New nationwide soil health project looking for Minnesota farmer participants

United States map of soil colors at a depth of 25cm (credit: NRCS)

A new nationwide project called “Probing Our Country’s Soil Health” has launched, and Minnesota farmers are now able to participate. The project centers around improving a tool called the Soil Health Assessment Protocol and Evaluation (or SHAPE).

“One of our nation's greatest resources is our soils,” said Fabian Fernandez, University of Minnesota Extension nutrient management specialist, who is co-leading the project in Minnesota. “The more we know about our soils, the better we can manage them.”

SHAPE is an online tool designed to interpret soil health measurements, monitor soil health change, and offer management practice alternatives for improving soil health. The goal of the project is to collect 13,000 soil samples across the U.S. (~6,000 fields) from different soil, climate, and management conditions. The SHAPE tool will be available as a free web-based app for easy soil health scoring.

Minnesota farmer participants needed

To make this tool as useful as possible for Minnesota farmers, the goal is to attract a broad representation of Minnesota ag lands — crops, forages, and pasture.

“Tools like SHAPE will work best for the soil types and systems that send in a lot of samples, so I am really hopeful that we'll see a lot of Minnesota entries,” said Anna Cates, U of M Extension soil health specialist, the other leader of the project in Minnesota. “That will help us calibrate our expectations for soil changes with management on Minnesota farms.”

Participant benefits

Participation is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Participants will receive:

• A personalized soil health report of their field(s).
• A copy of a book called “Probing Our Country’s Soil Health”. This will be a hard-copy photo book illustrating soil health across the country and the outcomes to this project.

Survey and soil samples

Participants will be asked to share general information through an online survey for how two or three fields from their operation have been managed during the last ten years. This information will be obtained through a facilitator-led online Zoom meeting that takes about 45 to 60 minutes.

Participants will also need to grant access to fields for hand-probe soil sampling, typically two or three sampling sites from each field. Sampling will typically occur within three to six months of the survey, and you will be notified prior to when that will happen.

How to enroll

To enroll as a landowner participant, select a time from one of the following facilitator schedule links:

• Sarah Carter (Tuesday a.m./p.m; Wednesday a.m./p.m.)
• Mitchell Rice (M-F a.m./p.m.)
• Kaitlin Flick Dinsmore (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday)

U of M contacts

• Fabian Fernandez, Extension nitrogen management specialist, fabiangf@umn.edu
• Anna Cates, Extension soil health specialist, catesa@umn.edu

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