Inventors:
Clyde Fraisse - Prosser WA, US
Haiping Su - Plymouth MN, US
Paul Joseph Harroun - Bloomington IL, US
Timothy A. Lindgren - Crystal MN, US
Assignee:
The Mosaic Company - Minnetonka MN
International Classification:
A01C 23/00
US Classification:
111118, 111900, 111903, 382110, 700 89, 700283
Abstract:
A map of site-specific amounts of a soil nutrient, to be applied in fertilizer to an agricultural field is created using a map of site-specific amounts of the soil nutrient needed to produce the maximum possible yield at the particular site. Subtracted from the site-specific amounts of nutrient needed are site-specific amounts of the nutrient currently existing in the field, thus producing the map of site-specific nutrient amounts to be added. The nutrient amounts may be added to the soil using the map and conventional variable-rate fertilizer application methods. In one embodiment, the amounts of the soil nutrient needed to produce the maximum possible yield at each site is created using a map of site-specific measures of biomass produced by the field in a past growing season or seasons, which in turn is created from a remotely sensed biomass image.