Accurate prescription maps are essential for effective variable rate fertilizer application.  Grid soil sampling has most frequently been used to develop these prescription maps.  Past research has indicated several technical and economic limitations associated with this approach.  There is a need to keep the number of samples to a minimum while still allowing a reasonable level of map quality.  As can be seen, precision agriculture management requires understanding soil at increasingly finer scales. Conventional soil sampling and laboratory analyses lack this granularity and are time consuming and expensive. Remote soil sensing overcomes these shortcomings. Through its collection of spatial data with quicker, cheaper, and less laborious techniques, remote soil sensing has the opportunity to enhance precision farming today. The objectives of this article are to review the challenges facing conventional soil sampling and evaluate new remote soil sensing tools to enable farmers to better utilize effective solutions to high fertilizer costs and low commodity prices.  Soil samples were collected on site in a grid spaced throughout a field in west central Illinois at the appropriate timing and in the agricultural cycle such that representative levels of Nitrogen (N), Potassium (K) and Phosphorous (P) were present.  The samples were stored in sealed paper bags, then sent to Waters Agricultural Laboratories to have the levels of N, P, and K measured.  The samples were then sent to SpecTIR to be assessed in their lab environment using spectrometry techniques. The fundamental conclusion is that it is possible to measure N, P, and K (and probably other desired nutrients/elements) by using a spectrometry genre technology.  This was the desired objective of the first milestone and the lab acquisition and subsequent analysis demonstrates the ability to detect the presence and quantify the concentration of N, P, and K in soil.