17 July 2026

^{Photos: Stenon}

 

 

For decades, soil analysis has followed a familiar routine. Farmers take samples from different parts of a field, label and package them, send them to a laboratory and wait for the results before deciding how much fertiliser to apply.

The process can provide detailed information, but it also creates a bottleneck. By the time the results arrive, rainfall, irrigation, soil moisture and crop development may already have changed the conditions on which those results were based.

German AgTech company Stenon is attempting to remove that delay from many routine nutrient-management decisions.

Its FarmLab system resembles a specialised measuring spade. A farmer pushes the probe into the ground, takes three readings at each measurement point and sends the resulting sensor data to a cloud platform. Within seconds, the system returns estimates of soil nutrients and other characteristics, while GPS attaches each reading to a precise position in the field.

Rather than collecting soil and transporting it to the laboratory, FarmLab brings the measurement process into the field.

That proposition has attracted growing investor interest. Earlier this month, Stenon announced an €18 million Series B funding round led by Dutch impact investor Pymwymic, with Germany's DeepTech & Climate Fonds (DTCF) joining as a new investor alongside existing shareholders Atlantic Labs and Oyster Bay. The Potsdam-based company says the funding will support international expansion, further development of its real-time nitrogen and soil-organic-carbon capabilities, and a next-generation machine-integrated sensing platform.

 

Turning a soil reading into a fertiliser decision

 

FarmLab is not a miniature wet-chemistry laboratory. It is an integrated sensing and software system.

The handheld probe contains optical sensors, including near-infrared sensing, alongside electrical sensors. Climate sensors are housed in its control unit, while Wi-Fi and GPS provide data transfer and positioning. After the probe has been calibrated, the operator inserts it into the soil and triggers a measurement from the device’s touchscreen.

One measurement cycle consists of three separate readings. Those readings are transmitted to Stenon’s cloud software, where algorithms calculate soil parameters and return the results to the user. When internet access is unavailable, the data can be stored on the device and synchronised later.

Stenon’s software displays the measurements as individual points on a GPS-referenced field map. The company says the system can assess parameters including nitrate, mineral and total nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, organic carbon, pH, moisture, temperature and soil texture. The results can then be converted into fertiliser recommendations and variable-rate application maps.

Variable-rate application allows agricultural machinery to apply different quantities of fertiliser to different zones within the same field. That is important because fields are rarely uniform. Soil composition, water retention, compaction and nutrient availability can vary considerably over relatively short distances.

A conventional field-wide fertiliser rate may therefore oversupply some areas while leaving others short. By mapping individual measurement points, FarmLab is designed to show where those differences occur and translate them into operational instructions.

 

Measuring the nitrogen crops can actually use

 

Nitrogen is central to Stenon’s proposition.

Farmers need sufficient nitrogen to support crop growth, but excessive application increases costs and can contribute to nutrient losses and greenhouse-gas emissions. Nitrous oxide, which can be released from agricultural soils after nitrogen application, is a particularly potent greenhouse gas.

The difficulty is not simply determining how much nitrogen exists in the soil. Crops can only use the fraction that is available for uptake at a particular time.

Stenon says FarmLab measures plant-available mineral nitrogen directly in the field, allowing farmers to adjust the amount and timing of applications according to current conditions rather than relying solely on historical samples or estimates. It combines that immediate reading with measurements of soil organic carbon, which the company positions as a longer-term indicator of soil condition and productivity.

This has become more commercially relevant as fertiliser prices have remained volatile. Stenon said overall nitrogen fertiliser prices in the European Union in April 2026 were 71% above the 2024 average, citing European Commission data.

Yet removing the laboratory from the workflow only helps if the resulting measurements are accurate enough to support real farm decisions.

 

How closely does FarmLab match laboratory testing?

 

FarmLab has undergone independent evaluation by the German Agricultural Society, or DLG.

The DLG test examined an earlier FarmLab software and calibration version across 40 fields selected to provide a broad range of sandy, silty and loamy soils, different mineral-nitrogen and humus levels and several crops. Measurements from the handheld devices were compared with nearby samples analysed by five accredited laboratories using recognised scientific methods. The statistical assessment was developed with the Julius Kühn Institute, Germany’s Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants.

The tested version met DLG’s prediction-accuracy requirements for three specific parameters: nitrate, mineral nitrogen and soil moisture. It also detected deliberately introduced operating errors, such as measuring with plant residues in front of the sensor or leaving the calibration cap attached.

That represents meaningful independent validation, but it has limits. The DLG approval covered those three parameters and error detection; it should not be read as independent confirmation of every nutrient and soil characteristic displayed by Stenon’s broader software platform. The report also states that its findings apply only to the devices, software version and calibration model tested.

The comparison also illustrates why replacing laboratories is not a simple question of matching a single definitive number. Even the accredited laboratories did not always classify the same soil sample identically. DLG therefore assessed FarmLab partly by comparing its level of disagreement with the variation between laboratory results.

In its final assessment, DLG awarded FarmLab its approval for the tested criteria, concluding that it met the required prediction accuracy for nitrate, mineral nitrogen and soil moisture.

 

A Brazilian corn field puts the system to work

 

Independent testing can show whether a sensor performs within defined parameters. A farm trial can show what happens when that information is turned into a decision.

In an August 2025 case study published by Stenon, the company worked with Brazilian agribusiness group Agrex and corn producer Maristela Storti in Jataí, Goiás. It compared part of a corn field managed using Stenon’s recommendations with an area following the farmer’s traditional fertilisation approach.

The trial should be treated as a company-led commercial case study rather than an independently peer-reviewed experiment. Even so, it provides a useful account of how the system was used.

FarmLab detected a zone with low nitrogen availability that was later linked to soil compaction from a former road crossing the field. The information prompted the farmer to till that specific area to improve soil structure before further crop development.

For the second nitrogen application, Stenon recommended 320 kilograms of ammonium sulphate per hectare rather than the farmer’s standard 400 kilograms. That represented a 20% reduction.

According to the case study, the Stenon-managed plot subsequently produced a 7.98% higher yield per hectare. The combination of lower fertiliser use and higher output produced an additional US$163.61 in profit per hectare on the trial area.

Those results demonstrate the practical objective of the technology: use current, location-specific measurements to replace blanket applications with differentiated recommendations.

 

Practical advantages, but laboratories have not disappeared

 

A separate three-month test by Austria’s Agro Innovation Lab provides a more mixed view of FarmLab’s readiness for everyday use.

The organisation tested the device with three Lagerhaus agricultural cooperatives and Innovation Farm in Wieselburg. Measurements were compared with traditional analytical methods used by accredited laboratories, while the project also explored whether FarmLab could support a rental or soil-analysis service for farmers.

Participants praised the device’s robust construction, largely self-explanatory interface and efficient transfer of measurements into the web application. Some users, however, encountered difficulties with the software.

The test also identified a more structural obstacle. Although FarmLab had obtained DLG certification, its reports could not at that time be submitted to authorities as officially recognised soil analyses. Participants also wanted the software to place nutrient readings automatically into official content classes.

The practical implication is that FarmLab may already bypass laboratory turnaround for many immediate agronomic decisions without replacing every function of an accredited laboratory. Conventional testing remains relevant for official reporting, reference measurements and analyses outside the scope of the device’s independent validation.

 

From handheld readings to sensors on machinery

 

Stenon’s next step is to move beyond the measuring spade.

With help of the new funding, the company is developing a machine-integrated platform intended to analyse soil as agricultural equipment moves through a field. Instead of a user stopping to take individual readings, sensing could become part of routine planting, cultivation or fertiliser application.

The new funding will also support regional calibration and localisation as the company expands in Brazil, Central Asia and selected European markets.

That regional work will be important. The same hardware may be portable, but soil composition, crops, climate, farming practices and regulation differ considerably between markets. A system developed for one geography cannot simply assume that its models will perform identically elsewhere.

FarmLab therefore does not eliminate every complexity associated with soil testing. It shifts where much of the work takes place: from physical extraction, shipping and laboratory turnaround towards sensors, calibration data, cloud models and agronomic software.

For farmers, the immediate attraction is more straightforward. A nutrient decision that once began with packing and posting a soil sample can now begin by pushing a measuring spade into the ground.

 

 

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