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Northeast Nebraska | Hi, I have plans to implement this type of strategy on my farm as well in northeast NE. It is certainly possible to do by yourself. The various companies usually try and use an algorithm to make zones and my belief is that first hand experience combined with data and ground trothing will create more accurate and profitable zones than an algorithm will. I have a few suggestions however. You can make zones based on yield very easily, but what is the yield limiting factor? In my opinion each zone delineated by yield should be tissue and soil sampled in season to identify the issue and try and improve upon it. It could be pH, drainage, cation base saturation imbalance, water holding capacity, lack of OM each or combined causing the yield drag in certain areas. Because our families farm has both high pH side hills and acidic bottoms we will be using a veris machine to get high density pH, OM, topography from RTK, and EC data layers. Many people overlook topography as an important data layer but a slight micro depression could cause drainage issues that one would not normally see or could cause a change in pH. We will be combining those layers with yield to try and identify/explain management zones. Many times a low yielding zone will have very high nutrient levels because it has been low yielding for a century but has received the same fert rates as the rest of the field. If we can understand the reason why a zone is lagging we can do things to correct it such as apply sulfur on high pH soil, apply manure on low OM/eroded areas, lime the acidic areas etc. Some may say that grid sampling accomplishes the same thing however what if 20 feet from a grid sampling point there is a change in the soil? the interpolation between grid points will not fill that in accurately. I believe you are on the right track with zone management just don't forget to try and understand why each lower yielding zone is that way. In season soil and tissue sampling within zones will unlock the answers to increasing field averages. SMS advanced is my choice of program to use other than ESRI which is not user friendly at all. SMS advanced allows you to view in 3d a topography map with any data layer on top of it which can be extremely helpful. Also equation writing saves lots of time. | |
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SMS Advanced
