Clemson University agricultural engineer Kendall Kirk has developed free software to help growers track soil sampling across their fields. The software pairs with an inexpensive GPS and a laptop computer to pinpoint exactly where soil samples are taken as they are taken. This ensures growers are taking adequate samples throughout field management zones—areas of a field with common soil characteristics that will likely require similar nutrients.
Those samples then can be sent to local Clemson Cooperative Extension Service offices for testing at Clemson’s Agricultural Service Laboratory.
“What you’ll have is a soil sample ID for each sampling zone. Send that to Clemson, and you’ll get it back with a nutrient recommendation,” says Kirk. “These soil samples are guiding your nutrient application rates, your potassium and phosphate applications … At the end of the day, we are trying to boost profitability.”
Accurate soil data can help growers maximize yields or lower operating costs by optimizing nutrient inputs. Growers interested in obtaining a copy of the beta testing version of the software can contact Kirk at kirk2@clemson.edu.
Kirk and Hollens Free, a precision agriculture expert with the Clemson Cooperative Extension Service, demonstrated the software to attendees of a recent field day at the Edisto Research & Education Center. Growers followed a tractor as samples were collected across a field. A large computer monitor mounted to the rear of the tractor displayed a map generated by the software, showing the position and the zone where each sample was taken.
At the field day, attendees were also given a flash drive with a collection of digital reference materials, including enterprise budgets for row crops, results from crop variety tests, the most current pest management handbook, the 2017 Peanut Money Maker Guide, the Wheat Cheat Sheet and more. South Carolina growers can contact their local Extension office about obtaining a flash drive of these materials.
The field day focused on precision agriculture and included numerous presentations on emerging agriculture technologies from Clemson experts and representatives of Blanchard Equipment Company, which co-sponsored the event.
“We want to provide the educational materials and tools growers need to reduce the barriers for utilization of precision ag technologies,” Kirk said.
The Edisto Research & Education Center in Blackville, S.C., has in recent years expanded its precision agriculture program, which utilizes new technologies such as unmanned aerial vehicles, sensors and GPS equipment to make farming more efficient, profitable and environmentally friendly. It has a particular focus on reducing agricultural use of water, pesticides and fertilizer.
Growers should embrace the technologies not only because they improve farm profitability, but because they show policymakers that farmers are doing all they can to be good environmental stewards, says Harry Ott, president of the South Carolina Farm Bureau.
“We have to show the public—the 99 percent of the population who consumes the food grown by just 1 percent of the population—that we are doing our part to protect water, to protect the environment, and to provide a sustainable source of food,” says Ott. “Fertilizer reduction and water conservation are attractive to the public that drives the policies that affect agriculture.”
Source: Clemson University