Crop Sensors have been developed and used primarily for Nitrogen use in Cropping systems but there are many more applications for crop sensors than this. They are now providing pastoral and cropping farmers with a more accurate way of managing an increasing variety of their field inputs. The improved field management that comes through the effective use of crop sensors increases the famer’s ability to retain the “Right to Farm” effectively.

 With increased farming intensification and the expansion and amalgamation of farms, a variety of in-field issues are being identified.  The variability that has been fenced off for soil type is now merged together as one. The use of crop sensors to locate and map this variability is extremely effective in enabling remediation to take place.

Some issues are man-made as with the poor application of in-field products such as lime. Poor application of lime can result in greatly fluctuating levels of pH across the application width, with it being either too high or too low for optimal plant growth. The use of the Trimble GreenSeeker in discrete sensor mode is proving very useful in identifying these strips.  As a result of poor applications Micro-nutrients can often be a major issue and these are also now being effectively managed with crop sensors.

The use of Crop sensors in the dairy or pastoral industry is proving to have a huge advantage when improving the management effluent spreading and variability that is associated with it. Effluent is a difficult product to apply and the inherent variability that is created due to uneven application fits very well with the use of crop sensors. Crop sensors can also now apply liquid nitrogen in between every urine or dung patch.