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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbia, Missouri » Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #151736
Title: PATIENCE PRECEDES CONFIDENCE FOR ASSESSING AND MANAGEMENT OF SUB-FIELD LOW YIELDING AREAS

Author
item Kitchen, Newell
item Sudduth, Kenneth - Ken
item WIEBOLD, WILLIAM - UNIV OF MO
item BULLOCK, DON - UNIV OF IL
item BOLERO, GERMAN - UNIV OF IL
item CLAY, DAVID - SD STATE UNIV
item PALM, HARLAN - UNIV OF MO

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/23/2003
Publication Date: 11/3/2003
Citation: KITCHEN, N.R., SUDDUTH, K.A., WIEBOLD, W.J., BULLOCK, D.G., BOLERO, G.A., CLAY, D.E., PALM, H.L. 2003. PATIENCE PRECEDES CONFIDENCE FOR ASSESSING AND MANAGEMENT OF SUB-FIELD LOW YIELDING AREAS [abstract] [CD-ROM]. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Producers who map yields are especially drawn to areas showing relative high and low yield. While relatively low-yielding areas within a field can be caused by a multitude of different factors in any single year, producers are most interested in those factors that are both manageable and predictable (i.e., the effect is expressed over multiple years). A multi-state research project was conducted to evaluate mapped corn and soybean yield data. Results demonstrate that soil and landscape-related properties affecting water infiltration, storage, and movement were the predominant factors causing low yielding areas within fields. Some of these properties can be effectively estimated using soil sensors such as apparent soil profile electrical conductivity and GPS-derived landscape attributes. When yield maps were averaged over years, the areas affected by water deficit were generally larger than areas affected by water excess for our study fields. For some field sites, low-yielding areas were crop-specific. Low-yielding areas also tended to have higher coefficients of variation when compared to high yielding areas. Based on this work, soil management options that enhance infiltration and soil water storage should be targeted within fields. Soil electrical conductivity and high-accuracy GPS-derived elevation could be valuable tools in identifying low-yielding areas for producers who have not invested in yield monitoring systems.