Overview
The Massachusetts Legislature provided funds for UMass Extension in the FY25 budget for the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) that has made it possible for us to offer a limited quantity of free services to Massachusetts farmers in the form of voucher codes that can be redeemed when sending in samples to our Soil and Plant Nutrient Testing Lab and our Plant Diagnostic Lab. Details of the specific services available, the application and award process, eligibility requirements, and more are provided below. The University of Massachusetts is grateful to the Massachusetts House and Senate for providing these funds to MDAR for use by UMass Extension and ultimately, and we are pleased that Massachusetts farmers can take advantage of this public investment.
Timing
All vouchers must be used by December 31, 2026.
Applications received through 12/3/25 have been reviewed and awards have been sent out. Remaining vouchers will be allocated as applications are submitted, until they are gone. This webpage will be updated as voucher availability changes; please see the "Services Available" list below.
Eligibility
Vouchers for free services are only available to those who can be considered Massachusetts farmers. Massachusetts must be the primary business location and the location from which soil or plant samples are collected. According to USDA, "a farm is defined as any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the year." For our purposes, farms do not need to be privately owned or sell crops for the purpose of making a profit, but they do need to produce crops (excluding cannabis) that would have at least $1,000 of market value in a normal year. Nonprofit-run farms and farms with multiple producers are eligible, either with separate applications where each applicant can independently meet the $1,000 threshold or with a single application representing producers whose combined production meets the threshold.
Services Available
The services listed below may be requested;
Total Sorbed Metals (TSM) with Arsenic [$60 value]
Soilless Media Extract (SME) [$30 value]
Agricultural Crop Diagnostics (Disease, Insect, or Nematode) [$50 value]
The application will ask for some justification of need to ensure that applicants are prepared to make use of the services to improve their operations. Educational resources are available to help determine the number of samples and type of testing appropriate for a given farm.
Quantities and Criteria
Applicants may request each available service in quantities they need in 2025 and 2026, up to $300 in total vouchers. Please note that the form below is not able to perform calculations, so applicants will need to calculate the total value of their requests.
We expect to serve between 100 and 500 farms. To maximize the public benefit of this legislative investment, farmers should request only what they know they will use in 2025 and 2026 seasons. There is no guarantee that any particular applicant will receive any vouchers, and some applicants may receive a subset of the vouchers they request. Aside from demonstrating eligibility, the best thing an applicant can do is demonstrate that they will adopt or continue a program of using lab results to improve agricultural management decision-making.
Award and Submission Process
- All awards of free services will be made by email to the email address provided in the application form below.
- The award email will contain one voucher code for each free service awarded.
- Farmers may then submit samples using the appropriate forms and instructions for each lab and simply write their voucher code(s) in an appropriate place on the form instead of making a payment. Submission forms and information regarding sample collection and submission can be found within the respective websites of the Soil and Plant Nutrient Testing Lab and Plant Diagnostic Lab.
- If a farmer wishes to have additional testing done on a sample that is not covered with a voucher code (for example, adding soluble salts to a routine soil test), they can fill out their sample submission form accordingly and pay only the difference for the extra service.
- No services will be performed on samples received using a voucher code that has already been redeemed, so farmers should be sure to keep track of their use of these codes to avoid confusion.
- Applicants who did not receive an award may have been considered ineligible, or award emails may have been filtered by email clients, so farmers who applied and did not hear back should email cclay[at]umext[dot]umass[dot]edu (cclay[at]umext[dot]umass[dot]edu) to inquire.