Screening Soil Health Methods and Their Interpretation across Management Practices in North Dakota.

Commercial, field, and laboratory based-methods for assessing soil health were screened on a full-scale experimental and demonstration farm located in southeast North Dakota. The farm is enrolled in the national Soil Health Partnership program, and hosts multiple management scenarios for reducing salinity and improving soil health including tile drainage, conservation tillage, and cover crops. A total of 84 sample locations were stratified across the 49-hectare field and spanned all management scenarios. Soil health tests performed at each sample location included the Comprehensive Assessment for Soil Health (Cornell), the Soil Health Tool (Haney), standard agronomic fertility analyses, aggregate stability tests, residue decomposition rates, and microbial abundance assays. Soil health scores obtained from commercial services were higher than expected, based on local ranges in soil quality, which highlights the regional specificity, and limited transferability of the scoring functions. Relationships between many soil health indicators and with cash crop yield were weak and limited. Based on these results, regional observations, and discussions with producers, we recommend that local farmers monitor soil health with aggregation, worm presence, residue breakdown, and specific productivity concerns (such as salinity or pathogen tests).