The accuracy of farm machinery for precision agriculture: a case for fertilizer application

Abstract

Work quality, capacity and reliability are important criteria for design and evaluation of farm equipment. With the introduction of precision agriculture, the ability to adapt to spatially variable soil and crop conditions, becomes an additional aspect. A calculation method was developed to find the precision of site specific fertilizer application. The variance between the required rate, RR, and the applied rate, AR, was used as a measure for precision. The theory of geo-statistics was used for variance calculation. Spreading patterns were evaluated for different levels of field variability, positioning accuracy and resolution of the required application rates. The shape of spreading patterns had small influence. The effect of the accuracy of positioning systems was dependent on the resolution of the required application rates and of the working width of independently controlled sections of the spreaders.