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This site has been developed for farmers and the wider industry to provide an overview of current soil health knowledge and tools to assess soil condition – providing information on soil properties, processes and management for profit across a range of industries and regions. For more on how to use this website.
Some topics are still under scientific investigation, and every effort has been made to present credible information that is evidence based.
Where not supported by scientific evidence, the authors have tried to present an unbiased view of the potential benefits and limitations of relatively new or untested approaches.
The website has a number of different areas which can be used in the following way.
What is Healthy Soil? discusses the top 6 characteristics of healthy soil and provides links to information
Top Tips for Healthy Soil discusses the top 10 habits of healthy soils farmers and provides links to information
Information for Soil Health presents a generic overview on the current state of knowledge and integrates information for the reader into a number of modules that discuss soil properties, how to recognise soil constraints and effective management of problem soils. These modules also provide a unique search engine where users are able to search a limited database of sites for specific information based on states and industry to access more relevant information.
Help Diagnose my Soil is a simple to use diagnostic tree that uses both soil information and photos to investigate possible soil constraints to crop production.
Profiting through Soil provides a number of simple tools such as carbon calculator to investigate possible changes in soil carbon, and a water use calculator tool which allows growers to benchmark their water use efficiency in various paddocks and seasons (i.e. how well are you converting water to grain?). It also presents case studies on how other growers have approached management of healthy soils. External links have been provided to useful websites.
Case Studies presents a range of soil related case studies on how other growers have approached the management of healthy soils.
Project Partners
Significant contributions were made to the development of this site by the Senior Editorial Panel of Prof. Robert White, Dr Phil Price, Peter Wiley and Prof. Bob Gilkes in reviewing the material content prepared by Dr Frances Hoyle.
Contributions have also been made by regional projects involved in the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry's Healthy Soils for Sustainable Farms Program, managed by Land & Water Australia. The regional projects were led by The University of Western Australia, Department of Agriculture and Food WA, Victoria Department of Primary Industries, Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Queensland University of Technology, NSW Department of Primary Industries, Cotton CRC, AusVeg, the Australian Wool Innovation Project, the Biological Farmers Association, the Mid-Loddon Grower Group and Dairy Australia. Read more on the 'About Us' page.