CEMA 216 Soil Test Training

CEMA 216 soil tests are required for producers participating in the NRCS Regenerative Pilot Program. This training is designed to help you understand the steps and technical aspects of the CEMA 216 soil test.

CEMA 216 testing can only be conducted by specific "Qualified Individuals", or someone working under an approved QI. The QI categories include:

• Certified Crop Advisors

• Technical Service Providers

• Someone with an associate degree (or higher) in agriculture and at least two years of experience collecting soil for lab analysis

Anyone who meets one (or more) of those above categories would benefit from this training. We will go over the CEMA 216 testing process, start to finish, and leave you equipped with the knowledge of how to conduct these tests.

For more info on the CEMA 216, check out our blog post.

Tentative Agenda (subject to change):

8:30 AM – Registration 

9:00 AM – Intro to NRCS, Intro to RPP   

9:20 AM – Soil health and Intro to CEMA 216; Overview of the goals of CEMA 216

9:30 AM – Requirements and technical aspects of CEMA 216 soil testing

9:45 AM – What does a QI do? (consulting, mapping, recommendations, etc.)

10:00 AM – Break

10:10 AM – The process step-by-step (In-field)

Selecting site  

Collecting the sample

Shipping the sample

10:45 AM – Field exercise: hands-on soil testing

12:00 PM – Lunch

12:45 PM –  Discussion of soil labs 

Shipping the sample - hands-on, actually packaging and doing

1:15 PM – Paperwork and deliverables; walking through the full documentation process together using the collected sample (in-classroom) 

2:00 PM – Look at soil test results from the lab

2:30 PM – Q&A 

3:00 PM – Training concludes