Soil Health Testing helps optimize management on agricultural and forested lands, supporting healthy soils. It can help you monitor changes over time and evaluate the effectiveness of conservation practices in improving the natural resource issues you have identified.
What is a Soil Health Test?
Soil health tests are a relatively new tool to use for land management. Soil health tests assess soil by examining its biological, physical, and chemical properties. This helps us understand how well the soil works and how it’s affected by different farming methods. Generally, higher values mean better soil health. Producers have employed these measures in both laboratory and field settings to investigate the effects of various management techniques on soil. Many laboratories will offer soil health packages that include both soil health and fertility tests, offering a comprehensive snapshot of soil health.
How to Find a Laboratory
Choosing a laboratory for Soil Health Testing - This technical notes is designed to aid in selecting the type of laboratory, testing protocols, and associated interpretations for a soil sample.
How to Choose a Soil Health Testing Laboratory fact sheet
How to Sample
Soil Sample Planning Optimizer Tool - Get customized sampling point recommendations from this interactive online tool.
Guidance on Field Grab Sampling for Soil Health Testing Technical Note - This technical note outlines how to sample soils using the grab sampling method and how to submit the samples to laboratories.
Forest Soil Health Testing fact sheet
How to Use Results
Soil Health Testing to Support Conservation Planning - This technical note provides an explanation to NRCS staff and partners with guidance on NRCS supported soil health lab indicators, methods used to assess indicators, and reading a soil health laboratory report.
Conservation Evaluation and Monitoring Activities (CEMAs) for Soil Health Testing
Through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), NRCS offers two opportunities for financial assistance for producers interested in soil health testing. These Conservation Evaluation Monitoring Activities, or CEMAs, provide financial assistance for EQIP participants to hire Technical Service Providers (TSP) or Qualified Individuals (QI) to provide conservation planning, practices designs or implementation instructions, and monitoring or evaluation of conservation measures applied to the land.
CEMA 216 Soil Health Testing helps producers test their soil to check its biological, chemical, and physical traits using accepted lab methods.
- CEMA 216 – Soil Health Testing
- CEMA 216 – Soil Health Testing Job Aid
- CEMA 216 Technical Service Provider Training
- Soil Health Proficiency Testing for NRCS webinar video
- Soil Health Testing - Conservation Evaluation and Monitoring Activity (CEMA 216) fact sheet
- Webinar - Implementing Sol Health Testing – CEMA 216
- Webinar - Implementing CEMA 216 - Updated Information January 2026
- FAQs for CEMA 216 Soil Health Testing
CEMA 221 Soil Organic Carbon Stock Monitoring helps producers to measure the amount of carbon stored in soil. Producers can use this information to see changes in carbon levels over time, especially when looking at many fields together. It’s important to check soil carbon before and after starting a new farming method or practice. Usually, producers will need to watch for changes over several years, often more than five years.