Soil is the true hero of your farm. We often overlook the condition of our soil and it’s easy to overwork, compact, and deplete it. Understanding what makes healthy soil is the key to improving farm yields and the farm’s bottom line. This year at Van Buren Conservation District's farm conference soil health experts will speak about different ways of measuring and improving soil health, and farmers will share their own challenges and successes straight from the farm.

Farming for the Future is an annual educational event for local farmers and is a great opportunity to learn from agricultural specialists, educators, researchers, businesses and other farmers.

Lance will provide a brief overview of several soil testing tools used to evaluate soil health as it relates to on-farm management. He will provide additional details about what is measured with the Haney Test and why. From this foundation, he will discuss how producers can understand and use this information in their farm management strategies. Finally, we will discuss what is new following several years of sampling and data analysis.

Lance Gunderson founded Regen Ag Lab in 2019 after spending 17 years leading the soil health testing division at another lab. Regen Ag Lab offers Haney and PLFA tests, as well as soil enzymes, water stable aggregates, water holding capacity, TOC, along with more conventional soil, plant tissue and water analyses. Lance is a renowned expert on the Haney Test and PLFA test (fungal and bacterial test). His experience at reviewing over 100,000 soil health samples gives him unique insight into how soil health results relate to management in regenerative agriculture systems. In 2018, Lance also founded Soil Health Innovations, which offers the SR-1 instrument for measuring soil respiration and consulting services surrounding the Haney Test developed by Dr. Rick Haney.

Website: regenaglab.com