Soil management recommendations, including crop nutrient recommendations, must undergo a certain level of scrutiny before they are published in OMAFA crop production guides and other resource material. It’s important that Ontario producers using OMAFA published recommendations can be confident that these guidelines follow the latest proven science, and that they are removed from any potential conflict of interest.
So, who decides if there’s enough data from research projects on varying farm soils across the province to update soil recommendations?
Ontario Soil Management Committee
The Ontario Soil Management Committee (OSMC) is the group tasked with reviewing and approving new or updated recommendations to ensure they encourage practices most likely to deliver improvements in agronomic, environmental, and economic performance for the benefit of Ontario crop production. The OSMC is also responsible for supporting the communication of new or updated recommendations to stakeholders.
The OSMC was previously known as the Ontario Soil Management Research and Services Committee and has roots back as far as the 1960s. The OSMC has been dedicated to maintaining, updating, and promoting sustainable and responsible soil management and fertility recommendations through numerous OMAFA publications.
Recommendations covered by OSMC
Changes to recommendations that the OSMC is responsible for approving include:
- Crop nutrient recommendations, including commercial fertilizers and organic amendments
- Soil pH or liming recommendations
- Sampling procedure in soil or plant tissue analysis, in regard to soil quality or nutrient chemistry
- Soil management recommendations, not covered by other committees
Due to the wide variety of crops managed in Ontario, and the soil management recommendations that may be covered by this committee, it’s difficult to define exact requirements for every individual research project. Guidance for data requirements is located here.
Membership
Membership of the OSMC is comprised of representatives from government, the research community, and industry and farm organizations. There is equal representation across these main groups.
Working groups within the OSMC report to the OSMC parent committee, and are assigned with specific responsibilities, either on an ad hoc or permanent basis.
The Soil Laboratory Working Group is comprised of all laboratories that participate in the OMAFA Soil Laboratory Accreditation program. This voluntary program provides assurance to Ontario producers that soil analyses from accredited labs are accurate and precise, using extractants most suitable for the unique soils in Ontario. See here for a list of accredited laboratories.