Secrets To Acing the Soil Health Test

Soil testing kits can help growers understand what their crops are lacking. Whether it’s soil compaction, evaluating nutrient loads, moisture levels, or any other number of factors necessary for healthy plants, soil testing is a critical tool.

There are many different versions of soil tests growers can choose from depending on just what they are looking to measure.

“The Haney test looks at some of the things that people are more familiar with, such as inorganic fertility, macronutrients, NPK, and micronutrients, and their plant availability,” says Soil Scientist Liz Haney, Co-owner of Soil Regen and Co-Developer of the Haney Soil Health Test.

This test, however, goes beyond the makeup of traditional tests, also exploring soil biology, including microbial respiration — how active microbes are in the soil — as well as their food source, which is water-extractable organic carbon.

“As far as some of the differentiating factors, we look at water-soluble organic nitrogen which is plant available and can also be mineralized into inorganic nitrogen,” Haney says. “So, we look at a lot of different aspects that standard soil testing doesn’t look at, especially if you’re in a biological system.”

According to fifth-generation farmer Josh Jeske, Founder of Terraform Tillage, traditional soil testing hasn’t changed much in the past few years, but methods have evolved significantly “to efficiently measure and manage the soil’s physical properties, specifically compaction,” he says. “Before developing our SmartProbe system, conducting detailed soil compaction analyses was uncommon and typically seen as impractical.

“Our technology,” Jeske continues, “has made it straightforward and cost-effective for farmers, agronomists, and retailers to identify exactly where compaction is limiting yields, enabling targeted subsoiling efforts or other compaction management products only where they’re needed and reducing unnecessary expenses in areas that won’t benefit agronomically or environmentally.”

For growers concerned about soil compaction, Jeske suggests growers start with that spot where they generally enter and exit their fields.

“I recommend that growers initially conduct a soil compaction survey to establish a baseline for their fields’ soil structure,” he says. “This baseline can reveal hidden yield limitations unrelated to fertility.”

With a better understanding of what’s inhibiting growth, end users can save on their crop inputs. But to do that, they need to know what’s in the ground. According to Haney, the average field has 30 pounds of unused nitrogen.

“Growers want to know what’s available as far as nutrients go. We don’t want to over fertilize or under fertilize,” Haney says. “We want the growers to have the biggest return on investment they possibly can. We use different extractants than a conventional test. But we also look at the biology because biology controls nutrient cycling.”

For more, click here to continue reading the full article as part of our special report on Soil Health.

In addition, check out the previous reports in Meister’s Global Insight Series covering a range of topics from Irrigation Innovations to Agricultural Technology.