COBALT STATUS IN QUEBEC SOILS

Abstract

Studies on thirty mineral soil series and five organic soils from the broad cultivated areas of Quebec indicated that total cobalt, extracted with 70% perchloric acid digestion, ranged from 1.1 to 21.6 ppm and 2.5% acetic acid-extractable cobalt from 0.3 to 0.83 ppm. Extractable cobalt in the surface soils was significantly correlated with total cobalt, which in turn was highly dependent on the clay content of the soil. The soil pH or the organic matter content did not seem to have any influence on the cobalt content in the cultivated soils. Light-textured and podzolized soils are likely to be low m cobalt, while soils with richer clay content are higher. Organic soils, in general, were found to be lower in cobalt content than mineral soils. Nineteen out of the thirty mineral soils studied and all the organic soils contained less than 0.25 ppm of extractable cobalt and may be considered as critical or deficient because forage grown on such soils is likely to cause cobalt deficiency in livestock.