Precision Agriculture - decision support for Swedish agriculture

Precision farming means that measures are adapted to the specific situation in individual fields. The characteristics of soil can vary considerably within fields and between fields. This means that the benefits of a site-specific cultivation measures can vary greatly between farms and fields. It is therefore not possible to say whether an action is generally profitable. Assessments and calculations are required for each field, including for site-specific fertilizing with phosphorus (P) and potassium (K).

The project developed calculations for assessing the benefits of variable-rate PK supply to a farm's individual fields and its crop rotation. These routines have been adapted to the POS calculation. The calculation uses the farm's prices for inputs and yield.

The development was done in collaboration with adviser and tested on farms. It is now available to SLU's education and the Swedish Board of Agriculture to be included in the “Greppa Näring”.

A key element has been to calculate the yield increase for PK fertilization at different soil P-status based on data from the long-term fertility experiments and to calculate the long-term profitability for P-fertilization. The evaluation of precision cultivation measures suffers from a lack of yield mapping. With yield data from a so-called Chess-Board trial, a model to estimate in-field yield variation was tested with the conclusion that several repeated yield mappings are required to enable prediction satisfactorily.

The final project report can be found in SLF's project bank here