Soil testing for nutrients with chemical kits is a pain in the ...
I am aware that my fields really do need some macro-nutrient supplements (from DIY chem' testing) which I will implement in the Spring (many tonnes of horse manure presently stock-piled). Not sure about micro-nutrients and I might get a professional chem' test done.
However, I've been thinking about a combination of occasional tedious chem' testing supplemented by periodic use of pH and Electrical Conductivity (EC) soil probes - for example, chem' test, say, biennially, or whatever, and then pH & EC probe tests periodically to roughly guage what might be happening over the seasons in between.
I don't want to get too nerdy about this: a good dose of manure etc periodically has been good enough for eons of agricultural activity, but I'd like to get a better picture of how my soil behaves.
So, my questions are:
Firstly, what do others do, if anything (i.e. anything beyond just chucking a good load of manure around)?
2ndly, can anyone recommend a good pH probe meter? (I came to realise that a gifted cheapy probe I was using wasn't actually working).
3rdly, anyone used/using an EC meter to give them a feel for the composite nutrient content of their soil?