Western Laboratories, Inc. was established in 1973 by John P. Taberna. The company has 17 full time employees and 8 part time employees, including four professional agriculturalists:

John P. Taberna, Soil Scientist
Harry Kreeft, Nematologist and Plant Pathologist
John Taberna, Jr. , Agronomist Idaho
Jim Torell, DNA Pathogen Specialist

Seven well-trained Laboratory Technicians are cross-trained to perform all of the analysis the lab provides.

Western Laboratories is a full service commercial laboratory for testing of soils, plants, nematodes, plant diseases, manures, feed and water.

We specialize in providing information about the chemical, physical and biological properties of soils.

We are the world’s largest potato and onion testing laboratory.

We compliment the testing services of many EPA laboratories with our expertise in regional soil extraction techniques and fertilizer recommendations.

We provide useful recommendations about soil improvement, customized for the crops or plants of interest, based on crop curves and sufficiency ranges.

We process 50,000 soil, 12,000 plant tissue, 3,000 feed, 3,000 biological, 500 manure, 6,000 nematode and 1,500 plant disease samples per year from 6,000 clients. Our samples include both agricultural fields (155 crops) as well as golf courses, parks, forests, municipal works and home lawn and garden.

We have the capability of processing up to 1,000 samples per day, and can provide results in as little as 24 to 48 hours, depending upon the test requested.

Western Laboratories has been a voluntary participant in the American Society of Agronomy Soil Proficiency Exchange Program since 1978. We were among the first of four laboratories to participate in this program.

Our new programs scheduled for release are:

Problem Solving for Potatoes
Problem Solving for Onions
Problem Solving for Nurseries
Problem Solving for Orchards
Problem Solving for Vineyards

Irrigation Water Analysis Service