Soil Acoustics Ltd. Launch Kickstarter to Bring Their Soil Listening Device to Life

Since the launch of Baker Consultants’ sister company, Soil Acoustics Ltd., at the end of 2024, the team has been running a Kickstarter campaign to help them bring the first wave of their patent-pending Soil Acoustic Meter (SAM) to market.

We love working with innovative brands that push boundaries, and our client Soil Acoustics Ltd. is doing just that with their ground-breaking Soil Acoustic Meter (SAM). After two years of DEFRA-funded ecoacoustics research and successful field trials with organisations such as Wildfarmed, Yeo Valley, The Devonshire Group and First Milk, Soil Acoustics Ltd. is bringing their SAM device to market via a Kickstarter campaign.

SAM is a world-first device designed to listen to the sounds of soil, revealing hidden insights about soil health. By detecting acoustic activity from soil-dwelling organisms, SAM provides farmers, researchers and land managers with real-time data on biodiversity and soil conditions. This means healthier soil, better crop yields and a deeper understanding of the underground ecosystem.

Why is Soil Health Important?

Healthy soil is the foundation of our food systems, ecosystems and climate resilience. It supports plant growth, stores carbon, filters water and sustains countless organisms that contribute to its fertility. Degraded soil can lead to lower agricultural productivity, increased carbon emissions and reduced biodiversity. By monitoring and improving soil health, we can work towards a more sustainable and food-secure future.

How Does Listening to Soil Work?

Soil health is at the core of sustainable farming. Traditionally, assessing soil biodiversity involves digging multiple worm pits, which can be time-consuming and expensive. The SAM device changes that by offering a fast, non-invasive and affordable way to monitor soil health, helping land managers to make informed decisions that benefit both productivity and sustainability.

The Soil Acoustics Ltd. team has worked closely with a product development business to bring the portable hand-held device to life, making monitoring soil health more cost-effective and, most importantly, simple. By placing a probe into the ground, users can record and listen to the life within their soil and get cutting-edge insights into soil health, with a simple rule of thumb to follow: a healthy soil is a noisy soil.

To accompany the device, they have also developed a system for benchmarking the health of UK soils,. Their Soil Acoustic Quality Index (SAQI) system has been developed by their team of experts, led by Director of Ecoacoustics, Carlos Abrahams. Using their world-leading soil-sound database, they have been able to characterise the range of soil soundscapes across various arable and pasture settings. This data has been analysed to develop their bespoke Acoustic Complexity Index (ACI), allowing them to determine how field recordings compare to their UK-wide dataset.

Be One of the First to Listen to Soil

Bringing a pioneering product like SAM to market takes quite a bit of backing, which is where you come in! The Kickstarter requires 110 units to be sold in order to send the devices into production. It ends on 28 January, so if you’re interested in getting your hands on this device, now’s the time to invest in your soil health. Early adopters will receive exclusive rewards, including unlimited uploads and analysis during the first 12 months.

The Kickstarter is live now, and every pledge brings the team one step closer to transforming soil science and the future of farming. Whether you’re a farmer, ecologist or researcher, this is your chance to be part of something game-changing.

Head to the Kickstarter here to find out how to order your SAM device and be one of the first to adopt this cutting-edge technology!

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