In my role, I have the benefit of getting to know some great people and learn about some important businesses in the ag industry. I work closely with many agricultural labs and today I was able to get many questions answered from some good friends at Waypoint Analytical in Tennessee. I’ve visited the lab before and many other labs but everytime I go through one I have more questions and learn more. To add a little background on what an ag lab does, the main items are Soil and Tissue samples for nutrients but some labs will also test water, grains, feed, manure, pathogens and many other things. It seems to me that for one of these labs to be successful they need to focus heavily on a couple main things.
- Logistics is one of the BIG items that is focused on. For these labs to get costs down, they need to be efficient.
- Accuracy almost goes without saying for a lab, but what is done at these labs is consistent calibration roughly every 10 samples to catch any possible issues in a quick manner.
- Innovation is something that these labs are always working on. Seems like so many competitors pop up in the market trying to reinvent industry standard processes, so labs have vested interest in understanding those market disruptors or even being those market disruptors.
Ag Labs are an extremely key player in proper plant fertility and the overall fertilizer market. Many crop consultants and farmers lean on lab recommendations as a integral piece of the crop fertility puzzle to help guide toward a sound fertility program.