How we can help with your Soil and Agricultural Land Assessment

When producing our reports, Geo-Environmental utilise published information on climate, geology, soils and published DEFRA Provisional (pre-1988) ALC (agricultural land classification) information, together with information on rural land designations, for example, agri-environmental schemes, forestry and woodland schemes and other land based schemes, in order to judge what classification to recommend for the land. In some cases it may be necessary to undertake an intrusive soil and agriculture land assessment investigation to identify specific soil properties.

Three factors are important when assessing the quality of the agricultural land:

1. Climate – such as exposure to damaging wind, persistent wetness or high humidity and frost which can cause physical damage, disease or stress.
2. Site – the gradient on the site, which should be not more than 7 degrees, the micro-relief of the site (complex change in slope angle over short distances) and whether the site was susceptible to flooding.
3. Soil – soil properties which affect the cropping potential and management requirements of land are texture, structure, depth, stoniness and chemical fertility. These may act as limitations separately, in combination or through interactions with climate or site factors.

Combined the interactive limitations of these influence soil wetness, its susceptibility to drought and erosion risk and allow us to provide a classification for the soil on the site.