PRECISION FARMING SYSTEM WITH SCALED SOIL CHARACTERISTICS

1 . A method of selecting a treatment recommendation for nitrogen loss in a field, the method comprising:

measuring a first characteristic of a soil sample that is related to biologic nitrogen loss to produce a measured value;

measuring a second characteristic of the soil sample;

using the second characteristic to select a sample group for the soil sample;

scaling the measured value based on the soil sample group the soil sample is placed into to form a scaled measure; and

using the scaled measure to select a treatment recommendation.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the first characteristic comprises a count of genes involved in denitrification.

3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the first characteristic comprises a value indicative of oxygen availability in the soil sample.

4 . The method of claim 3 wherein the value indicative of oxygen availability comprises a count of genes associated with low oxygen availability.

5 . The method of claim 3 wherein the value indicative of oxygen availability comprises a count of genes associated with high oxygen availability.

6 . The method of claim 2 wherein the second characteristic comprises a soil texture of the soil sample.

7 . The method of claim 6 wherein soil texture is derived from the USDA SSURGO database.

8 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:

measuring a third characteristic of the soil sample, wherein the third characteristic is also related to biologic nitrogen loss to produce a second measured value;

scaling the second measured value based on the soil sample group the soil sample is placed into to form a second scaled measure; and

combining the second scaled measure with the scaled measure to form a combined measure;

wherein using the scaled measure to select the treatment recommendation comprises using the combined measure to select the treatment recommendation.

9 . The method of claim 8 wherein the first characteristic comprises a count of genes involved in denitrification and the third characteristic comprises a value indicative of oxygen availability in the soil sample.

10 . The method of claim 9 wherein the second characteristic comprises soil structure.

11 . A method comprising:

using a soil texture of a soil sample to select a group of soil samples;

measuring a characteristic of the soil sample to produce a measured value;

scaling the measured value based on measured values determined for soil samples in the group of soil samples to form a scaled value;

displaying the scaled value instead of the measured value so as to improve a precision farming system.

12 . The method of claim 11 wherein the characteristic comprises a denitrification count of the soil sample.

13 . The method of claim 11 wherein the characteristic comprises an oxygen availability value.

14 . The method of claim 11 wherein scaling the measured value comprises determining a maximum value for the characteristic for the group of soil samples, determining a minimum value for the characteristic for the group of soil samples and using the maximum and minimum to scale the measured value.

15 . The method of claim 14 wherein determining the maximum value for the characteristic comprises determining a maximum value that is less than a largest value for the characteristic measured for a soil sample of the soil sample group.

16 . A method comprising:

using a soil structure of a soil sample to select a sample group for the soil sample;

determining a denitrification count of the soil sample;

scaling the denitrification count relative to denitrification counts of other soil samples in the sample group to form a scaled denitrification count; and

displaying a user interface depicting the scaled denitrification count.

17 . The method of claim 16 further comprising:

determining an oxygen availability value of the soil sample; and

scaling the oxygen availability value of the soil sample relative to oxygen availability values of other soil samples in the sample group to form a scaled oxygen availability value.

18 . The method of claim 17 further comprising combining the scaled denitrification count and the scaled oxygen availability value to form a scaled biologic N loss risk.

19 . The method of claim 18 further comprising determine a nitrogen leaching risk from the soil structure of the soil sample.

20 . The method of claim 19 further comprising using the nitrogen leaching risk and the scaled biologic N loss risk to recommend a treatment for a zone of a field associated with the soil sample.