The short answer. Soil carbon has to be sampled at the same point in the year for the change between years to be real, and it has to be measured every year for a bad year to show up while the fix is still cheap. Our sampling window runs through autumn and winter. The 2026 window is open now and closes at the end of February 2027. Miss it and your baseline is delayed by a year, with sampling beginning again in autumn 2027.
Why the same point in the year
Soil is not still. Roots grow and die back, residue breaks down, moisture and biological activity move with the season. A field sampled in spring and again in autumn would show a difference, but the difference would be the calendar, not your management. So every round on your farm is taken in the same window, timed around your cropping, and compared with a baseline taken in that same window. What is left after the season is held constant is the effect of what you did and of the weather that year.
Why autumn and winter
It is the point in the rotation when fields are between crops, so a sampling team can get across the ground without disturbing a standing crop, and it is the same point in the rotation every year. Sampling takes about half a day on farm. Laboratory analysis and the satellite work follow over the winter, and your report shows the change against your own baseline, field by field, with the accuracy stated. How the measurement itself is done is covered in how soil carbon is measured.
Why every year, not every five
Soil carbon loss is invisible. It does not appear in a yield map, a soil test or a set of accounts. It appears in a poor season, as yield loss you cannot explain, and by then decline may have been running for years, slow enough to miss and hidden by artificial inputs. Measured every year, a bad year shows up in that year, while the fix is a rotation change rather than a rebuild. Measured every five years, it shows up when it is structural.
Every year without measurement is a year of decisions made without knowing which way the soil is going. The risk does not stay still while you wait. It compounds.
A justifiable analogy for annual soil carbon monitoring as a proxy for soil health is an annual blood-pressure check as a proxy for cardiovascular health. Each aims to proactively identify and correct decline at an early stage, before symptoms emerge.
David Wright, chief executive, Ecometric
Five annual monitoring cycles on more than 300,000 hectares are what made the relationship between soil carbon change and yield visible at all. Two droughts fell inside those five years. The fields that held their carbon held their yield, and that could only be seen because the same fields were measured in the same window each year.
What happens if you miss the window
Your baseline moves back a year, because the first round has to be taken in the same window every later round will use. That is a year of decisions made without evidence, and a year later before you can show a buyer, a lender or yourself which way the soil is going. A small deposit secures your place in the sampling season. The balance for the baseline round is invoiced once it is complete, and annual monitoring is invoiced each year on your normal account.
How the year runs
- Set up. Your SBI number and a short call to agree field boundaries and sampling access.
- Baseline. Soil sampling and satellite imagery in the autumn–winter window set your starting point, field by field.
- Annual measurement. We sample and analyse again each year in the same window, timed around your cropping.
- Your report. Change against your own baseline, with the accuracy stated.
- On request. Emissions reporting when your supply chain asks for it, and registry submission when there is demand for insets or offsets. Every round is already measured to full Registry standard, so neither means starting again.
Questions we are asked about timing
Can you sample in spring instead?
Every farm is sampled in the same window each year so that the change is real. If you join now, your baseline is taken in this window and each annual round follows in the same one.
Why not measure every five years, like a carbon project?
Because the measurement is the core value, not the credit. Annual measurement is what lets you manage risk and reduce yield variability in the year it matters. If a credit market opens that is worth your while, the annual history is already there and compliant. A carbon credit is the cherry on top.
How do I get into this season?
Send us your SBI number and your hectares and we will send a written quote within two working days. Minimum project area is 150 hectares. Get a quote.
Part of our guide to soil carbon measurement for farms. Related: how soil carbon is measured · what 150 hectares means in practice · for farmers.
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