Ward Laboratories, Inc.

08/28/2026

This week’s accidentally fell into agriculture — and never looked back. 🌱

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Meet Sagan Sculley - Feed, Forage & Environmental Sample Prep Supervisor at Ward Laboratories!

Sagan grew up in Kearney, Nebraska, where he started his own computer repair business out of high school, and had a whole IT career planned. That is, until agriculture had other ideas! Now five years into the team, he oversees feed and forage sample prep, making sure every sample is ready for accurate testing.

As he puts it: “Feed Preparation is incredibly important in making sure our customers get verifiably accurate results. If we do a bad job every single step after will also be bad.” Quality data starts with quality employees like Sagan!

Off the clock, Sagan enjoys walks with his kids, and collecting Pokémon cards - a collection he started at age 6 and now shares with his own kids. He also LOVES Red Bull - not sure why he would choose that over coffee but we still think he's alright.

You can always find him… standing. Seriously. He never sits down. 😄 (We think this is due to the amount of Red Bull he drinks!)

His coworkers’ one word to describe him? OCD/Organized. They also appreciate him for this specific skill.

Stay tuned every Friday for more from the team !

08/27/2026

Building organic matter isn’t as simple as just adding carbon to the soil. 🌱

In this week’s , Dr. Ray Ward breaks down the connection between carbon, organic matter, and plant nutrients, and why the process has to go through plants.

He also looks back nearly 100 years to a 1927 book on “manure crops” and draws a fascinating connection to today’s use of cover crops for recycling nutrients and building soil.

📹 Watch the full video: https://bit.ly/4xntQ4R

08/26/2026

Plant analysis = real-time insight
→ Adjust nutrients
→ Improve efficiency
→ Protect yield

Check out this blog article to learn more: https://bit.ly/3QIKmfv

08/21/2026

This week’s grew up in Omaha - but spent every summer getting dirty on his grandparents’ and uncle’s farm. 🌱

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Meet Alex Anderson - Feed, Forage & Environmental Supervisor at Ward Laboratories!

Alex oversees some of our lab technicians, running roughly 40 different testing procedures, making sure accurate data gets to producers as efficiently as possible. His approach is “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.”

Alex’s favorite quote is by Willie Nelson: “Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.”

Off the clock, you’ll find him on the golf course, watching sports in his recliner, or with his family and pets - Beagle Little Joe, Cockapoo Honey, and cat Cider.

Fun fact: Animal snot? Totally fine. Human snot? Hard pass. 😄

His coworkers’ one word for him? LOUD.

Stay tuned every Friday for more from the team !

08/20/2026

Soil pH is more than just a number on your soil test. 🧪

In this week’s , Dr. Ray Ward continues the conversation in Part 2 of our soil pH discussion - covering how microbial activity, soluble salts, and excess lime can influence your results, and what that means for phosphorus, iron, and manganese availability.

📹 Watch the full video: https://bit.ly/4qpROd8

Missed Part 1? Check it out on our page!

Reach out to our team with questions — we’re happy to help!

08/19/2026

We're here to support producers navigate potentially toxic forages. Test both nitrates AND prussic acid to ensure healthy, productive livestock while grazing sorghum, sorghum sudan, and johnson grass forage varieties.
https://bit.ly/3OCx3g7

08/14/2026

This week’s found her way to agriculture through hockey. Yes, really. 🏒

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Meet Rebecca “Becca” Kern-Lunbery - Feed Testing Product Manager at Ward Laboratories and a proud decade-long member of the team!

Becca grew up across Wyoming, Washington, and Minnesota before earning her degree in animal science. A family friend and hockey coach connected her with a dairy farmer her senior year of high school, and that experience set her on the path to where she is today.

At Ward, she helps livestock producers translate laboratory data into practical feeding and management decisions - answering calls, writing educational resources and making sure accurate results get to producers as quickly as possible.

Her best career advice? “Be persistent.”

Off the clock, you’ll find her at the rink, watching wildlife, chasing after two little ones, or grabbing Jimmy John’s 🥪 (she really should be sponsored by them).

Oh, and she’s been chased by bears. Twice. We are choosing not to ask questions. 🐻

Stay tuned every Friday for more from the team !

08/13/2026

Soil pH is one of the most important numbers on your soil test — but what is it actually telling you? 🧪

In this week’s , Dr. Ray Ward breaks down the basics of soil pH in Part 1 of a two-part discussion - from what happens when pH rises above 7.0, to alkaline vs. sodic soils, iron chlorosis, and how to manage high-pH soils with sulfur.

📹 Watch the full video: https://bit.ly/4xJ9rY6

Stay tuned for Part 2 in next week’s !

08/12/2026

If you planted sorghum or sorghum sudan on dry land this year, this one's for you! Be sure to send us your nitrate samples and order our in field prussic acid test kits to keep your livestock healthy and productive through fall grazing.

https://bit.ly/4n1OCD3

08/11/2026

Over the years working for Ray Ward, founder of Ward Laboratories, he has mentioned 1955 — the year of 9-bushel corn on his Saline County, Neb., farm — as though it is a time stamp in his mind.
These days, 9-bushel corn is nearly unheard of. Other than drought years such as 2012, when much of the dryland corn in many parts of the country was zeroed out on yield, an average corn yield might fall somewhere between 228 and 237 bushels per acre on irrigated ground.
For instance, on that same farm as the 9-bushels-per-acre yield, the 2025 yield was 195 bushels per acre on dryland, according to Ward’s records.

So, what exactly happened in 1955 on his father’s farm to harvest only 9 bushels of corn per acre?

Find out in this Nebraska Farmer article:

Digging Deeper: The year was 1955, but Ray Ward never forgot the lessons learned from a disastrous corn crop on his family’s Saline County, Neb., farm.