A New Standard
Beyond The Basics
Measuring What Matters
Turning Data Into Action
Regional Differences
As cotton growers seek to improve sustainability and boost productivity, understanding the health of their soil has never been more important. The Soil Health Institute (SHI) has developed a groundbreaking benchmarking approach that goes beyond traditional soil testing to provide a clearer, more comprehensive picture of soil health across various regions.
By identifying key metrics and tailoring assessments to local conditions, this method allows cotton growers to make data-driven decisions that enhance crop performance, says Cristine Morgan, Chief Scientific Officer at Soil Health Institute.
Morgan introduces SHI’s benchmarking approach by asking two key questions: how healthy is the soil, and how healthy could it be?
Soil health reflects how well the soil functions — cycling water, nutrients, and organic matter to support crops — and it can be improved through management practices such as increasing living roots, reducing disturbance, and maintaining surface cover. Since soil type and climate influence how soil responds, benchmarks must be tailored to local conditions.
“If you treasure it, you have to measure it,” Morgan says. “If you want to improve the health of the soil, you have to look at different types of soils and measure soil health indicators.”
By comparing soil health indicators under typical farming practices that follow soil health principles, this creates both a baseline and a regional “maximum potential” for soil health. Measuring their own soil against these benchmarks, growers can better understand where their soil stands and what steps might move it closer to optimal health.
Beyond the Basics
While traditional soil testing methods revolve around fertility and pH, that’s not what SHI’s benchmarks are measuring. “Our indicators are indicating functioning. How well is that soil cycling nutrients, and how well is that soil just overall promoting crop growth?” Morgan says.
"If the soil health improves, the productivity improves and increases net farm income for cotton farmers."
The key advantage to this approach is that management practices can improve these functions over time. Farmers often see better performance on land they’ve actively managed for soil health, Morgan says. SHI’s data across North America shows that while practice changes alone don’t always lead to higher yields, improvements in soil health indicators do.
“That’s the way that these indicators benefit farmers — they can know that by improving soil health, the data shows that it will improve yields,” Morgan says.
A Pragmatic Sampling Framework for Benchmarking Soil Health at Scale: Research Soil Scientist Nate Looker describes Soil Health Institute efforts to improve the relevance of soil health measurements for farmers.
SHI uses three main measurements to assess soil function: soil carbon concentration (organic matter), aggregate stability (how well the soil holds together in water), and carbon mineralization potential (how much carbon is released after wetting dry soil).
These factors help to determine available water holding capacity, or how much water the soil can store for plants. These metrics were selected through the North American Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements, which analyzed 124 long-term research sites across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The team compared conventional systems with those using soil health practices and found these indicators reliably reflected improvements in both soil function and yield.
“These measurements not only reflected improvements in soil health, and yield, but they also were available by commercial labs,” Morgan says.
Turning Data into Action
“If the soil health improves, the productivity improves and increases net farm income for cotton farmers,” Morgan says. Over 20 economic analyses across cotton-growing states have shown that adopting soil health management practices can add $100 to $200 per acre in net income.
“You can use this benchmarking to monitor your progress,” she adds, “and we know that when you adopt these practices and you improve your soil health, that your yield will also improve.”
Soil Health Illustrated: Comparing field samples to fence row samples
The benchmarking project does take into account soil conditions in different regions, and helps growers understand what types of improvements they can expect to make. In areas like Georgia, cotton and peanut farmers can significantly improve soil organic matter, water holding capacity, mineralization, and aggregate stability. In contrast, Texas fields may show improvements in aggregate stability and nutrient cycling, but not always in soil organic matter.
"If you treasure it, you have to measure it."
“I think the most interesting thing we learned is that in every place you can regenerate and improve soil functioning,” Morgan says.
While soil regeneration is possible everywhere, not all metrics will improve in every region. Benchmarking allows farmers to measure multiple indicators, adjust practices, and track progress based on local soil types and climates.
“We shouldn’t just be setting good goals, we should be setting high goals,” Morgan says. “And I think that they’re achievable.”
Row crop farmers can achieve impressive soil health levels, sometimes comparable to perennial systems, providing that high goals are attainable with innovation and creativity in soil management.
