Abstract:
Precision agriculture (PA) research for cotton in Australia began in 1997 and has followed a clear path aimed at discovering key information for the Industry. The potential benefit of PA management techniques within a particular field over the current "field average" management techniques is directly linked to the amount of spatial variability present, therefore a key question was "how much variability is typical in Australian cotton fields". The second question follows from the first and is "if I have variability in my cotton field, how may I manage it so as to achieve economic and environmental benefits for myself and my community"Γ The answers to these questions have been the goal of two research projects conducted by the University of Sydney with cooperation and funding from the Cotton Research and Development Corporation and the Australian Cotton CRC. The results are detailed in two parts of this paper. The first section "Measuring variability " discusses methods of measuring yield variability and presents results of research into the accuracy of on picker yield monitors. The second section discusses "managing variability" and looks at a method of determining how to better manage nitrogen within a variable field.
