Thirty-five producers, crop advisers, representatives from Natural Resources Districts, the Center for Rural Affairs and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), as well as faculty and students, gathered at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) Rogers Memorial Farm on Aug. 20 for hands-on soil health assessment training. The training focused on soil health assessment strategies and implementation of the NRCS Conservation Evaluation and Monitoring Activity (CEMA) 216 Soil Health Testing protocol.
The training’s potential reach extends well beyond the participants: 56% of surveyed crop advisers reported influencing or directly managing up to 10,000 crop acres, while 13% reported influencing 10,000–99,999 acres. Much of the cropland represented by survey respondents was rainfed.
Connecting Standards to the Field
The training combined presentations, demonstrations and a field practicum. Topics included soil-health foundations; CEMA 216 requirements and participant qualifications; the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Soil Sampling Positioning Tool (SSPOT); field sampling plans; strategic soil sampling; sample handling and submission; biological soil health indicators; laboratory result interpretation; and the Soil Health Assessment Protocol and Evaluation (SHAPE) tool. A 60-minute field practicum gave attendees an opportunity to move from concepts to implementation. One survey respondent shared, “I enjoyed the hands-on training and learning about what tools are available for assessment.” Another said, “Great to get in the field with like-minded soil health advocates.”
Post-event survey comments showed that participants valued training designed around the decisions and procedures needed for real-world assessments. One attendee described the event as providing “very practical and applied knowledge for our consultants, farmers [and] extension educators.” Another noted that the day offered “lots of tidbits from presentations, questions and discussions.”
Evidence of Learning and Intent
Among 22 survey respondents, 15 reported significant or very significant improvement in their understanding of NRCS CEMA 216 soil health assessment requirements. Respondents also notes gains in soil sampling and handling, results reporting and soil health foundations. The training also increased participants’ readiness to apply what they learned. Of 19 respondents, 11 planned to expand or modify their current soil health assessment strategies, eight planned to use SSPOT to identify soil sampling locations and 12 planned to use SHAPE to score soil health.
One respondent called the training “very worthwhile,” saying the information would likely be helpful when implementing program components. Another offered a clear recommendation for future outreach: “This training should be offered again for more people.” Nineteen of 23 survey respondents rated the training above average or among the best educational opportunities available to them.
Among respondents who assigned a per-acre value to the knowledge gained or anticipated practice changes, 12 of 15 reported a positive value, with some estimates exceeding $25 per acre.
Building Long-Term Assessment Capacity
The UNL Soil Health Program developed the training to better equip Nebraska producers, agronomists and technical service providers to meet NRCS CEMA 216 requirements and provide them with practical, up-to-date tools for conducting soil health assessments across diverse working lands. The program emphasized how to plan representative sampling, use assessment and geospatial tools, handle samples properly, interpret results and identify a minimum suite of meaningful soil health indicators. These indicators can help users track changes in soil health over time and evaluate how well the soil supports healthy plants, animals and communities.
“Our goal is to support Nebraska’s agricultural community so producers and advisers can be successful in monitoring soil health and using the results to guide management decisions,” said Caro Córdova, UNL assistant professor, statewide soil health specialist and co-leader of the Soil Health Team. “We recognize that adopting soil health assessment is a significant shift. The UNL Soil Health Program is here to help by providing practical tools, current knowledge and technical expertise.”
The training was organized by Caro Córdova and her Soil Health Lab at UNL in collaboration with USDA NRCS, USDA ARS and Ward Laboratories. Support was provided by the Nebraska Soybean Board, Nebraska Department of Water, Energy and Environment (NDWEE) through ONE RED Program Funds, Nebraska Extension and Rogers Memorial Farm.
Disclosure: The authors used AI engine Perplexity to help condensed and organized anonymous post-event survey findings and to check grammar and readability. All survey results, quotations and factual content were reviewed and verified by the UNL Soil Health Program, which made all final content decisions.
