MFS Soil Club
The Monaro has contrasting soil types which differ substantially in their intrinsic fertility and fertiliser requirements.
The MFS Soils Club was initiated in 2010 and now involves 141 farm businesses with 4,400 results representing the three main soil types on the Monaro (basalt, granite and shale). As a result of this soils club, MFS members now have a much better understanding of their soil fertility and landscape variability as well as adopted regular soil testing programs to map paddock fertility trends over time and target fertiliser investments to meet strategic fertility goals on each of their soil types and production systems.
The work done by the soils club has improved the skill level, understanding and capacity of producers to manage their soil fertility and improve their productivity as well as achieved practice change and greater efficiency in terms of fertiliser investments.
In 2025 the MFS Soils Club continued to provide members with access to subsided soil testing, while building MFS’s long-term soil fertility dataset for the Monaro. A total of 279 samples were submitted by 41 Monaro farm businesses. Members received their annual MFS soil testing credit with support through the MLA-funded Transitioning Pasture Systems to Balanced Soil Fertility project.
Boron testing was included across soil samples, with additional pH and aluminium testing added to the cut-down soil tests. Soil type and GPS information were also collected to strengthen the long-term research value of the MFS soils database.
For the third year, the Soils Club also included paired soil and plant tissue testing. MFS and Local Land Services staff visited participating properties and collected 53 plant samples, paired with soil samples from the same paddocks.
