A FUTURISTIC VIEW OF SOIL AND PLANT ANALYSIS AND NUTRIENT RECOMMENDATIONS

The wide scale adoption of site specific management (SSM) and variable rate fertilizer application (VRA) in the next 5 to 10 years portends changes in soil testing and plant analysis. To develop site specific n utrient recommendations, more detailed information about the soil's fe rtility status will be required which could mean greatly increased sam ples numbers for soil or plant analysis. Discussions of initial resear ch on the large numbers of samples required to produce quality maps fo r SSM and VRA among scientists, agricultural industry and producers, h owever, indicates that this may only be a short phase as the expectati on of using remote sensing (RS) to replace or compliment limited soil and plant analysis is already occurring. Soil and plant analysis numbe rs may increase during the next 5 to 10 years as there is a slow trans ition to SSM and VRA. During this time, however, there will be researc h to related RS imagery to soil and crop management problems. After 10 years of this transition, there may be more adoption of RS for primar y diagnosis and management with limited soil and plant analysis done f rom 'reference' areas to assure the accuracy of remotely sensed image interpretation.