Soil Health At Your Fingertips

By: Megan Vollstedt

With a resurgence of soil health practices on the farm, ag tech companies are seizing the opportunity to dive deep into soil health data to measure the productivity of soil in real time. Yet, testing for soil health is still relatively new and complicated.

Shane Bugeja, Extension educator with the University of Minnesota, explains, “Soil health tests not only focus on the physical or chemical characteristics of the soil but also try to measure biological life. Think about how complicated life is; it’s just as complicated underground.”

Bugeja says while older, more traditional soil tests give a general overview of your soil, soil health tests give more detail about the function of the soil, adding color to the results of traditional soil tests.