Soil Sampling in FarmQA

In this article, we'll outline the complete workflow for soil sampling in FarmQA. We'll start with setting up your account so you can color your fields based on whether they've been sampled or not. Once that's set up, we'll discuss the work flow you'll use while you're sampling the field, including navigating to the field, accessing and adding soil sample geomarkers, and changing your field from Not Sampled to Sampled. Finally, we'll walk you through how to upload your soil sample data when it's been sent back from the lab. 

 

If you're just collecting soil samples, start at the Navigate to a field section and read through       Change a field from Not Sampled to Sampled. If you're an Enterprise Administrator, or you're in charge of getting your FarmQA account setup for soil sampling, please read the final three sections discussing how to color your fields based on whether they've been sampled or not, creating a soil sample import profile, and importing soil data to FarmQA. 

 

Navigate to a field

Access existing soil sample geomarkers

Setting soil sample geomarkers

Collecting soil samples

Change a field from Not Sampled to Sampled

Coloring your fields based on whether they've been sampled or not

Setting up an integration with AgVise Laboratories

Creating a soil sample import profile

Import your soil data to FarmQA

Viewing your soils data

Turn sample locations into Soil Geomarkers

 

 

Navigate to a field

Available in the: Mobile App

User permissions: All Users

 

For a detailed look at how to navigate to a field, check out this support article. Here's a brief overview:

• In the Fields page, locate and click on the field you want to navigate to.
• Click the More actions button then click Route to  button.
• You'll be redirected to your desired mobile direction application.

 

Access existing soil sample geomarkers

Available from the: Mobile App

User Permissions: All Users

 

For a detailed look at how to access existing soil sample geomarkers, check out this support article. Here's a brief overview:

• In the Fields  page, click on the field you want to sample. 
• Swipe up on the white rectangular bar at the bottom of the screen and click the button next to   Soil samples. 
• Your soil sample geomarkers should now be displayed within the field. 

 

Setting soil sample geomarkers

Available from the: Mobile App

User permissions: Enterprise Administrator, Agronomist

• In the Fields tab, click on the field you're collecting soil samples for. 
• Click on the location you want to add your soil sample geomarker at, the click the Drop marker at location button. 
• Select Soil sample for the geomarker type, give the marker a name/ID, then click SAVE MARKER.
• Your soil sample geomarker will now appear in the field (pictured below). 

 

Collecting soil samples

Available from the: Mobile App

User permissions: Enterprise Administrator, Agronomist, Grower, Standard, Crop Scout

• In the Fields tab, click on the field you want to collect soil samples for. 
• After you've selected the field, click anywhere on the field then click the Collect soil samples button (pictured below).

• If you have any pre-existing soil sample geomarkers, you can turn them on by clicking on the   Layer button, then selecting the geomarker layer that contains your soil samples (pictured below). 

• While sampling, click on the location on the map you're collecting a sample at. The FarmQA mobile app will then automatically open our barcode scanner so you can scan in the barcode on your sample bag. When importing your soil test results, we'll use this barcode to associate your data with that location (pictured below). 
• Once your barcode has been scanned in, like tracking line to the nearest soil sample to you and the distance to it will be updated and displayed (pictured below). 

 

Change a field from Not Sampled to Sampled

Available from the: Mobile App

User Permissions: Enterprise Administrator, Agronomist, Grower

 

NOTE: you can only complete these steps if you setup your growing season to have Sampled and Not Sampled crops

• In the Fields tab, click on the field you just collected soil samples for.
• Click the More options button, then click Change crop/variety.  
• Change the crop assignment for the field from Not Sampled to Sampled and then click the SET CROP/VARIETY button. Your crop assignment will then be updated, and your field's color will be updated accordingly. 

 

Coloring your fields based on whether they've been sampled or not

Available from the: Web App

User permissions: Enterprise Administrator

• Click on Settings , then go to the Growing seasons tab. 
• At the bottom of the screen, click the blue Add button, and select New growing season (pictured below). 

• Name the growing season Soil Sampling and set the state to Active. When you've done this, press the Save button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen (pictured below). 

• In the upper right-hand corner of the screen, use the growing season dropdown menu to set the growing season you're viewing to Soil Sampling. 
• Go to the Crops/varieties tab. If there are any crops currently in your Soil Sampling growing season, delete all of those. Once you've deleted all your crops, click the  Add New Crop button.
• Create two new crops: a Sampled crop and a Not Sampled crop. Both crops should be loaded with the following information (pictured below): 
  • Name: Sampled or Not Sampled. 
  • Mater crop: Other
  • Template: choose any template in your account, like the Agronomist Template. 
  • Map color: we recommend red for Not Sampled and green for Sampled. 

• After you've setup your crops, go to the Fields tab. 
• Use the Items per page dropdown at the bottom of the page to make sure that all of your fields are displayed (pictured below).

• Check the box at the upper left-hand corner of the screen to select all of your fields. Then click     Assign a crop and assign all of your fields to the Not Sampled crop (pictured below). 

• All of the fields in your FarmQA account are now assigned to the Not Sampled crop. In the       Map you can view this by setting the FIELD COLOR to Color by crop (pictured below). 

 

Setting up an integration with AgVise Laboratories

Available from the: Web App

User permissions: Enterprise Administrators

 

For a detailed look at how to access existing soil sample geomarkers, check out this support article. Here's a brief overview:

• Log in to your AgVise Laboratories account.
• Go to Settings > API Settings and copy your API Key.
• In your FarmQA account, go to Soil > Labs and copy your API key into the AGVISE API Key text box.

 

Creating a soil sample import profile

Available from the: Web app

User permissions: Enterprise Administrator, Agronomist

• Click on the Soil icon, then go to the Settings tab. 
• Click the Add button next to IMPORT PROFILE to create a new import profile (pictured below).

• In the Soil Import Profile window, either click inside the window or drag the .CSV file containing your soils data into the import window (pictured below). 

• Fill out the following information to start your Soil Import Profile setup (pictured below):
  1. The Name you want to give your import profile. 
  2. The columns containing the Grower, Field, and Sample ID information associated with your soil samples. If you have a Date column, you can set that up in your import profile as well. 
• When you're ready to move forward, click the Next button. 

• Check the boxes next to the columns that contain soils data you want to import. Click the Next button when you're ready to move on to the final step of setting up your soil import profile (pictured below).

 

• Fill out the following information to finish setting up your Soil Import Profile:
  1. Use the dropdown menu to pick from a preloaded list of Soil properties to assign to your samples. In the example below, N is set to Nitrogen (N) and OM is set to Organic Matter. 
  2. A Unit of measure will be automatically set depending on what soil property you set. If the incorrect unit of measure was used, use the dropdown to select the correct one. 
  3. Set the Depth interval for each sample. If you need to create a depth interval, click the Add soil depth button at the bottom left-hand corner of the window. 
  4. Assign Metrics to your values if you want to track them as metric data. If you haven't created metrics yet, click the Add soil metric button to create one. 
• Click the Save button to finish setting up your soil import profile (pictured below). 

 

Import your soil data to FarmQA

Available from the: Web App

User permissions: Enterprise Administrator, Agronomist

• Click on the Soil icon, then make sure you're in the Samples tab.
• In the Samples tab, click the Import soil data icon. Use the menu that pops up to select the soil import profile you want to use for your data import (pictured below). 

• Fill out the following information in the Upload soil samples window (pictured below): 
  1. Use the Select the top enterprise to import into dropdown to choose the branch of your enterprise your soil samples are being imported into. 
  2. Select the Growing season to import your data into. 
  3. Pick the Geomarker type to set your sample locations to. In this case, it will be Soil sample.
  4. Use the calendar to pick the Date to set your sample import to. If you setup a date column in your import profile, the date you set in the Upload soil samples window will be overwritten.

• When you've finished entering the information above, a window will appear where you can upload your soil sample .CSV file. Either click within the window to browse your computer for the file or drag the file within the window to upload your soils data (pictured below). 

• Your soils data has now been uploaded and is viewable within your FarmQA account. 

 

Viewing your soils data

Available from the: Web App

User permissions: All Users

• Click on the Soils icon, then make sure you're in the Samples tab.
• Use the fields menu on the left-hand side of the screen to locate the field you want to view data for. Once you've located it, click on that field. 
• Users can sort and display their data by clicking on one of the following options in the center of the screen: 
  
  • Locations by row: have your samples listed by location, where each row corresponds to a soil sample location/marker. 

• • Nutrients by row: have your samples listed by soil nutrient, where each row corresponds to a soil nutrient and each of your sample locations are listed in each column. 

• • Samples list: have each of your individual samples listed in a row of your table. 

• All sample data can be sorted by using the View by option above your table. Sort your data by the Day, Week, Month, or Year it was uploaded in. 
• Users can filter out previous year's data by clicking on the Samples list view, then using the     Filter option to filter out all undesired data from your list. 

 

Turn sample locations into Soil Geomarkers

Available from the: Web App

User permissions: Enterprise Administrator, Agronomist, Grower, Standard, Crop Scout

• Click on the Soil icon, then make sure you're in the Samples tab.
• Click on the field you want to turn your sampling points into geomarkers for, then click the Turn samples into permanent markers button (pictured below). 

 

Exporting your soils data from FarmQA

Available from the: Web App

User permissions: All Users

 

To export data for a single field: 

• Click on the Soils icon, then select the field you want to export data for. 
• Click the Excel  button above your data table to export your data to a .CSV file (pictured below). 

• If you want your export to include the sample locations in latitude and longitude, click on the Samples list option, then click on the Columns dropdown and select the Latitude and Longitude, then click OK (pictured below). 

 

To export data for multiple fields: 

• Click on the Soils icon, then click on the  Multi-select icon at the top of the screen (pictured below). 

• Hover your cursor over the fields you want to export points from then click the Add to cart button to add that field's data to your data export (pictured below). 

• When you've selected all the fields you want to export data for, click on the Show button at the top of the screen (pictured below). 

• Click  CSV file to export your data for the selected fields to a spreadsheet, or click the Shape file button to export your sampling locations for these fields (pictured below).