In the Western Great Plains region of the United States, management zones delineated using bare soil imagery have shown promise as a means to direct variable rate applications of nitrogen and improve nutrient-use efficiency in large-scale irrigated corn cropping systems. On-going precision agriculture research at Colorado State University, initiated in 1998, has evaluated several innovative strategies to improve Nitrogen management. Of the strategies evaluated, the soil color-based management zone (SCMZ) technique has stood out as being a technique that is effective, easy to implement, and inexpensive for variable rate nitrogen management.
Dr. Khosla will discuss the various variable rate nitrogen management strategies using management zones. He will present the detail findings of the work done and the lessons learned over the last several years.