By Bailey Tangen and Gabi Bolwerk
Fall is a great time to start thinking about how to adjust your management practices to reduce erosion and improve soil health. A good first step is to understand the current state of your soil. To do this, you can perform a quick in-field soil health assessment. In this visual guide, we’ll walk you through how to conduct your own in-field soil health assessment.
In an in-field soil health assessment, we look at the biological and physical properties of soil as they relate to soil function. This assessment can be done in 15-20 minutes and should be done in a few spots in your fields to get a full picture of how your soil functions. To learn more and to get help doing an assessment, call your local NRCS or SWCD office. These folks are willing to come out to your field, do an assessment, and provide management recommendations to protect the vitality of your operation and the productivity of your soil.
A few notes before “digging in” to in-field soil health assessments:
- After harvest is a great time to do a soil health assessment.
- The only tools you’ll need are a shovel and your observational skills.
- Keep in mind the context of your land. For example, sandy soils won’t look or behave the same as clay soils. It can be helpful to compare soil within your field with a less disturbed soil (fence row, tree line) so that you have a reference of what your soil health capacity looks like.