At Midplains Ag our goal is to provide as much quality information about your fields as possible. Soil Sampling provides fertility base lines but soil texture and type can also be a factor in production. Veris provides sensors to map different soil texture and types at a resolution significantly higher than existing soil survey data. When you compare high resolution soil texture with high resolution soil fertility you can make a more informed decision about your Variable Rate perscriptions.

Soil matters – it’s at the root of everything you grow – soil varies drastically within fields. These changes in soil properties have significant impacts on productivity. Ignoring this variability means ignoring unmet potential and opportunities to more efficiently place inputs. The first step in managing and optimizing variability is mapping the key physical, biological, and chemical soil properties that affect productivity.

Whether you’re a grower, consultant, supplier, or researcher you have something in common: your fields vary. The variability may be in water-holding capacity, organic matter, yield potential, nematode pressure, soil pH – or many other possibilities. One thing is certain – managing these fields as if they were uniform is not the best strategy.

Before you can manage soil variability – or manage inputs differently, you need to map it. And map it with the accuracy and intensity that truly captures the variations. Veris Technologies is dedicated to designing and building the products you need to map and manage your variability.

SOIL ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY

This is a measurement of how much electrical current soil can conduct. It’s an effective way to map soil texture because smaller soil particles such as clay conduct more current than larger silt and sand particles.

ORGANIC MATTER

If you want to vary inputs based on productive capacity, a precise map of organic matter is crucial. Because organic matter forms slowly over time, the soils that are higher in organic matter possess the combination of soil texture, internal drainage, landscape position, and other factors that over long periods of time have consistently generated additional plant growth – resulting in higher OM.

SOIL PH

Soil pH is an important factor in crop production. Nutrient usage, crop growth, and herbicide activity are all affected by the pH of the soil. Grid samples are simply not dense enough to do the job. Within many 2.5 acre (1ha) grids, there is a wide range of pH values, often ranging from soils that call for lime to soils that are already extremely high in pH.

ELEVATION

Distance above sea level.

SLOPE

Slope is the rate of change of elevation in the direction of steepest descent.

CURVATURE

Curvature describes how much a surface is curved at a particular point in the landscape.