5 million acres of protein maps using CropScanAg apps

In the past 10 years, on combine NIR analysis has become a reality. The CropScan 3000H and now the CropScan 3300H On Combine Analysers provide real-time measurements of protein, oil, moisture and starch in grains and oil seeds as they harvested. By combining the yield from the combine’s Yield Monitor with the CropScan’s protein data, field maps can be generated in the cloud using the N-GAUGE Nutrient Manager App. A suite of field maps including nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous and sulphur removal, Nitrogen use Efficiency (NUE) and Protein/Yield Correlation, can then be viewed on a smart device by the farmer and their agronomist.

Protein plus yield allows farmers to determine the zones where nitrogen has been the limiting nutrient to the growth of the crop. Considering that the worldwide yield gap is around 30%, i.e.,yield gap is the difference between the potential yield and the actual yield, then using protein/yield correlation maps enables farmers to generate variable rate nitrogen fertilization maps that will increase the yield and reduce the yield gap.