NE South Dakota Clark, SD | shevy - 6/28/2024 08:52
I am a young guy who has learned a lot by reading AgTalk. For the past several years, I've been experimenting with different methods to build variable rate fertility maps. I think I've read most of what Agtalk has to offer on this subject, and thinking about these different approaches has made me wonder how the limitations of being practical and scalable affect what is feasibly possible.
I thought I'd throw out this hypothetical question:
Let's say you have a piece of land you know nothing about. Your task is to create the most accurate and profitable crop nutrient recommendations going forward. You will be farming this field for the next 15 years. You have access to any kind of data you want and an unlimited budget and time. There are no software limitations, and you can execute any process you want.
What would be your process?
Edit to add. I think I should give a little more context. I am trying to design an independent fertility management plan that I would provide as a service. This plan would mainly be geared towards writing fertilizer recommendations. I'm looking for a discussion on how things like soil data, management zones, yield data, field elevation, etc should impact a fertilizer recommendation. The unlimited budget would be for creating the recommendation to best apply a farms normal input dollars.
This would be my approach If I knew nothing about the field and it has at least moderate variability and money was no object. Create quality management zones based on yield data, aerial and satellite imagery with mod areas for different limiting factors in poor producing areas. As an example a depression that holds water vs a a sandy hilltop. This will provide a variable yield goal for the field. Then I would do smart 1 acre grids with points shifted to better fit the management zones to get an excellent picture of the field fertility and pH. I would also do watershed modeling to show depressions and water flow paths. From there correct the pH and drainage issues first. Now that the biggest limiting factors are corrected time to look at fertility. I am not an agronomist or soil scientist so i will leave the actual fertility up to you. I would base off of the yield goals created from the zone map. You will more than likely never get uniform yields no matter what you do. Fix the weakest links first and then apply $$$ that will give you the biggest return on investment, not necessarily the highest yield. There easier and cheaper ways to do this, but best, easiest and cheapest are rarely the same answer. I can help you realize this plan if you would call or email me. Best of luck with your venture. |
What is your ideal way of determining where to apply crop nutrients?
