I realize not all ground is flat. However, if you feel comfortable w/6+ acre samples on your farm, you'd probably feel comfortable w/6+ acre (or much larger) grids on our farm. We choose smaller sample sites. Yes, it costs more. We have a 306A field w/3 soil types in it. Would one only take 3 samples from that 306A field?

Now, do you have soil types of less than 2-2.5A, and do you really sample that site? I still can't imagine how you'd miss that site using staggered grids...but maybe you can.

I'm not a CCA & do NOT make recs to others. That's for the highly paid professionals. I'm telling how/why we do it. It probably won't work for others. I will question other methods however. Not to say they're wrong, but question to gather information. Also, we seldom fetilize based solely on grids. We normally use variable replacement based on crop removal.