Web Soil Survey

The project will investigate and promote the value of the Web Soil Survey (WSS) to farmers as a quick, easy, and economical tool to make fertilizer prescription maps. The process of fertilizer application in zones will be facilitated by eliminating the need for aerial photographs of bare fields. The fertilizer season in eastern Idaho is short, so reducing the time and cost of zone mapping is critical. A farmer or crop consultant can access his field(s) from the Area of Interest (AOI) on the WSS and save it for use in GIS applications used by fertilizer-applicator controllers. A faster and cheaper zone mapping service will increase the incentive for adoption of precision agriculture by farmers in Idaho. The protocol will be demonstrated to six farmers who will participate in the field selection and in the fertilizer prescription maps, with outreach to and additional 100 farms.