A new national USDA effort is offering Nebraska farmers and landowners a rare opportunity: free, in-depth soil health testing valued at roughly $1,200 per field, plus a personalized report and compensation for their time. The initiative, called Probing Our Country's Soil Health, is recruiting producers across the state to help build and calibrate a new interpretation tool known as the Soil Health Assessment Protocol and Evaluation (SHAPE).
What is SHAPE?
SHAPE is a soil health assessment and interpretation model jointly developed by USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Agricultural Research Service (ARS) along with university partners. Rather than simply reporting raw lab numbers, SHAPE is designed to help producers, crop consultants and conservation planners understand what soil health test results mean for management decisions and benchmark those results against soils with similar site conditions, climates and management histories nationwide. The tool will be free, publicly available online and as a smartphone app, with an enhanced version planned for release in 2029 once the full national dataset has been analyzed.
The project is led by USDA ARS Soil Scientist Kristen Veum at the Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research Unit in Columbia, Missouri, in partnership with the University of Missouri Center for Regenerative Agriculture, the National Association of Conservation Districts, and Agronomic, Geologic and Environmental Services (AGES). To build a dataset representative of real-world conditions, the SHAPE team plans to collect more than 13,000 soil samples from about 6,000 fields across all 50 states and territories, capturing a wide range of soils, climates and management systems.
What's in it for Nebraska Producers
Participation is designed to be low-effort and high-value for the farmer. Benefits include:
- Compensation for roughly one hour of the producer's time.
- A personalized soil health report for each enrolled field, interpreting results through the SHAPE tool. The market value of this laboratory analysis is about $1,200 per field, provided at no cost to participants.
- A complimentary hard-copy photo book, Probing Our Country's Soil Health, showcasing soil health stories and images from participating farms across the country.
- Strict data privacy protections: field locations, management survey responses and personal contact information are not shared without explicit producer consent.
How the Process Works
Enrollment starts with scheduling a one-hour Zoom meeting through an online calendar link. A SHAPE facilitator walks the producer through a short survey covering roughly the past decade of management history for two or three fields, depending on farm size. This survey typically takes 30 minutes or less and requires that the producer use Zoom's video feature so they can follow along on the facilitator's shared screen.
Within three to six months of the survey, a soil-sampling team staffed through AGES will visit the farm to hand-sample two or three locations per enrolled field, based on predominant soil types within each field. Samples are shipped to the lab within days for analysis. Each sampling location is evaluated using 24 different soil health measurements spanning four categories:
- Physical indicators (aggregate stability, soil texture).
- Biological activity (soil respiration, active carbon).
- Nutrient availability (ACE protein, potential nitrogen mineralization, standard soil fertility, pH).
- Nutrient recycling enzymes tied to carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur cycling.
Because many of these tests are labor-intensive and thousands of samples are processed simultaneously nationwide, results are shared with producers in batches as they become available. A comprehensive final report will be issued once the tool is fully calibrated.
Fields must be at least 10 acres to qualify, and enrollment is limited by state allocation. Most states have room for 80–100 fields, while heavily agricultural states — a category that includes Nebraska — typically have space for 150–250 fields. Once a state's allocation fills, NRCS will not accept additional applications, so early sign-up is encouraged.
A Bonus for NRCS Regenerative Pilot Program Participants
Producers already working with NRCS through the Regenerative Pilot Program (RPP) get an added benefit.
- If a SHAPE participant later applies for RPP funding through EQIP or CSP on the same field(s) already enrolled in SHAPE, the SHAPE soil sampling and analysis will satisfy the requirement for the first-year CEMA 216 Soil Health Testing; only the last-year CEMA 216 test needs to be scheduled separately, as normal for RPP.
- If the RPP application instead covers different fields than those used for SHAPE, standard first- and last-year CEMA 216 testing still applies, since the SHAPE data does not transfer to those fields.
Producers do not need an existing NRCS cost-share contract to benefit. Anyone interested in a free, professional-grade soil health assessment can enroll directly. For those already enrolled in or considering RPP, participating in SHAPE first can streamline required testing and reduce redundant sampling costs.
Why It Matters
For Nebraska's cropping and integrated crop-livestock systems, this project offers a no-cost way to obtain a science-based, standardized soil health benchmark — the kind of comprehensive biological, physical and chemical dataset that would otherwise cost more than $1,000 per field to generate independently. Beyond the immediate report, participating farms contribute to a national reference dataset that will make the eventual public SHAPE tool more accurate for interpreting soil health test results across Nebraska's diverse soils and cropping systems.
How to Get Involved
Interested Nebraska producers and landowners can:
- Watch the short project overview video, Probing Our Country's Soil Health, referenced in the program fact sheets.
- Schedule an enrollment meeting through the SHAPE team's online booking link provided in the program fact sheet.
- Contact the SHAPE team or Newell Kitchen, or visit the AGES website for more information.
