The Critical Role of Digital Soil Maps in Agronomic Decision Support Services.

Engineering advancements have given farmers equipment and tools with the capability to manage at high spatial and temporal resolutions. Agronomists are striving to match this capability with decision support tools that integrate agronomic decision models into software and engineering solutions. Knowledge of soil properties and processes is critical to many decision models and there is a need to have soil information at a resolution matching the scale of management. These new ‘Decision Ag’ applications also need soil information for more than just the plow layer. DuPont Pioneer, the University of Missouri, and USDA-ARS co-developed Environmental Response Units (ERU), a type of digital soil map, to enhance the decision making ability of Pioneer customers. This presentation will discuss the effectiveness of ERU and how they have provided value through a variety of decision services.