A futuristic view of soil and plant analysis and nutrient recommendations

The wide scale adoption of site specific management (SSM) and variable rate fertilizer application (VRA) in the next 5 to 10 years portends changes in soil testing and plant analysis. To develop site specific nutrient recommendations, more detailed information about the soil's fertility status will be required which could mean greatly increased samples numbers for soil or plant analysis. Discussions of initial research on the large numbers of samples required to produce quality maps for SSM and VRA among scientists, agricultural industry and producers, however, indicates that this may only be a short phase as the expectation of using remote sensing (RS) to replace or compliment limited soil and plant analysis is already occurring. Soil and plant analysis numbers may increase during the next 5 to 10 years as there is a slow transition to SSM and VRA. During this time, however, there will be research to related RS imagery to soil and crop management problems. After 10 years of this transition, there may be more adoption of RS for primary diagnosis and management with limited soil and plant analysis done from 'reference' areas to assure the accuracy of remotely sensed image interpretation.