The EU Bets on Agricultural Innovation, While Soil Health Can Be Checked With Just a Spade

02 · Practical Agronomy

Soil Health Without a Lab: Seven Tests You Can Run Yourself

While Brussels talks about strategies for the coming decades, Canadian expert Kevin Elmy points out that soil health can be assessed right now, standing in your own field [2]. In regenerative agriculture, what matters isn't just yield, but a farm's profitability and the health of the whole ecosystem — and that can be checked using simple, low-cost methods.

Elmy suggests seven specific tests. The starting point is simple plant observation — their color, condition, and growth rate reveal more than you'd think. Next comes the classic spade test, which lets you assess the structure and compaction of the topsoil, along with counting earthworms — the author gives a clear benchmark: five worms per 15 cm cube of soil is considered an ideal result. On top of that, there's a soil aggregate stability test, a compaction measurement with a penetrometer, and the use of a refractometer to check the Brix level in plant sap — an indicator that indirectly reflects the plant's nutrition and health. The seventh element is simply observing the wildlife present in the field, which signals how balanced the local ecosystem is.

It's a good reminder that innovation in agriculture doesn't have to mean expensive equipment or complicated lab analysis — sometimes all it takes is a spade, a magnifying glass, and the right knowledge to start making better agronomic decisions.