About – BodenBalance

Lucas Kohl

Dipl.-Ing. in agricultural sciences (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna) – his diploma thesis at BOKU was already about nutrient ratios in the soil. Grew up on and works at the family farm Weidehof in Gilserberg (North Hesse, Germany) – dairy, cash crops and vegetables – where his own field trial is located. Doctorate at Justus Liebig University Giessen on carbon farming and biochar in organic-regenerative agriculture; today postdoc there researching the effect of regenerative measures such as biochar and perennial crops like miscanthus on the soil.

With BodenBalance, Lucas Kohl brought Soil Balancing to Germany as an accredited analysis, established the Haney test here together with IAU Freyburg and formalised the interpretation rules to the point where they now flow into a tool for farmers. Speaker at seminars and conferences on nutrient ratios and regenerative agriculture, and dealer of rotary hoes.

BodenBalance is the advice behind it: the laboratories measure, BodenBalance interprets, calculates the fertiliser recommendation and is available for questions. The rules are documented openly and developed further with every order.

Soil Balancing · Mehlich-3 · CEC

AGROLAB Agrar GmbH, Sarstedt

Part of the AGROLAB Group, one of Europe’s large laboratory networks for agricultural and environmental analytics. At the Sarstedt site the Soil Balancing samples are analysed according to VDLUFA (CAL), Mehlich-3 and DIN ISO 13536 (cation exchange capacity). The interpretation according to Albrecht is done by BodenBalance as partner – it says so on the order form.

Breslauer Straße 60 · 31157 Sarstedt · agrolab.com

Haney soil vitality · total digestion

Institut für Agrar- und Umweltanalytik, Freyburg/Unstrut

For over 25 years a specialist laboratory for soils, plants, feed and wine, DAkkS-accredited for agricultural analyses. Together with BodenBalance, IAU established the Haney test (H3A extract, soil respiration, water-extractable C and N) in Germany and performs the total digestion according to VDLUFA.

Querfurter Straße 9 · 06632 Freyburg/Unstrut · iau-freyburg.de

Where the rules come from

Oscar Loew and William A. Albrecht laid the foundation: nutrients act in relation to each other, excesses block, balance makes available. The Haney test (Rick Haney, USDA) measures with root-like extracts what plants and microbes actually reach. BodenBalance combines both and corrects what many Albrecht/Kinsey interpretations failed at: measured instead of calculated CEC, CEC-dependent targets, calculated bulk density, potential acidity in the liming recommendation and fertiliser amounts a farm can actually implement. Every figure in the report can be derived from a documented rule set – the same one the Mineral Balancing Tool is built on.

Lucas Kohl

Two accredited laboratories, one report

AGROLAB Agrar GmbH, Sarstedt

Institut für Agrar- und Umweltanalytik, Freyburg/Unstrut

Where the rules come from