Soil Health & Structure
Soil Health: For Farmers
What Soil Health changes for the person actually doing the work.
For the person running the business, the test of any farm software is whether it removes work or adds it. Soil is the asset every other module depends on and the one with the weakest measurement discipline. This module runs repeatable sampling at fixed georeferenced points, holds laboratory results in a single comparable series regardless of which lab did the work, records visual structure assessment, and produces the soil evidence that schemes, carbon calculators and lenders increasingly ask for.
In their words
What the job actually looks like
These are not marketing personas. Each one is a distinct job with a distinct constraint, and the module is designed so that solving one does not create work for the others.
Arable farmer
Four-year sampling cycle
Needs results comparable across years and laboratories.
- Design the sampling grid and fix the points
- Sample to a standard protocol
- Submit to the laboratory
- Normalise and load the results
Agronomist
Nutrient planning
Needs indices in a form that feeds the RB209 plan directly.
- Sample to a standard protocol
- Submit to the laboratory
- Normalise and load the results
- Assess structure visually in the field
Carbon assessor
Baseline and verification
Needs bulk density and organic carbon at fixed, repeatable points.
- Submit to the laboratory
- Normalise and load the results
- Assess structure visually in the field
- Interpret indices and produce recommendations
End to end
How Soil Health runs, start to finish
The module is modelled as a state machine, so at any point the business knows exactly which stage every record is at and what has to happen next.
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1
Design the sampling grid and fix the points
This is where the record starts, and getting it right here removes work at every later stage.
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2
Sample to a standard protocol
The platform prompts only for what this stage genuinely needs, and carries everything forward.
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3
Submit to the laboratory
Conflicts with scheme rules, regulatory windows and existing commitments are flagged here rather than discovered later.
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4
Normalise and load the results
Capture works offline, so this stage is completed in the field rather than remembered afterwards.
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5
Assess structure visually in the field
Everything recorded at this point becomes evidence automatically, in every format that will later ask for it.
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6
Interpret indices and produce recommendations
This is the stage most businesses currently do twice, once for the operation and once for the paperwork.
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7
Feed the nutrition and liming plans
Results feed the whole-farm view, so the effect of this stage is visible against the rest of the business.
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8
Track the trend and evidence improvement
The cycle closes here, and what is learned is carried into next season's plan rather than lost.
Capabilities
What Soil Health does
Every capability below is built on the same underlying record, so entering something once is enough for it to appear wherever it is needed.
Record and plan
- Georeferenced fixed sampling points with repeat-visit navigation
- Standardised sampling protocol by depth, pattern and season
- Multi-laboratory result normalisation into one comparable series
Operate and monitor
- pH, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and sulphur indices with trend analysis
- Soil organic matter and organic carbon tracking with change detection
- Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure scoring with photographic evidence
Comply and evidence
- Compaction mapping from penetrometer readings and machinery traffic modelling
- Soil texture classification and available water capacity estimation
- Earthworm counts and biological indicator recording
Analyse and improve
- Soil erosion and runoff risk mapping by slope, texture and cover
- Liming requirement calculation with product and rate recommendation
- Soil evidence pack assembly for schemes, carbon audits and lenders
Find
Find surveyors and laboratories
Filter by type, nation, distance and accreditation. Results are ranked by relevance to your holding once your holding record exists, and alphabetically before that.
5 records shown from the platform’s own register
- Module Soil Health & Structure Flagship
- Module Soil Carbon & Organic Matter Core
- Module Land, Mapping & Field Boundaries Flagship
- Module Tenancy, Tenure & Land Markets Core
- Module Peatland & Paludiculture Core
Worked example
How a business like yours would use Soil Health
The problem: Needs results comparable across years and laboratories.
What they do
- Design the sampling grid and fix the points
- Sample to a standard protocol
- Submit to the laboratory
- Normalise and load the results
What changes
- Points sampled on schedule
- Soil organic matter trend
- Fields at target pH
This is an illustrative worked example built from the module design, not a customer reference. Named case studies are published only with the business's written consent.
What we are hearing
The problems people describe to us
These are composite statements drawn from user research conversations, not attributed customer quotes. We publish named references only with written consent.
I am not short of software. I am short of one place where the same field means the same thing in all of it.
The scheme closed on a Tuesday evening. I had the application half built. Nobody told me the budget was nearly gone.
We farm on both sides of the border. Everything takes twice as long and I still cannot see the whole position on one screen.
Audit week costs me three days. Every single record they ask for is already written down somewhere on this farm.
Measurement
How you will know it is working
The module reports against these measures from the day it is switched on, so the value is demonstrable rather than assumed.
- 01Points sampled on schedule
- 02Soil organic matter trend
- 03Fields at target pH
- 04Structure score improvement
- 05Percentage of area with a current soil result
Free tool
Run the numbers for your own holding
Enter your figures and get an answer you can act on, with the method shown so you can check it. Save the result to your account or take it away as a PDF.