Precision Farming: First Look at Soil Types and Soil Sampling

First look at Precision Farming: Of course, we saw you asking for news on the Precision Farming project for Farming Simulator 19 - a project initiated by John Deere and funded by EIT Food, Europe’s leading Food Innovation Initiative. Progress was made and the first gameplay features implemented into our test environment since the initial announcement.

Not up to date?

• Read the project announcement
• Learn more about Precision Farming
• Learn more about EIT Food

While project leads and members evaluate details and next steps, it's now time to show off selected features. Take a look!

Soil Sampling Technology

To start taking samples of your soil, you need two things. You'll need the John Deere Gator and the fully automated ISARIA SCOUT.

(click on the pictures to view them in full-size!)

Of course, you don't take the samples manually to find out which types of soil your crops are growing on. Thanks to the electronic control you conveniently operate the sampling unit with its drill right from the driver’s seat. 

Soil Types

There are four different kinds of soil. Meaning, there are four different levels of yield potential. Let's take a look at the new 'Precision Farming' tab in the menu. 

As you can see, there are four different soil types listed, but not yet visualized on the map until you've taken and analyzed samples. 

• Loamy Sand
• Sandy Loam
• Loam
• Silty Clay

Soil Sampling

The next step is to find out about our soil before we begin preparing the field. As you can see in the following images, the ISARIA SCOUT is animated and you can watch the samples get taken. Samples are collected in the vessels at the bottom of the unit. 

Let's switch to the soil map and take a look at the visual impact of taking samples that are taken with a 25m radius. You can see the radius on the minimap. 

Mind the fact, this is only the indication for areas with samples taken. They're not analyzed yet. Since one or two samples won't give you enough data to optimize your field prep, you need to cover as much of a field as possible...

Have enough samples collected? Press 'Z'...

Depending on the difficulty you're playing on, the price of analyzing samples varies. When you get the lab results back, you'll directly see the soil properties on the soil map.

If you would take samples on every field at once, which you probably won't, you'll get a more complete picture of the soil properties of the entire land. It would look like this:

Now you have the data. If you were attentive when looking at the images of the 'Precision Farming' tab, you noticed that there are more filters other than "soil types". 

To be continued...

There is more data provided from soil sampling that play a significant role. But we'll cover that more in-depth later. Stay tuned! 

This EIT Food activity has received funding from the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, under Horizon2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. 

EIT Food is Europe’s leading agri-food innovation initiative, with the aim to create a sustainable and future-proof food sector. The initiative is made up of a consortium of key industry players, start-ups, research centres and universities from across Europe. EIT Food aims to collaborate closely with consumers to develop new knowledge and technology-based products and services that will ultimately deliver a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle for all European citizens.