Skyspec Regen Ag
Biome Driven Agriculture
Soil Health & Biome Checklist for Wider NSW
Your Soil Has a Story — Now We Can Finally Read It
Reduce input waste.
Unlock soil potential tailored to your paddocks.
Improve nitrogen efficiency, crop resilience, and long-term productivity.
Reading the Soil: A New Approach to Boosting Productivity and Maximising Input Efficiency
New tools are transforming how we manage soil and crop efficiency across the Liverpool Plains.
With BeCrop® DNA sequencing and AI-powered analysis, we can now “read the soil” — not just its chemistry, but its living biology and how it functions. This gives us clarity on how nutrients like nitrogen move through your specific soil profile, where losses are most likely, and how to intervene before those losses impact yield or profitability. Instead of relying on assumptions or trial and error, we now have science-backed insight into processes like nitrogen mineralisation, microbial phosphorus release, and organic matter cycling — all tailored to your paddocks. It’s a powerful shift: one that helps growers reduce input waste, build soil function, and maximise return on investment in every season.
What is this checklist?
This checklist is a practical tool for growers to assess and improve soil health across the region’s diverse cropping systems.
It brings together:
✅ Best-practice soil management tailored to common paddock conditions and constraints
✅ Agronomic actions like pH correction, organic matter strategies, and subsoil structure improvements
✅ BeCrop® insights into microbial functions — from nitrogen cycling and root-zone health to stubble breakdown and biological buffering
Each soil type — from red Chromosols to heavy black Vertosols — presents its own challenges and opportunities. This checklist helps you match the right strategies to the right paddocks, improve nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), reduce input losses, and build long-term productivity into your rotation.
🧬 BeCrop® Biome Focus by Crop
1️⃣ Cotton (Southern Irrigated & Dryland Systems)
🦠 Biome Notes:
Soils often managed for precision irrigation, but compaction is common.
High-fertility history can suppress natural nutrient cycling.
Repetitive monoculture can erode microbial resilience.
🧪 BeCrop® Focus:
Root growth promotion under compaction
Mycorrhizal support (P mobilisation)
Soil carbon transformation under irrigation regimes
✅ Practices:
Introduce AMF-compatible legume phases (e.g. vetch, lucerne)
Banding of biologicals at planting
Subsurface compost + gypsum blends
Precision cover cropping in corners or dryland areas
2️⃣ Grains (Central West, Riverina, Northern Slopes)
🦠 Biome Notes:
Soils range from red-brown earths to sodic grey clays.
Low rainfall areas often have declining OM and biology.
Biological dormancy common in dryland cropping.
🧪 BeCrop® Focus:
Drought-resilient microbial functions
Carbon use efficiency
Early root colonisation by beneficials
✅ Practices:
Post-harvest compost/green manure to re-charge biology
Biological seed treatments (fungi + bacteria)
Multi-species covers to reset soil between high-input crops
Adjust rotations to avoid repetitive C:N drainers (e.g. wheat on wheat)
3️⃣ Pulses (South West Slopes, Liverpool Plains, Central West)
🦠 Biome Notes:
Soils are often variable — nodulation and performance depend on local biology.
Acidic patches and fallow herbicides reduce beneficial populations.
Faba and chickpeas often grown after cereals = residual disease risk.
🧪 BeCrop® Focus:
Functional rhizobia profiling
Disease suppressive microbes
Organic N cycling from pulse residues
✅ Practices:
Pre-season BeCrop® to validate rhizobial presence + pH sensitivity
Strategic liming and organic matter addition
Inoculate + use microbial seed coats for early resilience
Residue retention with microbial stubble digestion support
