Are you curious about how healthy your soil is? There are fascinating tests to explore the microbial activity, organic nitrogen pools, and physical stability of your soil, but they are expensive compared to traditional soil nutrient tests. Luckily, there’s funding from Minnesota Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) for producers who want to test their soil health.
Known as Crop Evaluation and Monitoring Activity-216 (CEMA-216), this NRCS activity can help cover much of the costs associated with sampling and lab analysis for many soil health tests. However, a qualified individual must do the sampling. University of Minnesota Extension is partnering with MN NRCS to bring training on CEMA-216 sampling procedures to certified crop advisers (CCAs) or other individuals who would like to perform CEMA-216 sampling.
Registration And Location
The training will be August 16, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum’s “Farm at the Arb” in Chaska, MN. For this free training, register here.
What Will Be Covered?
Participants will learn how to set up soil sampling zones and complete the paperwork for CEMA-216, get into more detail on how the tests are performed, and discuss interpretations of these tests for on-farm decision-making. Trainers include:
- Dr. Anna Cates, UMN Extension
- Stephanie McClain, MN NRCS State Soil Health Specialist
- Ryan Buetow, MN NRCS State Agronomist
- Kat LaBine, Department of Soil, Water, and Climate
While traditional soil nutrient tests are generally less than $20 per sample, the soil health tests can run to $30, $40, or $100 per sample. CEMA-216 payments range from $65 for an individual test to ~$220 for a specific series of soil health tests. The CEMA-216 funding can cover the following soil tests:
- Soil organic carbon (C) measured by dry combustion: this measures all living and dead sources of C in your soil. It’s usually about half of your traditional soil organic matter number and is somewhat less variable than soil organic matter.
- Wet macro-aggregate stability: this estimates how strong your large soil aggregates are when wet completely. It’s a good indicator for whether you have good soil structure to both store and infiltrate water.
- Permanganate-oxidizable carbon: this newer test selects for all the soil C which is oxidized by a permanganate solution. It’s correlated with soil lignin content, and increases in response to soil health management in research studies.
- Soil texture: the sand, silt and clay % of your soil help us interpret the organic matter indicators, as organic matter is much better retained on clay and silt than sand particles.
- pH (1:1 water): pH is a determinant of microbial life as well as plant health and nutrient uptake. The water-based pH can vary seasonally, which helps describe what the microbes and plants are experiencing at the time of sampling.
- pH (.01M CaCl2): A more stable pH indicator that may reflect the effect of soil health practices over time.
- Respiration using a 1, 2, 3, or 4-day incubation: Mineralizable C, or Solvita, or the 24-hour CO2 burst test would all fall in this category. The test assesses how much microbial respiration occurs in controlled conditions, which is an indicator of microbial fitness and total population.
- Bioavailable N using the ACE protein method: this pool of organic proteins is sensitive to management and gives you a sense of how much organic N is available in your soil.
- Microbial diversity using PLFA: the phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) extraction categorizes microbes based on cell wall components. This test gives you a sense of what balance of different organisms you have in your soil.
- Enzyme activity of ß-glucosidase, N-acetyl-ß-D-glucosaminidase (NAG), arylsulfatase, protease, or acid or alkaline phosphatase: these enzymes are the tools microbes use to transform organic matter into smaller molecules which they and plants may take up for nutrients.
Keep in mind that any of these tests are likely to change slowly over time. If you’re looking to show changes after adopting a new management practice, make sure you give two to three years between your initial and later samples. This blog post has more tips to help you successfully assess your soil health.
If you have any questions, contact Kat LaBine at labi0028@umn.edu.