Do soil health tests match farmers’ experience?

As part of the Soil Health Nexus Digital Cafe Series, Brendan O’Neill of University of Michigan presents “Do soil health tests match farmers’ experience?”. This presentation was originally broadcast on August 18, 2021.

Soil health metrics emerged as relatively rapid measures of a broad range of soil attributes which are sensitive to changes in management. However to serve as management tools for farmers, these metrics must also reflect variability across farm fields. To examine this we worked with Michigan farmers to select a range fields types to test how soil health metrics align with farmer perceptions of their fields. Soil health tests did concur with farmer assessments of field performance, but also revealed the importance of aligning farmer knowledge with soil testing to optimize implementation of soil health tests.

Contact Dr. O’Neill at: obrendan@umich.edu

Main Presentation

• Presentation Slides
• Research Paper Referenced: Do soil health tests match farmer experience? Assessing biological, physical, and chemical indicators in the Upper Midwest United States

Questions from the Audience