Fitting Soil Electrical Conductivity Measurements into the Precision Farming Toolbox

· Soil electrical conductivity (EC) mapping is a simple, inexpensive tool precision farmers can use to quickly and accurately characterize soil diffrences within farm fields. · Soil EC is a measurement that correlates to soil properties affecting crop productivity, including soil texture, cation exchange capacity, drainage conditions, organic matter level, salinity and subsoil characteristics. · With field verification, soil EC can be related to specific soil properties that affect crop yield, such as topsoil depth, pH, salt concentrations and water-hol ing capacity. · Soil EC maps often visually correspond to patterns on yield maps and can help explain yield variation. The EC data can also be correlated with yield, elevation, plant population, surface hydrology or remotely sensed data with a suitable Geographical Information System (GIS). · Uses of soil EC maps include guiding directed soil sampling, assigning variable rates of crop inputs, fine-tuning NRCS soil maps, improving the placement and interpretation of on-farm tests, salinity diagnosis and planning drainage remediation