Several years ago, the Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative (CCSI), a program focused on improving soil health in Indiana, began receiving questions from farmers about soil health tests.

Although more than two decades of no-till practices have been good to Mark Montel, 8 years ago he describes hitting a wall as his regular soil tests showed he wasn’t building soil organic matter very quickly.

When Michael Thompson was 18 he envisioned himself joining his parents in their farming operation in northwestern Kansas and becoming a dedicated, 100% cash grain farmer. However, life and generations of conventional farming got in the way.

Some of the soils I helped farm as a child in southwestern North Dakota are probably somewhere in South Dakota now. I grew up in the era of wheat and summer fallow. A lot of the ground around here is very sandy and marginal. Did it ever blow when we were tilling. I remember as a kid getting sent with a disc or a drag to try and make it stop blowing. It seemed so futile, and it was.

Given the numerous beneficial roles soil biology plays in crop production — including nutrient cycling, water-holding capacity and disease suppression — more no-tillers want to learn how well their soil biology is and what they can do to improve it.