Proceedings of Soil Specific Crop Management

Historic agronomic practices have been developed with the farm or field as the area of management. The advent of soil conservation began to lead soil management toward topographic and soil-specific features. Even so, agronomic practices and recommendations have largely been made on a field basis rather than on soil-specific properties that might influence tillage, seeding, fertilizing and weed control practices. The near completion of detailed soil surveys nationwide, particularly in the intensive agricultural areas, has provided a database of great magnitude. The advent of computer processed spatial data together with geostatistical analysis enables the display of those soil, hydrologic, and microclimate features relevant to agronomic practices. With the further development of positioning systems suitable to on-site applications, the capability now exists, or can be feasibly developed to deliver real-time, real-space changes in almost any agronomic procedures. There is also much current research in sensor technology applicable to the soil condition or property, such as organic matter content, moisture content, tilth, nitrate content, and crop yields. Given the capability to assess soil spatial variability and modify agronomic practices accordingly, we now add two other considerations, economic and environmental. Historically, application of inputs, whether seed, fertilizer, or pesticide, has been driven by maximum yields. More recently, emphasis has become maximum economic yields. Soil specific management provides the specific needed inputs on each soil and prevents over and under application of inputs resulting from uniform field applications. The realization of maximizing economic returns will encourage the adoption of this new technology.

• Format: Misc.
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0891182616
• ISBN13: 9780891182610
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Acsess