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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #84893
Title: SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF SOIL ATTRIBUTES AFFECTING CROP YIELD

Author
item BAKHSH, A - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item Colvin, Thomas
item Jaynes, Dan
item KANWAR, R - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item TIM, U - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: American Society of Agricultural Engineers Meetings Papers
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/14/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Precision farming will require that managers be able to predict the response of parts of fields to differing types and amounts of inputs. An important piece of information will be the physical condition of the soil and its effect on yield. This study investigated the relationship between soil physical attributes and corn yield variability for a field near Story City, IA. Bulk density, penetration resistance, organic matter content, plasticity index, and large aggregate size distribution were measured and used to calculate the Tilth Index for 22 locations on the field. The relationship between the Tilth Index and yield showed a correlation of less than 0.25 when all 22 points were used. When 18 locations were chosen to avoid outliers, the correlation coefficients rose to the range of 0.7 to 0.8. The individual parameters are being examined further to determine if modifications need to be made to the Tilth Index for this field to more closely mimic the response of this field.