What We Offer

Packages Offered

1) Basic Soil Health Package

Analyses:

Potential Mineralizable Nitrogen
Active Carbon
Wet Aggregate Stability
pH (salt and water)

2) Expanded Soil Health Package

Analyses:

Potential Mineralizable Nitrogen
Total Nitrogen
Active Carbon
Total organic Carbon
Wet Aggregate Stability
pH (salt and water)
Effective Cation Exchange Capacity and Bases (NH4Cl)
Bray 1 Phosphorus

3) Soil Characterization Package

Analyses:

Cation Exchange Capacity and Bases (NH4OAc)
pH (salt and water)
Neutralizable Acidity
Total Organic Carbon
Exchangeable Aluminum
Option of Simplified Particle Size Determination or Full Particle Size Determination

4) SWCD/DNR Cover Crop Cost Share Follow-Up

$92/ sample Enrollment Required Send Check with Samples

Analyses:

Total Organic Carbon
Active Carbon
ACE Protein
Soil Respiration (3-day incubation KOH base trap)
Mehlich 3 Extractable Ions (Ca/Mg/Na/K)
Bray 1 Phosphorus
pH (salt and water)
Wet Aggregate Stability

5) NRCS-CEMA 216 Package-Basic

$110/ sample Enrollment Required

Analyses:

pH (salt and water)
Total Organic Carbon
Reactive Carbon (POXC)
Soil Respiration (4-day incubation, KOH
base trap)
Wet Aggregate Stability
ACE Protein
Soil Texture / Particle Size Determination

6) NRCS-CEMA 216 Package-Advanced

$180/ sample Enrollment Required

pH (salt and water)
Total Organic Carbon
Reactive Carbon (POXC)
Soil Respiration (4-day incubation, KOH
base trap)
Wet Aggregate Stability
ACE Protein
β (beta)-glucosidase enzyme analysis (Carbon Cycling)
Acid and/or Alkaline Phosphatase (Phosphorus Cycling)
Arylsulfatase (Sulfur Cycling)
Soil Texture / Particle Size Determination

7) SWCD/DNR Cover Crop Cost Share

$110/ sample Enrollment Required Send Check with Samples

Analyses:

Total Organic Carbon
Active Carbon
ACE Protein
Soil Respiration (3-day incubation KOH base trap)
Mehlich 3 extractable ions (Ca/Mg/Na/K)
Bray 1 Phosphorus
pH (salt and water)
Wet Aggregate Stability
Simplified Particle Size Determination

More about soil health sampling For Researchers For Land Managers

Overview of analysis services

Indicates how well water infiltrates soil and how well soil holds water.

Indicates how well roots can penetrate soil and how well soil holds water.

Determines proportions of sand, silt, and clay within soil.

Determined through combustion on a thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).

Indicates a microbially-processed, more stable form of organic carbon.

Determines sum of all soil organic carbon, active and well humified.

Total organic carbon and carbonates in soil.

Determines carbonates in soil.

Indicates nitrogen mineralized during growing season.

Determines total amount of soil nitrogen.

Determines level of acidity or alkalinity. Indicates availability of soil nutrients.

Indicates amount of soil phosphorus available to plants.

Measures cations held by soil at current pH. Cation exchange capacity tends to increase with pH. If an acid soil is limed to neutralize (increase) its pH, its CEC will likely increase. To expand the parking garage analogy, more parking spaces will be made available. Often CEC is measured with the soil pH buffered at 7 (neutral) to compare soils’ CECs without the influence of a differing pH. As a measure of soil health, ECEC will be more sensitive to changes or differences in soil properties and will more accurately represent the soils as they are in the field.

A measure of a soil’s capacity to hold cations. Soil components such as clays and organic matter hold charges. Their predominant charge is negative, so they attract and hold positively charged ions (cations) such as ammonium (NH4+), hydrogen (H+), and calcium (Ca2+) — like magnets attract and hold some metals. In general, far fewer soil components have a positive charge to hold negative ions (anions) such as nitrate NO3-, so anions tend to be repelled. The soil’s charged components are called its exchange complex. The exchange complex is like a parking garage. The CEC would be the space available for parking. The cations would be the “cars” parking on the exchange complex. Just as the cars can park temporarily, the ions can come and go with concentration changes in the soil solution and with plant uptake.

Estimates exchangeable calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium. Exchangeable Bases are cations such as calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+), potassium (K+), sodium (Na+) that dominate the exchange complex in neutral or basic soil. Other cations in the soil include hydrogen (H+) and aluminum (Al3+) ions that dominate very acid soils.

Determines soil exchangeable Al, appropriate with pH < 5.0. Exchangeable aluminum refers to the aluminum cations (Al3+) attracted and held by the exchange complex. As soil pH decreases, the amount of exchangeable aluminum increases. In soils with pH below 5.0, the aluminum cations may reach concentrations (in the soil solution) toxic to many plants.

Soil neutralizable acidity refers to the amount of acid in the soil that can be neutralized by adding a base.

Soil respiration represents overall microbial activity as soil organic matter is broken down into carbon dioxide over a period of time (3 and 4 days) via KOH base trap. Also known as carbon mineralization.

Measurement that indicates the presence of soluble salts.

Indicates amount of microbial biomass and proportions of microbial types such as mycorrhizal fungi, gram positive and negative bacteria, actinomycetes, and saprophytic fungi.

Similarly to PLFA it indicates the amount of microbial biomass, in particular fungal biomass.

The proteins in this indicator serve as an estimate of the amount of organic nitrogen cycling through the microbial biomass and the hyphae that act as glue for aggregation.

Acid extraction of elements to estimate major and minor nutrients availability analyzed via colorimetry or microwave plasma atomic emission spectrometry (MP-AES).

Beta-glucosidase activity is an indicator of the microbial community’s ability to decompose organic matter in soil, mainly bacteria and fungi that play a role in the breakdown of cellulose and other organic compounds in soil.

Submit Samples and Price Estimates

Please fill out our online submission form. If you have sets of samples that require different analyses please make separate submission forms. If you require an official letter head quote please contact SHAC via phone or email after filling out your sample submission. If you do not need a formal quote try our price estimator to anticipate your costs! The printable PDF for DNR SWCD Cover Crops Cost Share Program are available for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, Initial Samples and Follow-up Samples.

Sample Analysis Selection and Submission Form DNR SWCD Cover Crop Cost Share Program Form Soil Sample Price Estimate Form