Editing tasks, Phenology and Nutrition

Editing Tasks, Phenology, Nutrition and Products

In this table we have four tabs:

- Tasks
- Phenology
- Nutrition

- Products.

1. Tab Tasks

Here on tab Tasks we can also delete task with keyboard combination "Ctrl+Delete" or enter new one with keyboard key "Insert" or just by going to the last record and entering keyboard key for "Arrow down".

2. Phenology

​This tab is filled up automatically if Phenology phases for the crop are previously imported into database. It could be done via Settings - Administration Panel - Settings - Farming - Agronomy - Phenology. 

Setting Nutrition in Phenology

Nutrition can be managed as general for whole production process. In that case we assume nutrient removal for particular nutrient which is going to be taken out of the soil with the yield. It is strongly dependent on plant (Item) and quantity of the yield.

Second option is to define this cumulative nutrient need for production within phenology stages. Why is it important? For normal apple yield of 40 tons per hectare, we have to add into production around 60 kg of pure nitrogen. Not only cumulative quantitiy is important, it is even more important when this nitrogen ought to be added. Almost whole quantity of nitrogen should be added by the end of fruit set! On the other hand, phosphorus should be added in many different phenology stages and it is of most importance when we add phosphorus, especially if we adding it via fertigation or foliar, if we want to maximize the yield. This is nutrition experts job to do.

Within Phenology tab there are certain parts of UI.
a) Nutrient balance grid
For three macro nutrients (N, P, K) Nutrient addition, Crop removal and Nutrient balance are recorded.

Nutrient addition
In case of Phenology tab Nutrient addition is the sum of all quantities for particular nutrient added for each phenology stage in kg/ha. Note: in Nutrition tab Nutrient addition is the sum of nutrients actually added by fertilizers!

Crop removal
It is nutrient quantity for particular nutrient defined in kg/ha which are supposed to be taken out by the yield out of the field. It is a multiplication of yield quantity per hectare and percentage of each nutrient which is taken out with the yield.

Nutrient balance
Nutrient balance is a difference between Nutrient addition and Crop removal. It shows in case of Phenology tab whether we distributed well nutrient quantities per phenology stages. If value for the nutrient in Nutrient blaance is negative, this means that we did not add enough of the nutrient within phenolog stages. Optimum is when Nutrient balance is around 0 or little bit greater then 0. In that case we have optimal nutrition regarding expected yield for the Expert model.

b) Phenology grid
Within this grid we distribute how certain nutrients are needed for plant developement within production process. It is known that plant need certain quantity of particular nutrient regarding expected yield. But it is even more important how these nutrients are distributed by phenology stages. Here user should add recommended nutrient quantites in kg/ha for N, P and K. We encourage our users to get these data from producers of plant material (seed, plants, trees, ...). It should be added in first 3 columns When this is added then Phenology balance can be calculated. Phenology balance is Nutrient balance until certain Phenology phase. Meaning, what is Nutrient balance between accumulated nutrients added via planned Tasks and planned nutrient addition via phenology. If Phenology balance is negative, planned nutrients until certain Phenology stage is greater then  nutrient addition via planned fertilizing.

3. Nutrition

Nutrition tab sums within grid all tasks which have fertilizers as added material. If certain tasks has 2 fertilizers it will be shown as 2 rows within grid: one for each fertilizer. It is necessary to set phenology stage for each task which has fertilizers! Otherwise we shall not have proper connection between Nutrition tab on Tasks tab.

There are 3 parts of Nutrition UI:

1. Nutrition balance table
2. Grid with Fertilizers
3. Dashboard

1. Nutrition balance table

Nutrition balance table shows Nutrient balance, Crop removal and Nutrient addition.
Nutrient addition is sum of all added nutrients via planned fertilizers in kg/ha. Crop removal is calculated nutrient removal for planned yield (Expected middle value) and Nutrient balance is a difference between these two values. Positive value means that Nutrient addition is greater then Crop removal, meaning, in this case we shall add more nutrients then take away with the crop.
2. Grid with Fertilizers

Here user can find all planned tasks from Tasks tab which has fertilizers as added material. One row represents only one fertilizers, so if task had more then one added fertilizer it will be represented by more then one row.
For each fertilizer it is calculated how many nutrients it is added via particular fertilizer (column Nutrients and columns N, P, K). For this to be possible UM of each fertilizer must be expressed. Otherwise calculations are not possible. It is reccomended that for fertilizers Mass UM are used.
If UM for fertilizer is not kg but other mass UM, in that case conversion must set within UM conversions (on Item UI, double click on UM, and then double click on ISO Unit)

When this is set, Farming knows how to correctly calculate nutrient quantity within added fertilizers if Fertilizer are not set by kg as mass UM.

Certain fertilizers such as manure, are often expressed by volume UM`s, such as m3. In that case Farming needs to have expressed fertilizer via mass UM. Otherwise it will not be possible to calculate Nutrient quantity. In that case, when fertilizers are set with volume Primary UM, Mass UM should be added as secondary UM.

In case above, 1 m3 of pig manure has 500 kg. So, when we addded 1 m3 of pig manure by fertilization, we actually added 500 kg`s of pig manure. If there is 1% of nitrogen (N) set, this means that we added 5 kg`s of nitrogen. Secondary UM can be other Mass UM, but in the same time Mass UM conversion must be also set.

It is possible to change fertilizers and fertiliizer quantites which enhance functionality of the system. If we notice that nutrient balance in certain phenology stages are not well balanced, we can change fertilizers and quantities too and directly affect on nutrient management for Expert model.
3. Dashboard

Dashboard cvisually represents nutrient balance during whole Expert model. It is easy to follow the curve and notice how balanced nurition for each of three nutrients is. Nutrient balance per phenology stages is shown so we can follow the end results of our nutrition management.  Different nutrients are represented in three colors:

- green: (N)
- yellow: (P)
- blue: (K)

The idea is to have calm curves, without strong peaks whish represents strong defficiences (in case of lower peak) or excesses (in case of upper peak) and both are very bad from financial and agronomical point of view. Well balanced nutrition is a key of effective nutrition.

Nutrition Reports for EM

By clicking on    nutrition report is automatically printed for chosen EM. 

In upper part of the report a list of fertilizers and tasks is shown, together with nutrient quantitites and nutrient balance for each task/fertilizer addition.
Also, general sum of nutrient addition, rop removal and nutrient balance is shown

After that there are 4 graphs:

Nutrient balance per Phenology is the same graph as a Dashboard on Nutrient tab.
Other three graphs represents curves for nutrient addition (defined by fertilizer addition) and nutrient removal (defined within Phenology tab) each of 3 nutrients. Darker color shows nutrient need and lighter - nutrient addition:

4. Products

Usually agriculture products are harvested as one main product and have possibility to harvest additional and also by-products. For Cerelas the Main product is Ident/Product of Expert model and producer wants to harvest the mayority of this product. It could be case to produce also additional products, recorded as another product quality (for example - Product with Quality B,C by cereals or Product, harvested in another shape/unit by Grass production (hay, fresh grass, sillage, ..). Main and additional products contributes to Expert model product yield, while by- product are recorded with independently unit (for example, straw by cereals) as it represents totaly different  product.

All data recorded within expert model are later transformed & recalculated due to Crop area size if Expert model is transferred onto Plan or Work order.