Cell Size Selection for Site-specific Crop Management

Abstract

For site-specific crop management (SSCM), fields are viewed as collections of small regions (cells) in which soil properties are nearly uniform. Inputs to the field are adjusted on a cell-by-cell basis. The selection of cell size is an important step in SSCM. In this article, a mean correlation distance (MCD) is developed by geostatistical analysis. The MCD can be used as the upper limit of cell size. A lower limit of cell size is also considered. A sample MCD determination for soil moisture and nitrate of one particular field is included.