It goes without saying that an accurate soil nutrient analysis is pivotal to a successful year farming, no matter what crop is being raised. Without adequate nutrients in the ground available to fuel a crops growth, productivity of the soil could decline and ultimately the bottom line of a farm business could be impacted, and not in a good way.

After you have the field boundaries and farms set up for your growers, you or someone who your organization works with will likely need to collect soil samples for your growers fields. It's possible you have historical soil data for the fields already, if you want to import the soil results, refer to the article in the Help Center about Importing Soil Data into Sirrus Web.

The remainder of this article will cover how to complete a Zone Soil Sampling activity in Sirrus Mobile.

Once you have opened your Sirrus app on your mobile device, navigate to the farm or field you want to create a soil sampling job for. If starting from the Farm level, you will need to select a field before continuing. Tap the orange plus button and select the Soil Sampling: Zone activity tile from the activity list.

It is also important to note that most Zone Sampling activities will be completed with the use of a Management Zone. These Management Zones can be generated from several different data layers; including SSURGO soil type, crop locations, satellite imagery and more.

You will then need to select a job type: Planned, Recommendation, Work Order or Work Record. You will likely be using either the Planned, Recommendation or Work Order for the job type.

If the field being sampled has Management Zones associated with it, you can utilize and load the layer onto your devices screen to sample with. Additionally, you can load any Surface Layers or NDVI imagery linked to the field.

If using Management Zones or another data layer to sample with, you can skip the step of dropping target points throughout the field by using the polygon sampling method.

When you have the field boundary displayed, tap on the screen to begin dropping points throughout the field. After you have dropped all the points, in the top right corner of your screen, tap the Route button.

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Tool tip: If you dropped a point in the wrong place or you want to adjust where a sample point is you can do so when you are creating your sample route. Simply tap, hold and drag the point to the correct area on your devices screen.

Starting with the first sample point, begin to drag your finger from the first to the second sample point and so on, until you have created a route through the field and tap Set Route in the top right.

Tool tip: Be sure to note if you'll be using the point or polygon sampling method.

It could also be practical and useful for you and your team to plan the sampling jobs ahead of time from the office. If this is the operating practice your business decides to implement, you would follow the steps above and then access the activity in Sirrus when you have arrived at the field.

When you have arrived at the field, you have the ability to use an external GPS or the devices GPS system to sample with. Double check your Sirrus settings and ensure the Sample with GPS toggle is active. As you move throughout the field, through the various target points a blue dot, designating your location will move along as you complete the sampling activity. Tap on the point or zone being sampled and fill out the details in the corresponding box.

Note: The Sample ID entered will be the ID that is printed on the Barcode report.

Another feature the sampling team could and should utilize is the Barcode Scanning tool. At the end of the sample line item, tap the More Details button and the first option available is the Bag ID. Here you can manually enter in the Bag ID or use your devices camera to scan and import the Bag ID and designate the specific Bag ID to a sample.

When you have finished entering in all of the details for the sampling activity, tap the Finish button in the top right of your screen. Give the Sampling order a Name to quickly identify the activity. Double check the work state is being saved as a Work Record, as to complete the activity and then tap Save.

To access a report for the completed sampling activity, navigate to the Reports section and select the Barcode Report (Soil Sampling).

Thank you for reading about Zone Soil Sampling activities in Sirrus Mobile, we hope you enjoyed. Be sure to check out the other articles available now in the Sirrus Help Center.