Integrating Crop Status Information Into Management Decisions.

Capturing remotely sensed crop status data and using those data to make improved management decisions continues to hold promise and should bring benefits to producers in the very near future.  Unfortunately, this statement has both been repeated and remained true for decades.  While we applaud and support the search for scientific innovations and new ways of capturing and understanding crop status, we are concerned that most growers may not be able to effectively utilize yet another layer of spatial crop data into their crop management decisions.  We believe growers need simple, fast, and easy-to-use tools that help integrate data and information from different sources into practical solutions to their management challenges.  Farmers are quick to adopt technologies when they make economic sense, are based on sound science and are easy to use.  We discuss our approach to helping growers integrate remote sensing data archives and genotype-specific research data to develop simple management plans and prescriptions for variable rate seeding and nutrient management.