Finding NCDA&CS Soil Test, and Other Agronomic, Reports
-Basic Instructions
1. Visit the NCDA&CS Agronomic Division Web site: www.ncagr.gov/agronomi/
2. Select Find Your Report from the left-column navigation bar.
3. Select Quick Report Search from the left-column navigation bar on the PALS page.
4. In the Name: box, enter the last name or business name of the client whose report you are searching for. You must use the last name of the grower or the exact business name entered on the sample information form submitted with the samples.
For example, if the business name “Old Clearview Nursery” or “The Clearview Nursery” was written on the sample information form, you won’t be able to find the report if you just type in “Clearview Nursery.” If the grower name on the sample information form is Zachary Adams, you must type in “Adams” not “Zachary” to find the correct report.
To save time, you don’t even have to type in the full word. If you enter at least the first three letters and click the Search button, you will get a list of all client names beginning with those letters to search through alphabetically. Once you have the list, you can select any name in the list, start typing the exact last name you want and the list will scroll to match what you type.
5. When you find the desired name, click on it. Then, click the Find Reports button. You should get a list of reports for that grower. If there are no reports listed, then 1) that grower has not submitted any samples within the last three fiscal years, 2) the samples they have submitted have not been processed yet, or 3) the reports are listed under a different name.
6. Once you have a list of reports for the desired grower, you have several options.
a) If the list of reports is very long, you may want them listed in a different order. You can rearrange the list by clicking on any of the seven, underlined column headings: Fiscal Year, Report (#), Lab, Report Type, Status, Status Date, Farm ID or No. Samples. For example, if you click on the Fiscal Year heading, the reports will be rearranged so the ones from the most recent fiscal year are last. If you click in the heading a second time, the reports will be sorted in the opposite order with ones from the most recent fiscal year first.
b) To view a report, click on the Open PDF File button that occurs on the same line as the desired report.
c) If you want to save an open report to your personal computer, use the Save As… feature to name the file and store it in the folder you desire.
d) You also have the option of downloading report data in a spreadsheet format. This option is for experienced computer users only and requires more explanation than can be given here. However, here are a few tips:
—If you only want to download data from a single report, click on the Get CSV File button located on the same line as the desired report.
—You can download data from several reports at one time, but all of the selected (checked) reports must all be the same kind: for example, all soil reports or all waste reports. To download data from multiple reports simultaneously, place a check in the box in the first column in front of each desired report. Then, click on the Download Checked Reports button. You will be prompted to either open the file or save it to your computer. It is probably best to choose “Open,” then you will know if you have the appropriate software to read and manipulate the file. If you do, you can save the file to a folder of your choice and give the file name the appropriate extension compatible with your software: for example, Excel spreadsheets should have an .xls extension. Otherwise, the file will be saved with a .csv extension.
—Once you have the data in a spreadsheet, you will need a template that will assign the appropriate descriptive headers to the columns of data. Templates and an explanation of the data fields for each type of report are available at www.ncagr.gov/agronomi/templates.htm