Technologies to enhance soil monitoring and crop management

This webinar is part of Agri-Tech Week. This is a technical session for cereal and potato growers. Potato growers looking for an introduction to soil management should attend ‘Potato soil health: why bother?’ on 19 November

The Rotations Partnership is  a collaboration between industry partners and four research organisations, looking at the impact of rotations on crop yields. The aim is to gain a better understanding of how fundamental changes in soil characteristics impact crop performance.

The presentations will discuss the challenges being addressed, the tech application or approach, key findings and conclusions so far, practical applications and impact on decision making.

Novel techniques are being used to investigate:

• Organic matter – FTIR, an infra-red spectroscopic technique to establish the chemical composition and quality of organic matter – Jean Robertson, James Hutton Institute (JHI).
• Soil porosity – multi spectral imaging to determine the spatial distribution of soil porosity  – Tracy Valentine (JHI)
• Soil compaction –  electromagnetic conductance (EMI) scanning to quantify compaction through the soil profile – Andy Binley Lancaster
• Yield prediction – use of cereal yield maps to create management zones and predict potato yields within a rotation – Alice Milne, Rothamsted Research.