Alexander Ufimtsev: "Each part of the field needs its own dose of fertilizer"
Reading time — 10 minutes
An interview with a soil fertility specialist from Russia.
Every day, Alexander Ufimtsev, or Alex, studies the unique features of the soil at his farm and thinks about ways to increase yield. Since 2017, he's been using vegetation indices and productivity zones in his work. One time, Alex had to conduct a huge year-long experiment to prove to his co-workers that vegetation index zones in the field were linked to yield. To do that, he used the OneSoil web app.
Get all new articles straight to your inbox!
Every day, Alexander Ufimtsev, or Alex, studies the unique features of the soil at his farm and thinks about ways to increase yield. Since 2017, he's been using vegetation indices and productivity zones in his work. One time, Alex had to conduct a huge year-long experiment to prove to his co-workers that vegetation index zones in the field were linked to yield. To do that, he used the OneSoil web app.
Agrofirma KRiMM's fields in the OneSoil mobile app
— Tell us about yourself. What do you do, and where do you work?
I work at Agrofirma KRiMM, an agricultural holding in the Tyumen Region of Southwest Siberia. Our fields cover around 23,000 ha. They're mostly sowed with grain crops and industrial rapeseed. We also grow all the vegetables that go into borsch: potatoes, beetroot, cabbage, carrots, onions, a bit of radish, and leafy greens.
We also grow cucumbers in the summer, but potatoes are our main crop. We grow them in vitro. In October 2019, we launched an ultra-processed food plant. Now we produce ready-to-eat potatoes.
I've worked for this company for three years as a soil fertility specialist. I do everything related to efficient land use. My department aims to maximize the soil's potential by any means.
I work at Agrofirma KRiMM, an agricultural holding in the Tyumen Region of Southwest Siberia. Our fields cover around 23,000 ha. They're mostly sowed with grain crops and industrial rapeseed. We also grow all the vegetables that go into borsch: potatoes, beetroot, cabbage, carrots, onions, a bit of radish, and leafy greens.
We also grow cucumbers in the summer, but potatoes are our main crop. We grow them in vitro. In October 2019, we launched an ultra-processed food plant. Now we produce ready-to-eat potatoes.
I've worked for this company for three years as a soil fertility specialist. I do everything related to efficient land use. My department aims to maximize the soil's potential by any means.
— Tell us about yourself. What do you do, and where do you work?
I work at Agrofirma KRiMM, an agricultural holding in the Tyumen Region of Southwest Siberia. Our fields cover around 23,000 ha. They're mostly sowed with grain crops and industrial rapeseed. We also grow all the vegetables that go into borsch: potatoes, beetroot, cabbage, carrots, onions, a bit of radish, and leafy greens. We also grow cucumbers in the summer, but potatoes are our main crop. We grow them in vitro. In October 2019, we launched an ultra-processed food plant. Now we produce ready-to-eat potatoes.
I work at Agrofirma KRiMM, an agricultural holding in the Tyumen Region of Southwest Siberia. Our fields cover around 23,000 ha. They're mostly sowed with grain crops and industrial rapeseed. We also grow all the vegetables that go into borsch: potatoes, beetroot, cabbage, carrots, onions, a bit of radish, and leafy greens. We also grow cucumbers in the summer, but potatoes are our main crop. We grow them in vitro. In October 2019, we launched an ultra-processed food plant. Now we produce ready-to-eat potatoes.
Agrofirma KRiMM's fields in the OneSoil mobile app
I've worked for this company for three years as a soil fertility specialist. I do everything related to efficient land use. My department aims to maximize the soil's potential by any means.
Applying liquid ammonia is one method the company uses to increase yield
– What does a typical day look like for you?
My working day is far from typical. I'll give you an example. We recently harvested rapeseed from all fields and got different yield results. To find out why, we delimited productivity zones in these fields and analyzed them.
My working day is far from typical. I'll give you an example. We recently harvested rapeseed from all fields and got different yield results. To find out why, we delimited productivity zones in these fields and analyzed them.
You can define productivity zones in your fields for free in the OneSoil web app
This is where the technical work begins: sampling. I sample soil from high-, moderate-, and low-productivity zones and take them to the lab. I also put together special reports where I illustrate how samples differ visually, describe the micro-relief, and note any soil compaction. Very few people pay attention to these details, but they are essential. First of all, they affect plants' root systems. If the soil is too compacted, the root system gets less nutrition and won't grow well. That's one part of my job.
The other part of it is field leveling. Our farm, for example, struggles with wet spots. With large amounts of precipitation, the plant suffocates and can't develop its full potential because the water can't access the root system. After a while, the plant dies. This problem hits the economy hard.
Last year, our company lost around 17 million rubles (around $110,000) due to wet spots. That's the value of the products we could potentially harvest and sell.
We level soil only for vegetables. We leveled about 20 hectares in one of our fields last year. This spring, we planted potatoes there, treated, and harvested them in autumn. We've received a full return on our investment: one hectare yielded an average of 500,000 rubles (around $3,200).
Wet spots are one of the factors that can be detected using the vegetation index. If we have a lot of precipitation in the last few years, the NDVI index would be lower in problem areas.
Wet spots are one of the factors that can be detected using the vegetation index. If we have a lot of precipitation in the last few years, the NDVI index would be lower in problem areas.
— How did you learn about the OneSoil app? I know that it had something to do with using your farm's productivity zones for the first time.
About two years ago, we decided to try variable-rate fertilizer application. We have already understood that you can't get the maximum yield planting a uniform rate. Each part of the field needs its own dose of fertilizer. We scanned soil for humus content, acidity, and electrical conductivity to select zones for variable-rate fertilizer application. We built the maps based on each indicator and tried to identify the limiting factor, but we ran into some difficulties. Only a few fields had high humus content and optimal acidity, but we couldn't understand what limited yield in the rest of the field or how to delimit zones to apply fertilizers.
About two years ago, we decided to try variable-rate fertilizer application. We have already understood that you can't get the maximum yield planting a uniform rate. Each part of the field needs its own dose of fertilizer. We scanned soil for humus content, acidity, and electrical conductivity to select zones for variable-rate fertilizer application. We built the maps based on each indicator and tried to identify the limiting factor, but we ran into some difficulties. Only a few fields had high humus content and optimal acidity, but we couldn't understand what limited yield in the rest of the field or how to delimit zones to apply fertilizers.
— How did you learn about the OneSoil app? I know that it had something to do with using your farm's productivity zones for the first time.
About two years ago, we decided to try variable-rate fertilizer application. We have already understood that you can't get the maximum yield planting a uniform rate. Each part of the field needs its own dose of fertilizer. We scanned soil for humus content, acidity, and electrical conductivity to select zones for variable-rate fertilizer application. We built the maps based on each indicator and tried to identify the limiting factor, but we ran into some difficulties. Only a few fields had high humus content and optimal acidity, but we couldn't understand what limited yield in the rest of the field or how to delimit zones to apply fertilizers.
About two years ago, we decided to try variable-rate fertilizer application. We have already understood that you can't get the maximum yield planting a uniform rate. Each part of the field needs its own dose of fertilizer. We scanned soil for humus content, acidity, and electrical conductivity to select zones for variable-rate fertilizer application. We built the maps based on each indicator and tried to identify the limiting factor, but we ran into some difficulties. Only a few fields had high humus content and optimal acidity, but we couldn't understand what limited yield in the rest of the field or how to delimit zones to apply fertilizers.
I suggested using vegetation index data based on satellite images, but I was told that those pictures are nonsense and nobody needs them.
So I decided to conduct an experiment on my own the first year. Since there was no financing, I had to find a free satellite image source to calculate the vegetation index. Fortunately, I have an educational background in geomatics, so I could calculate everything myself using Sentinel images. But this was very time consuming, so I decided to look for other ways to do it. That's how I came across the OneSoil app.
This is the OneSoil web app's home screen. The brownish-green scale corresponds to an NDVI value between 0 and 1. The greener the field, the higher the index.
In early 2019, I uploaded my fields to the web app and tracked plant development throughout the season. Zones were gradually delimited with a higher and lower vegetation index. I compared them to the soil scanning results I got earlier in the year. I asked agronomists whether some crops really developed better in certain areas.
At the end of the season, I built the productivity zone map based on the data I had gathered and sampled soil from all zones in the spring. We did a soil analysis and saw that high-productivity areas have optimal acidity, and higher humus and micronutrient content. The opposite was true in low-productivity areas. That's how I proved that productivity zones based on vegetation index data could be used to apply fertilizers.
At the end of the season, I built the productivity zone map based on the data I had gathered and sampled soil from all zones in the spring. We did a soil analysis and saw that high-productivity areas have optimal acidity, and higher humus and micronutrient content. The opposite was true in low-productivity areas. That's how I proved that productivity zones based on vegetation index data could be used to apply fertilizers.
— How do you use the OneSoil app now?
I love the nitrogen fertilizer calculation featurein the web app. You simply delimit field vegetation index zones as of any day, and there you have it, a map to apply nitrogen fertilizer.
I love the nitrogen fertilizer calculation featurein the web app. You simply delimit field vegetation index zones as of any day, and there you have it, a map to apply nitrogen fertilizer.
Just select your field on a map and set planned yield to make a prescription map for nitrogen fertilizer application in the OneSoil web app. The rates are calculated automatically.
How do we use this feature? We have a mobile lab to make leaf sampling express analysis for 14 micronutrients. We use vegetation index zones built by OneSoil for leaf sampling. After the analysis, we see right away which micronutrients in the field are lacking and which are overly abundant. Based on this info, we calculate fertilizers for variable-rate application.
Reagents in the mobile lab to analyze micronutrient content in the soil. The color specifies the concentration of various nutrients.
Variable-rate application is, at the very least, a fertilizer saver. But there are two ways. You can take a uniform fertilizer rate and distribute it in the field by adding more fertilizer to the high vegetation index areas and less to those with low vegetation indices.
With this approach, costs don't decrease, but yield increases by 10-15% on average.
Another approach is to skip fertilizer applications in zones with low vegetation indices and to use the uniform application rate for high vegetation index zones. With this approach, yield increases while costs decrease. We're not yet sure which approach is more effective. The first method works in some fields, and the second one works in others.
— I know you're planning to purchase several OneSoil weather sensors.Please tell us why you think they're needed on a farm? Can you get by without them?
We install sensors to track moisture content in different areas of the field as well as at what depth moisture is present. Different crops require moisture at different soil levels. Cabbage doesn't need deep watering because it gets water from the surface, but it's completely different for carrots because they need to be watered 30 to 40 cm deep to stretch for moisture.
We install sensors to track moisture content in different areas of the field as well as at what depth moisture is present. Different crops require moisture at different soil levels. Cabbage doesn't need deep watering because it gets water from the surface, but it's completely different for carrots because they need to be watered 30 to 40 cm deep to stretch for moisture.
— I know you're planning to purchase several OneSoil weather sensors. Please tell us why you think they're needed on a farm? Can you get by without them?
We install sensors to track moisture content in different areas of the field as well as at what depth moisture is present. Different crops require moisture at different soil levels. Cabbage doesn't need deep watering because it gets water from the surface, but it's completely different for carrots because they need to be watered 30 to 40 cm deep to stretch for moisture.
The irrigation control system we use now also builds areas of electrical conductivity and the highest moisture capacity. It helps understand moisture dynamics. The weather here isn't hot, precipitation is infrequent, and the graph curve remains at the same level. Based on this graph, we see that the moisture isn't used, and there's no need for irrigation. When the curve drops, we start watering the plants. It would be hard to track this data without sensors.
We install sensors to track moisture content in different areas of the field as well as at what depth moisture is present. Different crops require moisture at different soil levels. Cabbage doesn't need deep watering because it gets water from the surface, but it's completely different for carrots because they need to be watered 30 to 40 cm deep to stretch for moisture.
The irrigation control system we use now also builds areas of electrical conductivity and the highest moisture capacity. It helps understand moisture dynamics. The weather here isn't hot, precipitation is infrequent, and the graph curve remains at the same level. Based on this graph, we see that the moisture isn't used, and there's no need for irrigation. When the curve drops, we start watering the plants. It would be hard to track this data without sensors.
They help understand what's happening to plants in fields and how agronomists and irrigators work.
Our irrigation control system is good but pretty expensive. I'd like to purchase a few OneSoil weather sensors to see if I can manage moisture the same way. And if the result is the same, why pay 4-5 times more? I'll think about replacing our current system.
Interview conducted by Tanya Kovalchuk
If you want to discuss this article and share your own experience, please, join our Telegram community!
Tanya
Related Stories
People, fields and technology
Get all new articles straight to your inbox! You can read them even in the field.