Climate FieldView™

What is the Climate FieldView™ Nitrogen Management Tool?

The Climate FieldView™ digital agriculture platform provides farmers with centralized field data management, visualization and reporting that creates actionable agronomic insights for data-driven decisions to optimize fertility and seeding management. Climate FieldView™ is advertised to help customers manage variability within their fields, across their operation, and across years with different weather conditions. As of 2017 there were approximately 120 million total subscribed acres with 35 million paid acres on the Climate FieldView™ platform.

The Nitrogen Management Tool is integrated with other Climate FieldView™ features, providing a unified platform for nutrient management, seeding, field insights, yield analytics and weather monitoring.

Climate FieldView™ yield analysis tools allow farmers to quickly compare yield patterns with other data layers at the end of the season, enabling them to determine how fertility and other agronomic decisions can impact yield.

 

Access

Data Inputs

  • Field boundaries mapped from Climate FieldView™ or imported from an external source
  • Nitrogen management program including product types and application information
  • Seeding program information imported from planter or customer-entered
  • Field history including previous crop, tillage system, and manure history
  • Soil data, weather data, and field imagery data are automatically provided by Climate FieldView™ for every customer’s field. Additional soil test information may optionally be imported using Climate FieldView’s™ Data Inbox feature.
  • Yield goals
Where has Climate FieldView™ Nitrogen Management Tool been tested?
The map below shows trial locations for corn. The trial locations have been superimposed over the Technology Extrapolation Domains (TED) Framework. The TED Framework is described further on the Climate FieldView™ Nitrogen Management Tool and TED Framework page.
How was Climate FieldView™ Nitrogen Management Tool Tested?
Replicated strip trial results were analyzed for 34 fields (2016), 38 fields (2017), and 25 fields (2018) following the protocol established by the NutrientStar program. All nitrogen response trials were conducted with corn. Most trials were corn following soybeans and the remainder were corn following corn or corn following wheat. Locations included fields in 7 states (see Fig 1). Trials with manure applications were not included in this analysis.

Most fields had 4 N treatment rates and 4 replicates per treatment. Application rates were approximately 100, 150, 200 and 250 pounds N/acre. Treatments were mostly applied at sidedress, either as UAN or anhydrous. Most fields also had a spring pre-plant application. Yield response to nitrogen was determined from the trial data (using a combination of quadratic and linear fit methods in accordance with NutrientStar procedures; see figure 2 for an example).

The commercially available version of Nitrogen Management Tool was used to estimate sidedress nitrogen application requirements in late Spring 2017 and 2018 for each specific field. Known weather was used up until the sidedress date, and forecasted weather was used for the remainder of the season, to mimic a user’s experience at sidedress time. Sidedress rates were adjusted to achieve a target N status of +15 lbs/ac (2016 and 2018) and +25 lbs/ac (2017). Yield goals were selected at the time of sidedress by consultants and growers managing field trials. Consultants and growers were advised to select yield goals corresponding to the fourth highest yield achieved by growers in the five years prior to the trial (i.e. the 80th percentile of achieved yield in the last five years).

Grower-preferred nitrogen application rates (solicited from farmers of the trial fields in consultation with expert agronomists) and Nitrogen Management Tool-based rates were compared based on nitrogen costs, yield incomes, and net economic outcomes. Yields corresponding to the farmer and Nitrogen Management Tool chosen nitrogen rates were estimated using the yield response to nitrogen relationships described above, with the price of corn set to $4.00/bu and the price of nitrogen set to $0.40/lb.

How has Climate FieldView™ Nitrogen Management Tool performed?
Nitrogen Management Tool-based application rates enabled a reduction in N application compared to grower rates by 37 lbs/acre on average in 2016 (15 lb residual), an average increase of 3 lbs/acre in 2017 (25lb residual), and an average increase of 18 lbs/acre in 2018 (15lb residual). In 2016 reduced nitrogen applications resulted in a 4 bu/acre average yield loss while lowering the potential impacts on water and air quality posed by higher nitrogen application rates. Nitrogen Management Tool (NMT) improved nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) by an average of 25% (15 lb residual) in 2016. In 2017 the modestly higher rates resulting from the NMT did not have a significant impact on yields and reduced NUE by 1%. The 2018 average rate increase resulted in a 2 bu/acre increase in yield and reduced NUE by 7%.

Across all trials, Nitrogen Management Tool-based application rates resulted in no statistically significant change in return to nitrogen compared with grower rates (p > 0.95), and a 6% improvement in NUE, using farmer estimated yield goals.

More Information:

To view a report of Climate Fieldview NMT trials conducted by NutrientStar in 2016, click here.

To view a report of Climate Fieldview NMT trials conducted by NutrientStar in 2017, click here.

To view a report of Climate Fieldview NMT trials conducted by NutrientStar in 2018, click here.