Skip to navigation Skip to content

Soil Health Assessment Center

Soil test packages

Soil analysis packages

The SHAC specializes in comprehensive soil health evaluations, incorporating biological, chemical, and physical assessments to promote sustainable land management practices.

Here is a list of the packages we offer. The analyses included with each package are listed below (click the package below to get to the full information).

For descriptions of the testing we offer, see the overview of analysis services below.

Package 1: Soil Health Core

$40 per sample; Estimated turnaround 2–4 weeks, depending on sample volume

  • pH (salt and water)
  • Reactive Carbon (POXC)
  • Wet Aggregate Stability
  • ACE Protein

Purpose: A cost-effective soil health starter that focuses on active carbon, soil structure, and biological function (ACE protein), along with basic acidity status (pH). Ideal for tracking improvements from cover crops, reduced tillage, and residue management over time.

Package 2: Soil Biology Plus

Enrollment required if submitted as EQIP package; $80 per sample; Estimated turnaround 2–4 weeks, depending on sample volume

  • pH (salt and water)
  • Total Organic Carbon
  • Reactive Carbon (POXC)
  • Wet Aggregate Stability
  • Soil Respiration (3-day incubation, KOH base trap)
  • Potentially Mineralizable Nitrogen (PMN; 7-day anaerobic incubation)

Purpose: A biology-forward package that adds microbial activity (respiration) and nitrogen cycling potential (PMN) alongside carbon pools (TOC, POXC) and structure (aggregate stability). Best for conservation practice evaluation and soil function monitoring.

Package 3: Soil Characterization (Simplified PSD)

$90 per sample; Estimated turnaround 2–4 weeks, depending on sample volume

  • pH (salt and water)
  • Neutralizable Acidity
  • Total Organic Carbon
  • Exchangeable Aluminum
  • Cation Exchange Capacity and Bases (NH₄OAc, buffered to 7)
  • Simplified Particle Size Determination (texture/PSD)

Purpose: Provides the chemical “backbone” of the soil, CEC/base status, and acidity-related metrics plus texture context. Useful for understanding why soils behave differently and for supporting liming/soil acidity decisions, especially in low pH soils where exchangeable Al can be important.

Package 4: Soil Health Snapshot

Enrollment required if submitted as the Missouri DNR/SWCD Cover-Crop Cost Share Program; $110 per sample; Estimated turnaround 3–4 weeks, depending on sample volume

  • pH (salt and water)
  • Total Organic Carbon
  • Reactive Carbon (POXC)
  • Soil Respiration (3-day incubation, KOH base trap)
  • Wet Aggregate Stability
  • ACE Protein
  • Potentially Mineralizable Nitrogen (PMN; 7-day anaerobic incubation)
  • Soil Texture / Particle Size Determination

Purpose: A comprehensive soil health package that combines carbon (TOC, POXC), microbial activity (respiration), nitrogen cycling potential (ACE protein, PMN), soil structure (WAS), and texture for strong interpretation across soil types. Great for producers and projects that want a robust soil health assessment in one package.

Package 5: Soil Health + Fertility Snapshot

$125 per sample; Estimated turnaround 3–4 weeks, depending on sample volume

  • Everything in Package 4: Soil Health Snapshot
  • Full Soil Fertility Package with recommendations:
    • pH, Buffer pH, Neutralizable Acidity
    • Organic Matter (LOI)
    • Mehlich-3 nutrients (P, K, Ca, Mg, Na, S, Zn, Mn, Fe, Cu, B, Al)
    • CEC (summation), Base Saturation

Purpose: Combines a robust soil health assessment with traditional fertility testing and fertilizer/lime recommendations. Ideal for customers who want soil health indicators and actionable nutrient management guidance in a single submission.

NRCS–CEMA 216 Package – Basic

$110 per sample; Estimated turnaround 3–4 weeks, depending on sample volume

  • 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

Purpose: A comprehensive soil health package that evaluates key aspects of soil function, including carbon status (TOC, POXC), microbial activity (soil respiration), nitrogen cycling potential (ACE protein), soil structure (wet aggregate stability), and texture. This package is well-suited for producers, conservation planning, and projects seeking a strong overall assessment of soil health.

NRCS–CEMA 216 Package – Advanced

$180 per sample; Estimated turnaround 4–5 weeks, depending on sample volume

  • 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

Purpose: An advanced soil health package that expands on the Basic package by adding enzyme analyses to better assess carbon, phosphorus, and sulfur cycling. It provides a more detailed evaluation of biological activity and nutrient cycling, along with carbon status, soil structure, and texture. This package is ideal for producers, researchers, and conservation projects that need a more in-depth soil health assessment.

Full Package: Comprehensive Soil Health

$200 per sample; Estimated turnaround ~4-6 weeks, depending on sample volume

  • Everything in Package 4: Soil Health Snapshot
  • PLFA microbial community profiling
  • β (beta)-glucosidase enzyme analysis (Carbon Cycling)
  • Bulk Density Core
  • Full Particle Size Determination

Purpose: Adds advanced biological and physical indicators to strengthen interpretation of soil function, including microbial community structure (PLFA), enzyme activity, and physical constraint context (bulk density), with full texture detail for comparing across soils.

Extended Full Package: Research / Advanced Biology

$250 per sample; Estimated turnaround ~4-6 weeks, depending on sample volume

  • Everything in Package 5: Soil Health + Fertility Snapshot
  • PLFA + NLFA microbial community profiling
  • β (beta)-glucosidase enzyme analysis (Carbon Cycling)
  • Bulk Density Core
  • Full Particle Size Determination
  • Total, Organic, and Inorganic N
  • Exchangeable Aluminum
  • Cation Exchange Capacity and Bases (NH₄OAc, buffered to 7)

Purpose: Designed for research and intensive monitoring where deeper resolution is needed for microbial community structure, enzyme function, carbon and nitrogen pools, and soil physical constraints. Best for advanced conservation assessments, grant-funded studies, and projects requiring detailed mechanistic interpretation.

SWCD/DNR Cover Crop Cost Share

Enrollment required — send check with samples, $110/sample

  • 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

SWCD/DNR Cover Crop Cost Share Follow-Up

Enrollment required — send check with samples, $92/sample

  • 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

Overview of analysis services

  • Aggregate stability — Indicates how well water infiltrates soil and how well soil holds water.
  • Bulk density — Indicates how well roots can penetrate soil and how well soil holds water.
  • Particle size by pipette (full and simplified) — Determines proportions of sand, silt, and clay within soil.
  • Percent organic matter — Determined through combustion on a thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).
  • Permanganate oxidizable carbon (POXC) — Indicates a microbially-processed, more stable form of organic carbon.
  • Total organic carbon — Determines sum of all soil organic carbon, active and well humified.
  • Total carbon — Total organic carbon and carbonates in soil.
  • Total inorganic carbon — Determines carbonates in soil.
  • Potentially mineralizable nitrogen — Indicates nitrogen mineralized during growing season.
  • Total nitrogen — Determines total amount of soil nitrogen.
  • pH — Determines level of acidity or alkalinity. Indicates availability of soil nutrients.
  • Bray 1 phosphorus — Indicates amount of soil phosphorus available to plants.
  • Effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC) — 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.
  • Cation exchange capacity (CEC) — 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.
  • Exchangeable bases (for both CEC and ECEC) — 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.
  • Exchangeable aluminum — 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.
  • Neutralizable acidity — Soil neutralizable acidity refers to the amount of acid in the soil that can be neutralized by adding a base.
  • Soil respiration — 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.
  • 1:2 Electroconductivity — Measurement that indicates the presence of soluble salts.
  • Phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis — Indicates amount of microbial biomass and proportions of microbial types such as mycorrhizal fungi, gram positive and negative bacteria, actinomycetes, and saprophytic fungi.
  • Neutral lipid fatty acid (NLFA) analysis — Similarly to PLFA it indicates the amount of microbial biomass, in particular fungal biomass.
  • ACE protein — 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.
  • Mehlich 3 extractable elements (Ca, Mg, Na, K, Al, Fe) — Acid extraction of elements to estimate major and minor nutrients availability analyzed via colorimetry or microwave plasma atomic emission spectrometry (MP-AES).
  • Beta-glucosidase — 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.