Precision Nutrient & pH mapping

Soil nutrient maps similar to those pictured below left indicate soil indices of each element analysed within the field. In simple terms, the red areas on the map indicat nutrient deficiency, the blue nutrient rich areas and the green optimum.

The concept is to apply a maintenance dressing to those areas at the optimum index, none to the areas where the indices are too high and maintenance plus to those areas that are deficient.

This policy is adopted for a three to four year period and when the soils are subsequently re-sampled, the contour maps will indicate the effect of the new application policy. The idea is to remove the variation of nutrient levels within the field. Having achieved this one can expect to see an improvement in crop yields in the once poorer areas of the field.

Whole Farm mapping

The illustration below shows the P map for the whole farm. By variably spreading P over a four year period the variation in P indices across the farm were considerably reduced.