Biological soil analysis for agronomists and consultants
Your client's chemistry test isn't wrong.
It's just not answering the question they're asking.
Direct microscopy with real counts, not ratings. Twenty four hours from the sample landing on the bench.
Reports co-branded to your firm.
LIVING EARTH BIOLOGY
Every test you send tells you what's present. None of them tell you whether anything's alive to make it available.
You already know this. Your client has full nutrient levels on paper and a block that's going backwards, and somewhere in the biology something isn't working.
Knowing that doesn't help you much. Being able to measure it does.
Right now the honest answer to that client is that it's probably biological, and you can't say much more than that. Not because you're guessing, but because nothing in your current toolkit measures it.
An agronomist should be able to answer the question their client is actually asking, unless the answer simply doesn't exist yet, not because no one has tried to find it.
You already tell them what's in the soil. Now you can tell them what's alive in it.
WHAT THE REPORT CONTAINS
Total fungal and bacterial biomass
in µg/g. Actinobacteria. Protozoa
and nematodes per gram.
Fungal to bacterial ratio.
Biomass and Counts
Standard deviation on every measure
So you can tell whether biology is distributed across the zone or
concentrated in hotspots. This changes
the management recommendation, and most reports don't give it to you.
Nematodes by
functional group
Bacterial feeding, fungal feeding, predatory. The trophic breakdown
tells you how far food web
development has actually progressed,
not just whether organisms are present.
Disease and aerobic screen
Oomycetes and anaerobic ciliates.
Water mould pressure and whether
the root zone is respiring.
Structural observation
Aggregate formation observed directly under the scope, which corroborates
or contradicts the numbers.
Interpretation against recommended range
Every measure reported against the range appropriate to the crop, stage of succession and season, with ranked recommendations and the reasoning behind them.
Test | A regional accredited soil lab | Living Earth Biology |
|---|---|---|
Bacteria | Active + total | Total biomass, µg/g |
Fungi | Active + total | Total biomass, µg/g |
Protozoa | Count | Count |
Nematodes | Count | Count, split by feeding group |
Actinobacteria | Not included | Included |
Fungal to bacterial ratio | Not reported | Reported |
Standard deviation | Not stated | On every measure |
Disease and anaerobic screen | Not included | Included |
Mycorrhizal colonisation | Included (root assay) | Not currently offered |
Turnaround | 5-10 working days | 24 hours |
Sample required | 600g | Per collection protocol |
Price | $350-385 | $250 |
HOW IT WORKS
You collect, or your client does.
Collection protocol supplied. Sampling is specific and it matters, so the protocol is precise.
Express post Monday to Wednesday.
Nothing sits in a depot over a weekend.
Report within 24 hours of arrival.
Not one to three weeks.
Co-branded.
Your logo, analysis by Living Earth Biology underneath. Your client relationship stays yours.
Priority access to two slots per week.
With 48 hours notice, so you can give a client a date and mean it.
$250 per sample.
You charge it out at whatever suits your model.
HOW THIS WORKS FOR YOU
I'm a lab, not a competitor.
I don't do agronomy, I don't do farm consulting, and I don't sell services to your clients. I look at soil under a microscope and write up what's there. Your client relationship is yours. If you'd rather I never speak to them directly, that suits me fine.
Your name is on the report, not mine.
Co-branded as standard. Your logo, analysis by Living Earth Biology underneath. What lands with your client is your work.
You get the raw data, not a verdict.
Biomass in µg/g, organisms per gram, standard deviation on every count. Form your own view about what it means for the block. I'm not asking you to take anything on faith.
ABOUT LIVING EARTH BIOLOGY
Living Earth Biology provides microbiology for Life & Land a Northern Rivers farm ecology consultancy, as part of their full scope soil assessments.
Assessment work has also been delivered for the Byron Shire Council regenerative agriculture program, NSW DPI internal field testing, cattle operations, certified organic farms, market gardens and lifestyle blocks across the Northern Rivers.
Trained through the Soil Food Web School under Dr Elaine Ingham.
FAQs
Is this Soil Food Web methodology, and is it robust? Yes, that's the training. But what you're receiving is direct microscopy: biomass in µg/g, organisms per gram, standard deviation on every count. You get the raw data and form your own view about what it means for the block.
Will you deal with my client directly? Only if you want me to. Reports come back co-branded, your logo on it, and most partners handle the client relationship themselves.
What if the result doesn't tell us much? That's a result too, and I'll say so plainly. A soil that's bacterially dominant with nothing else present is a clear finding, not an inconclusive one.
Can I send a trial sample before committing to anything? Yes. Send one through and you'll see the report before we talk about a partnership.
ONE TEST CHANGES THE CONVERSATION
Right now, when the chemistry looks fine and the block still isn't performing, the honest answer is a shrug. Your client accepts that this season, maybe next season too — and then a neighbour mentions someone who does biology, and they ring that person instead. Not because your advice was wrong. Because someone else could answer a question you couldn't.
With a result in hand, that conversation goes differently. Fungal to bacterial ratio, what's cycling and what isn't, whether there's water mould pressure in the root zone. You tell them what to do about it, and six months later you show them what changed.
Same client, same block, same you. One test you didn't have before.