When we talk about precision agriculture and variable rate technology, the management zone sampling of soil is considered to be most useful.
However, it is very tricky to divide soils into different zones instead of Grid sampling.
What should we consider for such zonning?
Can EC be helpful for that?
Any other ideas?
If you are looking at soil management zone , you need to measure the spatial variability in soil fertility parameters covering entire pool of nutrients plus soil pH and EC both ..I..It is equally important , what grid size of soil sampling, you are adopting...
Homogeneity is the most important factor to take into account when taking soil samples
Delineating management zones by partitioning spatial variability within a field into homogenized blocks is the purpose of such attempts ...
Dear Colleague,
I think two of the most important tools are yield maps and soil EC maps.
Soil texture is one of the important factors affecting the yield.
And EC is affected by many factors but mostly by soil texture.
Yield map is also a useful tool. Based on the yield map, we can divide the field in high, middle and low yield areas (with ample variability). But since the yield is affected bay many spacial and temporal factors, using multiple year yield maps will be more beneficial.
Please see this on the relations of yield, EC and tillage depth (in ResearchGate):
Variable Depth Tillage Based on Geo-Referenced Soil Compaction Data in Coastal Plain Region of South Carolina
Best regards,
Muharrem Keskin
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