SOILMAP eNewsletter March

SOILMAP eNewsletter

March 2013

Inside this eNewsletter you will find the following:

Company Equations

Support Hints

Automated Blenders

Company Equations

As spring sampling season approaches, I think it's important to understand your company's equations. At one time, your Agronomy manager or GIS coordinator entered your equation sets into SOILMAP.

Equation syntax will vary, but an easy example to show is the N recommendation where there is generally just one equation.

( ( 200 - (OM * 8.3 ) ) + ( ( Corn YLD - 150 ) - 35 ) )

This example gives you the actual N needed for a 60ft. cell, and shows you how we convert your soil sample data into a variable rate N recommendation.

You can also setup equations for different conditions of the field (soil-type, soil test, MZ attribute, or a combination of the three). For example: you can write an equation that applies no nitrogen stabilizer in well-drained soils (i.e. Gamore Loam) by using the "soil types" attribute.

It's also important to know that you are not limited to three product recs. Perhaps you want to add a double gold recommendation, which would call for higher yield goals and higher fertility, or you would like to go to the next step in management zones and setup equations for your A, B, & C zones.

Support Hints

SOILMAP has easy to use tools to increase, maintain, or reduce product totals due to nutrient constraints.
If you need to refine your normal equations (Gold, Silver, Bronze) you can. So, in keeping with the company equation's theme, I thought I would touch on the "nutrient constraints" tab. This is the place in SOILMAP where you can temporarily override the company equation by writing your own syntax.

I'll use lime as an example. In the first image (left) the recommendation was created using only the company equation. In the second example (right) I used the nutrient constraints feature to not apply any Lime where the PH was greater than 6.0.

You can see the application area has now changed significantly.

*Permission Based

Automated Blenders

Perhaps your company may be looking into automated blenders like Kahler or Ranco. Or, you've seen the icon in SOILMAP and have always wondered what it's for.
Automated Blenders is another icon just like the SOILMAP icon when logging in. This app displays all blendsheets created for your company. When you press the export button the product totals are sent to the blender, and the blender begins the mixing process.

Some additional information is required to setup.

MAPS Hardware News

The MAPS Hardware team recently held a Planter Technology Institute class at our Fort Dodge location. With over 90 growers in attendance it was a huge success.

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For help & support contact:
Patrick Olmstead at 515-955-9004(w) 515-832-0550(c) or [email protected]
Wade Broom at 515-955-9002 or [email protected]
Alex Gascho at 515-955-9007 or [email protected]