The Haney Test is an integrated approach to soil testing using chemical and biological soil test data. It is designed to mimic nature’s approach to soil nutrient availability. The Haney Test is designed to work with any soil under any management scenario because the program asks simple, universally applicable questions:
- What is your soil’s condition?
- Is your soil in balance?
- What can you do to help your soil?
Ray Archuleta, soil health specialist with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), says the first step is to stick a shovel into a field and see, smell and touch the soil—which certainly helps.
“That crumbly, dark, cottage-cheese looking stuff full of roots and bits of organic matter—that’s a good sign,” Archuleta says. “But it’s difficult to quantify that.”
Most common soil tests are based on soil nutrient quantity, which is related to, but not directly correlated with, soil health as it’s being defined these days. The idea of active microbial systems, living roots, mycorrhizae, water-holding capacity and other important factors is not evident in standard NPK recommendations.
This new test was developed by Rick Haney, a soil scientist with the USDA. The Haney Test considers many of the same soil nutrients as standard soil tests do, but it also incorporates the microbial activity of the soil.
Soil microbes are responsible for converting nutrients to (and from) plant-usable forms, maintaining soil structure and aggregation, and contributing to organic matter production through decomposition.
The Haney Test comes back with an Excel file of data along with explanations and recommendations. The microbial activity information is combined with standard soil tests to estimate how much nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) is available in the soil (and to suggest fertilization schemes).
Standard tests measure the amount of a nutrient currently available to the plants—a snapshot, really—while the Haney Test also includes potential available nutrients based on microbial activity.
“[It’s important to] remember that microbes are converting minerals into plant-usable forms in healthy soils,” Archuleta says.
In a healthy soil, fertilizer recommendations for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium will be lower than a standard soil test’s recommendation, saving on the investment in establishing plants.
Rick Haney can be contacted at (254) 770-6503 or rick.haney@ars.usda.gov.
Source: Wisconsin State Farmer