Making Better Decisions with Yield Prophet^®

Yield Prophet® is an internet-based crop model designed to present grain growers with real-time information about their crops. It generates a range of outputs that enables users to make informed crop management and input decisions.  It is recommended that Yield Prophet users conduct soil tests on subscribed zones prior to planting.

How much does it cost?

Yield Prophet® is available to the Australian farming and research community for a low yearly subscription fee for each zone modelled. All subscription fees are invested back into the development and maintenance of the Yield Prophet system. BCG offers a discount on subscription costs for users who return results from last year. Returning results is an important method of validating Yield Prophet and the APSIM model, so we are offering this incentive to support this. New Subscribers will also receive the discounted rate. Rates and discounts are as follows (GST excl.):

What do you need to do?

In late summer and autumn, prior to planting, users sample the soil in Yield Prophet paddocks/zones down to the maximum rooting depth at different intervals (e.g. 0-10, 10-40, 40-70, 70-100cm). These samples are analysed for water and nutrient content and sub-soil constraints.  This information is entered into the Yield Prophet web interface where it is used as basis for parameterising the model and helps users and the Yield Prophet team to select a suitable soil characterisation.  Contact your local soil sampling provider or stock and station agent and request sampling and analysis for each paddock/zone you want to subscribe to Yield Prophet.

Where to get your samples analysed?

Analysis required for a new Yield Prophet® paddock:

Analysis required for an existing Yield Prophet® paddock:

Measuring Soil Water Content

The above labs offer will analysis of soil moisture content. However, in commercial labs the volume of soil used for the analysis is often lower than is required to ensure accurate results. We advise measuring moisture content yourself or getting it analysed locally.  Contact your local soil sampling provider or stock and station agent and ask if they will do this for you. Or contact Yield Prophet support to find out how to do it yourself.

Other Recommended Tests

While you are going to the effort of sampling your paddock for Yield Prophet there are some other tests that are useful for crop management or matching a soil characterisation to your subscribed zone. These are:

·         Phosphorus (P) is essential for plant growth, but few Australian soils have enough P for sustained crop and pasture production. A soil’s ability to fix P must be measured when determining requirements for crops and pastures (soilquality.org.au) Recommended tests from the surface layer only are Colwell P and PBI (Phosphorus Buffer Index) or DGT P (Diffusive Gradient in Thin-films P)

·         Particle size analysis (PSA) determines the relative amount of sand, silt and clay in a soil. These size fractions help to estimate the soil texture.  Soil texture influences nutrient retention, water storage and drainage. A PSA test from each layer in your soil tests increases our ability to select an appropriate soil from the APSOIL database to be used in Yield Prophet.  Note: Ensure you ask the lab to conduct a MIR (Mid-infrared) PSA not the laboratory method as this is much more affordable.

Support

If you have any questions about the required soil analysis or procedures contact Yield Prophet support on 0400 090 659 or yieldprophet@bcg.org.au