1. Choose a day when the soil isn’t waterlogged and hasn’t been recently cultivated, and head to your sample block / location you’re interested in testing in the soil.
2. Dig about 15cm into the soil with your spade, gently breaking the soil apart. Take a handful of soil and put it in your collection bag to be taken back for testing. Repeat this step wherever you want to take soil samples / for however many samples you have chosen to measure!
3. Back at the office, select three 1-5mm pieces of soil from each sample location and leave them to dry overnight. They may need another day or two to dry completely!
4. When they are completely dry, arrange the three pieces from a single sample location onto the sieve, and fully immerse them in the bowl of water. A light coloured bowl as a background will make them easier to observe under water.
5. Set a stopwatch for 5 minutes, & observe the soil underwater. Score the behaviour of the soil from 0-2 using chart above. The soil may breakdown and remain in the sieve. This is still considered breakdown of the original structure.
6. You may like to take another sample in an uncultivated part of the farm, e.g. woodland or headland, for a comparison to assess the effect of field management on aggregate stability.
