NCDA&CS Will Charge a Fee for Peak Season Soil Testing

Beginning in the fall of 2013, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services will charge a fee of $4 per sample for routine soil testing during the peak season. The 2013 Appropriations Act passed by the General Assembly approved a $4 fee for soil samples analyzed by the NCDA&CS for the period from December through March.

The fee is an attempt to lessen the backlog associated with the busy season when the lab is routinely inundated with tens of thousands of samples. The rest of the year — April through November — NCDA&CS will continue to analyze soil samples without a fee. This year, December 1st falls on a Sunday and is preceded by the Thanksgiving holidays. Wednesday, November 27th, will be the last business day of the month for the soil-testing lab. Any soil samples arriving after 6 p.m. on November 27th will be subject to the peak-season fee because they will not be logged in and processed until December 2nd.

Contact the NCDA&CS Agronomic Division office at 919-733-2655 if you have any questions regarding the new peak-season soil-testing fee or visit the website: http://www.ncagr.gov/agronomi/. If you are dropping off your samples at the Cumberland County Cooperative Extension Office, please bring them before 5:00 PM on Monday November 25, 2013 in order to avoid the peak season fee.