Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Administrative Updates

• Chair Rotation: The election and appointment of the 2025 Chair will be decided alphabetically, with discussions pointing toward Delaware being next.
• Manual Updates: Amy Shober and Renuka Mathur are working on the pH and lime chapter of the Methods Manual, with contributions from John Spargo. The committee discussed adopting weekly Zoom calls with a second reviewer system for editing chapters, including upcoming edits to the Silica and Boron chapters.
• Future Participation: A consensus was reached to keep meetings research-focused, but to extend invitations to private labs serving clients in the region (e.g., Wood End, CVAS, Dairy One) as well as MASTPAWG members. Amy Shober formally invited NECC members to join MASTPAWG.

Technical Updates & Presentations

• NAPT Update: Shannon Nelson announced a workshop on November 9th and highlighted that data from 150 labs is now available online. The presentation showed correlations between methods and precision, and featured a discussion on Lead (Pb)-rich samples—noting they typically have high calcium and pH—along with a goal to obtain more soils from New England.
• Soil Test Conversions: Quirine Ketterings discussed ongoing developments of lab-specific versus method-specific conversions. Cornell initiated a Soil Test Conversion Program to derive conversions from Mehlich-3 to Morgan and Modified Morgan to Morgan for CAFO planning in NY, with UConn, UMass, Penn State, and Maine participating.
• CCA Manual Update: Quirine provided an update on the Northeast Region Certified Crop Advisor exam manual, noting that the 2022 Performance Objectives (POs) update was completed without faculty input, resulting in questionable POs. The updated manual, which covers New York and New England, is expected in Summer 2026.
• LIMS Modernization: Renuka Mathur detailed UNH's migration from a 30-year-old ColdFusion database to a new LIMS expected to launch in Spring 2026. The system features 2-factor authentication and a data query feature to change crop types post-receipt, reducing staff workload.
• Organic Matter (OM) & Soil Health: Mia Maltz shared that the RSF test outperformed SME when evaluating compost and rock dust in high OM soils. Stephanie Murphy compared SOM testing methods, noting that Carbon by combustion uses smaller samples (250-500 mg) and represents humified fractions, while Loss-on-Ignition (LOI) uses larger samples (10-15 g) and represents particulate (active) OM. LOI yields higher values than Carbon analysis when SOM exceeds 10% and is preferred for alkaline soils (pH > 7.5) due to carbonates. The conversion factor to estimate SOM from total carbon has changed from 0.58 to 0.50. Eugenia Pena-Yewtukhiw highlighted a rapid soil aggregation test costing roughly $5 per sample, measuring within the same year.
• Wheat Nitrogen Rate Trials: Nicole Fiorellino presented Maryland trials showing that current Nitrogen recommendations for wheat are not limiting yield. Results suggest that applying more Nitrogen at jointing rather than green-up may increase yield, though growth regulators might be needed to avoid lodging.
• Soil Nickel Survey: Joe Heckman proposed a regional survey to track Mehlich-3 soil Nickel levels, comparable to a Midwest study recently published in Plant and Soil.
• Additional Presentations: Jarrod Miller discussed using Apparent Electrical Conductivity to map coastal soil salinity. Sam Corcoran addressed challenges with engineered soils. Amy Shober led a discussion on improving phosphorus recommendations. Quirine Ketterings discussed the "Value/Power of manure" project and using field N balances as an adaptive management evaluation tool.

State Reports (Highlights)

• Connecticut (UConn): Processed 14,667 soil samples using the Modified Morgan extractant. Dawn Pettinelli retired in December 2024, and Avishesh Neupane joined as lab director in August 2025. The Plant Science program requires 15 credits for a CPSS track. Research focuses on P and K fertility for cabbage and silage corn, Austrian pea and cereal rye cover crops, on-farm precision experiments for nitrogen, and high tunnel soils.
• Delaware (UDel): Amy Shober became the Faculty Director for the UD Soil Testing Program. Ongoing work includes updating lime recommendations for the Mid-Atlantic and executing major updates to nutrient recommendations for Delaware crops ahead of a LIMS overhaul. Evaluated routine agronomic soil tests for coastal soil salinity.
• Maine (UMaine): Processed 14,175 commercial and 4,300 homeowner samples using primarily Modified Morgan. A $5M earmark was secured, allocating $3M for facilities renovations starting in winter 2025/2026 and $2M for equipment. Primary research includes a heavy focus on PFAS (specifically in air-borne contaminated soil fractions from tillage), biochar, and deep compost mulch no-till systems. The lab lost admin/IT staff and its primary equipment operator in 2024-2025.
• Maryland (UMD): Research is ongoing regarding in-season Nitrogen management, Kernza, and wheat Nitrogen rate trials.
• Massachusetts (UMass): Processed 14,000 samples using Modified Morgan. Soil health testing kits are available through a public lending library. Research includes a SARE multistate project on high OM materials and a state Healthy Soils Action Plan evaluating liming in no-till soils with and without acidifying N fertilizers.
• New Hampshire (UNH): Processed 2,139 home garden and 636 commercial samples using Mehlich-3. Cooperative Extension merged with the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture in July 2025. The plant diagnostic lab closed, redirecting samples to UMass or Maine, and UNH is temporarily contracting out to PSU. Research covers biochar-composted manure, a biochar SFN study on conifer/hardwood seedlings, and MicroBiometer evaluations.
• New Jersey (Rutgers): Processed 7,363 samples using Mehlich-3 and an Adams-Evans buffer. The lab is preparing for a relocation and 2026 retirements for both the Principal Lab Technician and Laboratory Director. Research highlights include rock powder soil amendments, FRST Potassium calibration with cabbage, homemade lawn fertilizers, and surveys of soil Nickel.
• New York (Cornell): Operating without a standalone fertility lab, activities are shifting entirely to soil health. Cornell is updating state Nitrogen and Phosphorus balances and evaluating precision ag and greenhouse gas emissions. The "Value and power of manure" project is in its fifth year and preparing to update the current manure crediting system.
• Pennsylvania (PSU): Processed 54,000 soil samples and 10,000 water samples using Mehlich-3. Hired two new full-time staff members: Abigayle Ward and Kyle Elkin. PSU (Spargo) co-leads the national FRST project, which now includes over 3,000 trials, added Sulfur, focuses on calibrating soil buffers, and will support 18 field trials in 2025. Additional research explores cover crop N credits, mid-IR FTIR for soil health, evaluating enhanced rock weathering of basalt and olivine, and poultry litter biochar.

Work is on-going on multiple projects in which NEC2312 members / member institutions are involved including, but not limited to:

FRST project updating liming recommendations - multiple states

FRST project - Modernizing Fertilizer Recommendations for P & K: Fertilizer Recommendation Support Tool (FRST). - Multiple States

SARE multistate project: Education Farmers on Accurate Fertility Testing and Management in Urban and Small Scale High Organic Matter Systems

Evaluation of routine agronomic soil tests for monitoring coastal soil salinity - DE

Massachusetts Healthy Soils Action Plan project - liming in no-till soils with and without acidifying N fertilizers

Biochar-composted manure study: Investigating the effects of mixing ratios of biochar and composted manure amendments on key soil properties (nutrient levels, organic matter, and
soil microbiome) and corn yield in sandy loam soils. - NH

Biochar SFN study: Initiated a study to assess the effects of different treatments of biochar and cover crops on the establishment and growth of conifers and hardwood seedlings over a
three-year period at NH State Forest Nursery (SFN) - NH

Updating the Corn Stalk Nitrate Test to evaluate sufficient/excess N - PA

Evaluating poultry litter biochar as a soil amendment - PA

PFAS and Biochar Studies in ME

Rock Powder as a soil Fertility Amendment - NJ

Publications

• Olivo, A.J., O.F. Godber, K. Workman, K.J. Czymmek, K.F. Reed, D.V. Nydam, and Q.M. Ketterings (2025). Doing GOOD: Defining a Green Operational Outcomes Domain for Nitrogen Use in New York Corn Silage Production. Field Crops Research 321, 109676.
• Olivo, A., K. Workman, and Q.M. Ketterings (2024). Enhancing nitrogen management in corn silage: insights from field-level nutrient use indicators. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.
• Ordóñez, R. A., et al. (2025). Delta yield predicts nitrogen fertilizer requirements for corn in US production systems. Agronomy Journal, 117, e70150.
• Pokhrel, S., Blew, W., Shober, A. L., & Miller, J. O. (2025). Evaluating routine agronomic soil tests for coastal soil salinity detection in the Mid-Atlantic. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 89, e70075.
• Pokhrel, S., Thomason, W. E., Shober, A. L., & Maguire, R. O. (2025). Evaluating adequacy of corn nitrogen recommendations in long term cover cropping systems. Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment, 8, e70150.
• Miller, J. O., Shober, A. L., Pokhrel, S. & Blew, W. (202x). Integrating remote and proximal sensing to map crop threshold responses to coastal soil salinity. Precision Agriculture.
• Shober, A. L., Miller, R., Slaton, N., & Singh, R. (2025). Improving lime recommendations across the U.S. 18th International Symposium on Soil and Plant Analysis.
• Pokhrel, S., Shober, A. L., & Spargo, J. (2025) Comparing Soil Phosphorus Extraction Methods and Field Variability in Agricultural Soils [Abstract]. CANVAS 2025.
• Kaplan, M., A. Hu, S. Murphy, M. Robson. Payment for Ecosystem Services and Climate Change. Rutgers NJAES FS1374.
• Kaplan, M., A. Hu, S. Murphy, M. Robson. Sequestration of Carbon on Agricultural Lands. Rutgers NJAES FS1375.
• Heckman, J. Nickel Soil Fertility Research and Translation Into Certified Organic Recommendations.