Determining the variability of available nutrients and ultimately the rates of fertilizer application for site specific crop management hinges on the proper collection and homogenization of soil samples to reflect the variation in nutrient status of an area requiring fertilization. While the bulk of technological advance has occurred in application equipment, automation of soil sampling has not kept pace. Innovative soil sampling devices have recently been developed by Geophyta, Inc. that speed up soil sampling while improving precision. Now, research is needed to design and test a moist soil homogenizer for integration into automated soil sampling which includes vehicle guidance, soil collection, soil homogenization, and soil packaging. Without these innovations, soil sampling will not be cost effective at the 0.25 acre grid sampling intensity that has been suggested by some researchers. All components of a newly designed moist soil homogenizer will be constructed and tested on a wide range of soil textures at varying water contents. Complete automation of existing and future soil sampling equipment will be explored with the aid of the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Engineering Laboratory as subcontractors. They will serve as technical experts to evaluate the feasibility of vehicle guidance concepts proposed by Geophyta.
Anticipated Results/Potential Commercial Applications of Research: This research is a perfect continuation of innovations resulting from our previous USDA Phase I and Phase II grants which looked at machines to collect soil samples. One of these innovations is now being sold under license to Concord Environmental Equipment, LLC as the "Agri-Auger Model 2000". They currently have sold these units throughout the United States and two foreign countries. Based on the successful market introduction of our mobile soil sampler patent, user of this sampler will soon be ready to advance to even more automated collection as well as automated moist soil homogenization to reduce labor costs.
