Yield Editor 2.0: Software for Automated Removal of Yield Map Errors

Abstract

Yield maps provide important information for developing and evaluating precision management strategies. The high-quality yield maps needed for decision-making require screening raw yield monitor datasets for errors and removing them before maps are made. To facilitate this process, we developed the Yield Editor interactive software which has been widely used by producers, consultants and researchers. Some of the most difficult and time consuming issues involved in cleaning yield maps include determination of combine delay times, and the removal of overlapped data, especially near end rows. Our new Yield Editor 2.0 automates these and other tasks, significantly increasing the reliability and reducing the difficulty of creating accurate yield maps. This paper describes this new software, with emphasis on the Automated Yield Cleaning Expert (AYCE) module. Application of Yield Editor 2.0 is illustrated through comparison of automated AYCE cleaning to the interactive approach available in Yield Editor 1.x. On a test set of fifty grain yield maps, AYCE cleaning was not significantly different than interactive cleaning by an expert user when examining field mean yield, yield standard deviation, and number of yield observations remaining after cleaning. Yield Editor 2.0 provides greatly improved efficiency and equivalent accuracy compared to the interactive methods available in Yield Editor 1.x.