Proximal Sensing

Understand the soil differences across your farm

Soil conditions can change across a paddock and down the soil profile. These differences can influence crop growth, drainage, nutrient availability and how your soil responds to management.

OptiSoil uses electromagnetic (EM) and gamma radiometric surveys to map this variability. Combined with targeted soil sampling and laboratory analysis, these surveys help growers and agronomists understand what the patterns mean and where further investigation is needed.

Electromagnetic soil surveys

Our DualEM equipment measures apparent soil electrical conductivity at multiple depths. Readings are influenced by soil properties and conditions, including clay content, moisture and salinity.

EM mapping helps identify contrasting areas across a paddock, providing a starting point for investigating soil variability, planning sampling locations and selecting representative sites for soil moisture probes.

Gamma radiometric surveys

Gamma surveys measure naturally occurring radiation from the ground. These measurements provide another layer of information that can help distinguish changes in soil and parent material.

Using gamma data alongside EM surveys helps build a more detailed picture of soil variability than either dataset alone.

Targeted soil sampling

Survey patterns guide investigation, but they do not confirm a soil type or diagnose a constraint on their own.

We use survey results alongside available information, such as yield maps, elevation and satellite imagery, to design targeted sampling programs. Soil cores and laboratory testing then help establish what the mapped differences represent.