DES MOINES — DuPont, the University of Missouri and the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service last week announced a new collaboration to pool soil mapping resources, predictive technologies and expertise to help growers more sustainably improve crop yields through better nitrogen application management and other field input planning.
The public-private effort aims to enhance sustainable crop production through field and crop modeling that targets the specific soil, climatic, watershed and production conditions within producers' fields with real-time information.
The three-year exclusive agreement among DuPont Pioneer, the University of Missouri and USDA-ARS will bring together the respective strengths of each party in precision agriculture sensors and soil mapping, including the characterization of soil types, topography and watersheds.
Through a unique computerized process offered by DuPont that uses the latest high resolution technology, the collaboration will result in more accurate soil mapping units than ever seen before. Higher-resolution soil information will enable improved placement and management of crop inputs such as nitrogen fertilizer.
"Management decisions strongly depend on how crops respond to the soil and landscape," said Brent Myers, University of Missouri agronomist. "Public soil maps are very valuable, but we can now track differences in fields at a much higher resolution than previously available. ERUs identify smaller areas within fields that can be similarly managed. This collaboration provides opportunities for connecting innovative soil and landscape science with decision-making for millions of acres in the United States."
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By using high resolution elevation data and landscape watershed information, producers can better determine water and nitrogen movement on the section and county levels. Together with soil and productivity information, growers can more accurately plan, place and manage nitrogen applications on a real-time basis.
Pioneer previously announced a wireless data transfer collaboration with John Deere and also a collaboration with DTN/The Progressive Farmer to bring instant weather and market information, as well as innovative grain trading capabilities, to growers.
