Soil Health Testing June 2026

We have been monitoring transects each fall since September 2022. There are 11 spots around the ranch where we take notes on plant growth, soil samples and pictures. This gives us a great record of the changes over the years. Things have been improving and regenerating across the board.

Instead of September monitoring, it is usually better to test soil in the spring when the microbes are the most active. With the craze of getting things going at the ranch, I noticed that if I blink in March, it is suddenly August. This year I had to make a special spot on the schedule to do some testing.

I spent a beautiful June day with Natalie, our amazing videographer, and we tested the brix in the grass, the pH in the soil, and we used our microbiometer for the first time. You can watch the video here. Read on for some insight on the testing.

Brix is the sugar level in the plants. The higher the brix the more sugar in the plant, the more desirable to livestock, and the less desirable it is to pests like grasshoppers. We tested a fairly dry pasture that had been grazed pretty heavy and it came out at 10, good to average. We are shooting for 16 to stave off the bugs, but 10 is still ok.

Soil pH is the measure of alkalinity and acidity. Water has a neutral pH of 7. Lower than 7 is acidic and higher is alkaline. In this region pH is typically 5-6. In this test the pH meter showed 6.   We will use that meter to see if any of our treatments make a difference in the pH of the soil. The pH can be raised by adding lime, but that is usually a temporary fix and the pH will re-stabilize at its usual number within a year or two. I was told by some regenerative agronomists that we can improve things faster by focusing on microbes over pH.

Microbe content and soil health scores can be obtained from sending soil samples to the lab. We track soil health scores in our fall soil samples and this year we will send off for the PFLA test (springtime samples required).

We also found an at home test that measures microbial carbon and the fungal bacterial ratio. We tested soil on the grazing paddock we call the Bonneville (it’s under the Bonneville power line).  The microbiometer showed 256 ug C / g (micrograms of microbial carbon per gram of soil) Which is somewhat low but expected based on the soil structure and the plant growth in that area. It also showed .4:1 for F:B (fungal bacterial ratio). This is low to medium and again expected in this area. 

We will be testing a few other pastures that we expect to score higher

We are submitting PFLA tests for a few of our best and worst pastures. This Phospholipid Fatty Acid Analysis measures the fatty acids found in the cell membranes of living organisms. It will give us insight into the composition and quantity of microbes in the soil. Then we will continue the mission to increase the microbial health at Harlow Ranch.

So what is it really all about? Healthy soils mean healthy animals and healthy people. We are going for lots of microbes, lots of grass, and lots of babies.