Ward Laboratories, Inc.

Ward Laboratories, Inc. (doing business as Ward Laboratories Inc.), based in Kearney, Nebraska, provides soil and plant sample analysis services to federal agencies as a prime contractor, specializing in soil chemical analysis, nutrient testing, microbial community composition assessment, and environmental monitoring for USDA Agricultural Research Service and U.S. Geological Survey research initiatives. The company is a for-profit small business that competes exclusively in full-and-open solicitations without set-aside designation on its two primary IDC vehicles, though it regularly wins individual task orders under total small business set-asides when those occur within standing contract work.

Ward Laboratories' customer base is heavily concentrated with the Department of Agriculture. The top five customer offices account for 80% of recent awards by count and 93% by combined potential value. The Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service Field Research Implementation and Information Delivery Plains Area dominates both metrics, anchoring 33 awards worth $1.2 million combined potential value. The U.S. Geological Survey Office of Acquisitions and Grants ($135 thousand on a single IDC), the USDA ARS Pacific West Area ($97 thousand across four awards), the Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development ($46 thousand), and the USDA ARS Midwest Area ($33 thousand) round out the active set. Ward Laboratories holds two primary indefinite delivery contracts: a $500 thousand single-award IDC with USDA ARS through June 2029 for soil chemical analysis supporting soil health assessment and precision management practices research, and a $135 thousand single-award IDR contract with USGS through May 2025 for soil cation, chloride, nutrient, and general chemistry analyses. Task orders and purchase orders flow from these vehicles and from additional direct solicitations.

Representative work includes a $141.9 thousand purchase order from USDA ARS Plains Area for five-year soil sample analysis supporting a precision agriculture study in Akron, Colorado (awarded May 2023, completion May 2028); a $46 thousand total small business purchase order from EPA Office of Research and Development for soil health testing under the COMPTON RAP program (awarded November 2023, modified December 2024); and a $39.7 thousand delivery order from USDA ARS Pacific West Area for forage and soil sample analysis (550 forage samples, 225 soil samples including microbial and nutrient analysis) supporting the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station in DuBois, Idaho (awarded July 2025, completion July 2026).

Recent activity has remained steady at two to five awards per year over the past five years. Five awards totaling $283 thousand in combined potential value are due for completion within the next twenty-four months, creating near-term recompete exposure. Work is performed at multiple laboratory locations including the contractor's facilities in Fort Collins and El Reno, Colorado; Temple, Texas; and Maricopa, Arizona, as well as at agency research sites in Dubois, Idaho and Akron, Colorado. Ward Laboratories operates as a 100% prime contractor with no subcontract footprint in the source data. The vendor's capability portfolio sits entirely within soil and plant analysis — routine soil chemical analysis, phosphorus testing using multiple analytical methods (Bray P1, Bray P2, Mehlich 3, Olsen P), microbial community composition, nutrient and mineral testing, carbon and nitrogen concentration analysis via dry combustion, forage analysis, and particle size analysis — supporting federal agricultural research, soil health assessment, and environmental monitoring across USDA, USGS, and EPA.

Ward Laboratories specializes in testing soils, plants, feed, forages, water, manures, fertilizer, and other special testing projects.