Developing Usable and Useful in-Field Soil Health Assessements.

State and private agricultural laboratories offer a variety of soil analyses that are predominantly chemical, and which aid farmers with input management. However, most labs are currently not equipped to provide an evaluation of soil function related to agricultural production that is based on soil physical, biological and chemical properties. As a result, laboratory soil test reports do not typically offer a complete picture of how a soil is functioning to provide an environment that supports plant growth, or how management is affecting soil biological and physical conditions in the field. Qualitative, in-field soil health assessments that can be done relatively quickly by farmers and those that provide technical assistance to them such as Certified Crop Advisers, conservation planners or Extension Specialists could be a valuable addition to the information obtained from a laboratory soil test report. In addition to being easy to use, an in-field soil health assessment tool needs to provide reliable information concerning soil function, and when necessary offer management options to improve soil resource conditions. Potential criteria for successfully developing a qualitative, easily-accessible, in-field soil health assessment protocol will be discussed, and the experience of NRCS in California and West Virginia in creating and adopting a similar protocol will be presented as a case study.