Developing the Soil Health Scorecard
Background
The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) and British Beet Research Organisation (BBRO) Soil Biology and Soil Health Partnership developed and tested a scorecard approach to measure and manage soil health on farms.
The project focused on the key drivers of soil biological functioning:
- energy and nutrients(organic matter inputs and crop rotation),
- air and water (tillagechoice and drainage)
- soil chemistry (soil pH).
ADAS led the field experiment programme to extensively test the scorecard in different farming scenarios.
Actions
ADAS conducted multi-year experiments at seven sites across the UK to explore how the following factors affected soil health and biology:
- repeated organic material inputs
- crop rotation
- tillage
- drainage
- pH levels
We used the scorecard to measure the impacts of various treatments and actions across all the sites. In the below video, ADAS soil scientist Dr Anne Bhogal, explains how the scorecard was used in long-term experiments to reveal the influence of organic materials, cultivations, drainage and pH on soil health.
After the experiments had concluded, we wrote up our findings as case studies for the AHDB–BBRO Soil Biology and Soil Health Partnership. Once the scorecard was launched, we presented the measurement protocol we used at local and national HDB conferences and on-farm AHDB events across the UK.
Project lead
ADAS
General enquiries