Assessing soil health using an integrated approach

A soil health scorecard aims to provide information on key indicators of the nutrient status, physical and biological condition of soil, to help guide soil and crop management decisions.

Productive crops need soils to be maintained in a suitable state that provides optimal soil structure, water retention and nutrient availability.

The physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil interact to deliver these functions.

Therefore, measuring soil health requires an integrated approach that combines the assessment of the chemical (nutrients, pH), physical (structure) and biological properties of soil.

An integrated soil health check should be done on a rotational basis to measure and monitor the impact of soil management practices.

A sampling protocol for soil health may be different to sampling for nutrient management planning alone.

The soil health scorecard provides a framework to monitor soil health on a rotational basis.

The Excel-based tool uses soil analysis results for core soil health indicators and compares them to typical ranges for UK soil types and climate regions (benchmarks).

A completed scorecard automatically produces a 'traffic-light' snapshot of soil health to guide your management decisions.

The soil health scorecard approach has been tested on-farm for those soil properties where an evaluation framework is established.

The soil health scorecard has been tested at a series of long-term experimental sites exploring the key drivers of soil biology. Find out about how organic materials – a food source for soil biology – affect soil health.

Soil pH can alter the chemical environment. Find out how this affects soil health, with results visualised on a soil health scorecard.

The use of fertilisers affects soil chemical (e.g. availability of nutrients) and biological (e.g. microbial activity) properties and thus soil health.

Watch how the soil health scorecard was tested at long-term experimental sites

Testing the effect of tillage on soil health

Read about the Soil Biology and Soil Health Partnership

See the steps for a visual evaluation of soil structure (VESS)

Find out how to count earthworms

Measuring nutrients, pH and organic matter