil work environment (pH, texture, aggregate stability) and chemical traits as the inventory (nutrients).
By partnering with BiomeMakers, Waters Lab is able to take stock of the soil workforce—the billions of microbes in every square inch of soil responsible for nutrient cycling, plant health, and plant resilience.
BeCrop pairs 16S rRNA and ITS marker genes sequenced by Illumina MiSeq Technology with Biome Makers’ proprietary, taxonomically classified sequence database to capture millions of bacteria and fungi.
Your custom DNA report will highlight:
- Cyclers of 11 nutrients plus carbon (N, P, K, S, Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, Mn, Cl, Cu)
- Every soilborne pathogen important to your crop, providing crop-specific disease risk evaluations
- The biocontrol agents that suppress fungal & bacterial pathogens, root-feeding insects, and root-feeding nematodes
- Three groups of natural PGR producers
- Seven groups of microbes that enable crops to cope with stressors
- The capacity of soil microbes to produce natural PGRs and to equip plants to shrug off abiotic stress
- Soil Biological Quality – The soil workforce’s teamwork structure, breadth of members, range of skills, and resilience to disturbance & stress
What can you do with soil DNA insights?
- By testing chronically underperforming acres against comparable, higher-yielding land, you can identify a short list of likely biological limiting factors
- Discovering a gap in the soil’s ability to effectively render nutrients crop-available will bear on decisions of fertilizer form and timing, as well as nutrient use efficiency tools and biofertilizers
- Take a prescriptive, needs-based approach to biological management.
- Pathogen DNA is detectable even before planting, enabling preventative management through informed rotations, hybrid selection, seed treatment, biocontrol, and informed scouting
- Stress is a significant source of lost yield potential. Discovering if and where growth promoters and stress mitigators are missing informs targeted inoculation and stimulation
- Use carbon metrics to inform targeted tillage or drainage needs and residue management
Combine your soil nutrient testing with BeCrop® DNA Analysis to take stock of your soil workforce and drive smart decisions that account for a 360° understanding of your soils—physics, chemistry, and biology.
*IMPORTANT NOTE: Soil is alive! Your sample must spend no more than 5 days at room temperature between the field and the lab in order for the results to accurately represent the microbial community in your field.
Example BeCrop+ Report: