One of the ways to obtain objective information about the condition of the soil is to map the yield.
This technology is actively used in the production of grain crops, but recently many root crop producers have already appreciated its advantages.
This year, Geostroyiziskaniya, the official distributor of Topcon in Russia, has successfully tested the Topcon YieldTrakk mapping system in the fields of the Nizhny Novgorod and Voronezh regions and received good results. Subject to the calibration recommendations, the equipment complex allows obtaining data on the yield of potatoes and sugar beets with an accuracy of up to 97% (the accuracy of the readings of the weight sensors can change as a result of stones and clods hitting the elevator, but the error can be leveled out by entering the appropriate coefficients). The system also reads the rotational speed of the elevator and the speed of the combine, so the yields are gated based on the travel time of the product from the digger to the load cells.
Upon completion of the work, the data is automatically sent to the TAP (Topcon Agriculture Platform) platform, which allows you to visualize information in an accessible form and conduct their subsequent processing and analysis.
Based on the data, a yield map is compiled: the field is divided into high-yielding and low-yielding areas. With this knowledge, growers can make decisions to improve the performance of individual sections of the field.
The TAP also displays information about the combine's performance, average yield and total harvested weight in the field. The work report is generated simultaneously in several standard formats - SHAPE, ISOXML, PDF and CSV, which significantly expands the possibilities for subsequent processing and storage of data in various programs.
Using yield mapping year after year allows you to build a history of fields, which will serve as an invaluable tool not only for farms practicing differential fertilization, but also for those who are just planning to introduce precision farming technologies.
The yield map can also be used to highlight the elementary areas of soil sampling, since the yield directly depends on the fertility of the soil. The contours of the plots on the yield map will also be the outlines of the elementary plots where soil samples can be taken to determine the content of nutrients.
Note also that the Topcon YieldTrakk elevator mapping system can be used on stationary sorting elevators as a weighing system. In this case, the weighing cells will read the weight of the product passed through the elevator and display the total result on the terminal screen.