In this video, Dr. Clain Jones, Extension Soil Fertility Specialist with the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences at Montana State University, discusses how such agricultural practices such as cropping systems, cover crops, and nutrient management affect soil health in semi-arid climates. Dr. Jones includes soil health parameters, including soil organic matter, pH, enzyme activities, nitrogen availability, and infiltration rates.

Fall is an excellent time to take soil tests since the summer crops are off and the cover crops are small enough to still walk through the fields. Soil tests have an important role in determining your soil fertility program. Read more in this article from the Frederick News Post.

After harvest is a great time to conduct soil sampling. In this video, Fabian Fernandez, Soil Fertility Specialist with University of Minnesota Extension, demonstrates how to correctly take a soil sample from your field.

Did your soybeans or alfalfa not yield what you were expecting this year? Well fall is the perfect time to pull soil samples and see what’s going on under ground. Read more in this article from the Norfolk Daily News (Norfolk, NE).

Healthy soil is essential to agriculture, but it can be tricky to adequately assess soil health test results, which are influenced by biology, chemistry, fertility, time of sampling, timing of farming and other variables. That’s why the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) is developing a user-friendly, online tool to help farmers and agronomists easily interpret their soil health test results and convert them into an action plan. Read more in this article from the Iowa Soybean Association.

With growing interest in cover crops, it is important to understand how cover crops might impact soil fertility for the following cash crop. Nitrogen (N) provided by cover crop biomass may be used in the short-term by the following crop, and in the long-term through improving soil N content and reducing fertilizer input costs. Read more in this article from University of Nebraska Extension.

In the midst of a renaissance in soil health, researchers, agronomists and extension personnel have been pushing the message that everything a grower does in a field is connected to everything else. Fertility is linked to planting depth, just as mycorrhizal fungi are connected to weed management. Read more in this article from Country Guide.