Systems to prescribe and deliver fertilizer over agricultural fields and related methods

• US 10,096,073 B2
• Filed: 02/19/2016
• Issued: 10/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Climate LLC (Bayer AG)
• Original Assignee: The Climate Corporation (Bayer AG)
• Inventors: Groeneveld, David P.
• Primary Examiner(s): HUSON, JOSHUA DANIEL
• Application Number:
  US15/048,753
• Publication Number:
  US 20160180473A1
• Time in Patent Office: 963 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A01B 79/005 Precision agriculture
• CPC Class Codes: A01C 21/00 Methods of fertilising , sowing or planting
• CPC Class Codes: A01C 21/007 Determining fertilization requirements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06313 Resource planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/02 Agriculture; Fishing; Forestry; Mining

Abstract

Some embodiments include a method. The method can include mapping a spatial pattern of yield for a crop of an agricultural field and prescribing spatially-variable application rates of one or more nutrients for the agricultural field. Other embodiments of related methods and systems are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

executing one or more first computer instructions configured to generate multiple prior crop-growing season NDVI* maps of an agricultural field, each of the multiple prior crop-growing season NDVI* maps corresponding to different prior crop-growing seasons of the multiple prior crop-growing seasons;

executing one or more second computer instructions configured to determine an apparent emergence date of crop for the agricultural field based on current crop-growing season NDVI* data;

executing one or more third computer instructions configured to compute an average NDVI* map of the agricultural field by averaging corresponding pixels of the multiple prior crop-growing season NDVI* maps to form averaged pixels, the average NDVI* map of the agricultural field comprising the averaged pixels;

executing one or more fourth computer instructions configured to prescribe spatially-variable application rates of one or more nutrients for the agricultural field based on the average NDVI* map of the agricultural field;

wherein;

the one or more first computer instructions, the one or more second computer instructions, the one or more third computer instructions, and the one or more fourth computer instructions are configured to run at one or more processors and configured to be stored at one or more non-transitory memory storage devices.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

executing one or more fifth computer instructions configured to receive EOS data of the agricultural field, the EOS data of the agricultural field having been collected on or about a DOY′

for the multiple prior crop-growing seasons;

executing one or more sixth computer instructions configured to convert the EOS data of the agricultural field to NDVI data;

executing one or more seventh computer instructions configured to calculate NDVI* data from the NDVI data using scene statistics of the EOS data of the agricultural field,

the multiple prior crop-growing season NDVI* maps being generated from the NDVI* data.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein:

executing the one or more third computer instructions comprises;

executing one or more eighth computer instructions configured to identify at least one prior crop-growing season NDVI* map of the multiple prior crop-growing season NDVI* maps comprising aberrant NDVI* data of the NDVI* data, the aberrant NDVI* data being atypical of expected long-term NDVI* patterns of the agricultural field; and

executing one or more ninth computer instructions configured to exclude the at least one prior crop-growing season NDVI* map of the multiple prior crop-growing season NDVI* maps when averaging the corresponding pixels of the multiple prior crop-growing season NDVI* maps to form the averaged pixels of the average NDVI* map.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

predicting a predicted DOY′

for a crop of another agricultural field of a farmed region, the farmed region comprising the agricultural field.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

estimating a prior DOY′

for the crop of the agricultural field in a prior crop-growing season of the multiple prior crop-growing seasons.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein:

executing the one or more second computer instructions comprises;

executing one or more fifth computer instructions configured to receive EOS data of the agricultural field, the EOS data of the agricultural field having been collected over multiple days of the current crop-growing season;

executing one or more sixth computer instructions configured to convert the EOS data of the agricultural field to NDVI data;

executing one or more seventh computer instructions configured to calculate NDVI* data from the NDVI data using scene statistics of the EOS data of the agricultural field; and

executing one or more eighth computer instructions configured to calculate median NDVI* data from the NDVI* data on the multiple days of the current crop-growing season.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein:

executing the one or more second computer instructions further comprises;

executing one or more ninth computer instructions configured to plot the median NDVI* data as a function of the multiple days of the current crop-growing season.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein:

the multiple days of the current crop-growing season comprise multiple consecutive days of the current crop-growing season beginning on a first day of the crop-growing season.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein:

executing the one or more second computer instructions further comprises;

executing one or more tenth computer instructions configured to apply a linear regression to the plot of the median NDVI* data as the function of the multiple days of the current crop-growing season in order to determine a day of the multiple days of the current crop-growing season corresponding to an NDVI* value of the median NDVI* data equal to zero, the day of the multiple days of the current crop-growing season being the apparent emergence date of the crop for the agricultural field.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein:

the multiple days of the current crop-growing season comprises multiple consecutive days of the current crop-growing season beginning on a first day of the crop-growing season.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein:

executing the one or more second computer instructions comprises;

executing one or more fifth computer instructions configured to receive EOS data of the agricultural field, the EOS data of the agricultural field having been collected over multiple days of a current crop-growing season;

executing one or more sixth computer instructions configured to convert the EOS data of the agricultural field to NDVI data;

executing one or more seventh computer instructions configured to calculate NDVI* data from the NDVI data using scene statistics of the EOS data of the agricultural field; and

executing one or more eighth computer instructions configured to calculate average NDVI* data from the NDVI* data on the multiple days of the current crop-growing season.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein:

executing the one or more second computer instructions further comprises;

executing one or more ninth computer instructions configured to plot the average NDVI* data as a function of the multiple days of the current crop-growing season.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein:

the multiple days of the current crop-growing season comprise multiple consecutive days of the current crop-growing season beginning on a first day of the crop-growing season.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein:

executing the one or more second computer instructions further comprises;

executing one or more tenth computer instructions configured to apply a linear regression to the plot of the average NDVI* data as the function of the multiple days of the current crop-growing season in order to determine a day of the multiple days of the current crop-growing season corresponding to an NDVI* value of the average NDVI* data equal to zero, the day of the multiple days of the current crop-growing season being the apparent emergence date of the crop for the agricultural field.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein:

the multiple days of the current crop-growing season comprise multiple consecutive days of the current crop-growing season beginning on a first day of the crop-growing season.