Assessing Effectiveness of Commercial Soil Health Tests for Conservation Cropping Systems in Indiana.

A key component of sustainable agriculture is maintaining soil health and with a vast array of soil health indicators and tests currently available, it is vital to determine the most effective tools and to communicate those to producers. The objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of three commercial soil health tests at evaluating soil health under different conservation cropping systems at 17 sites in Indiana. The three tests included phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA), Cornell Soil Health Assessment, and Haney Soil Health Tool. Research sites included both university agricultural research centers as well as on-farm trials and were in place for three years with treatment comparisons of cover versus no cover under no-till at most of the locations. Some sites compared different tillage practices under cover crops. The goal of this large-scale evaluation is to determine which of these tests are most useful in measuring and monitoring soil health under different cropping systems in Indiana. Our results have indicated that there is low correlation among different commercial tests even for soil health measures that are evaluating very similar soil functions.