Application of Clustering Method to Determine Production Zones of Field

Abstract

Determining the production zones of field is an important analysis in the precision farming technology as these may be used to control field operations in site-specific application. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the potential to identify the yield potential zones based on historical yield maps and to evaluate the procedure over the growing extent of input data. Standardized yield values from six growing seasons were considered. Suitable datasets were created, and hierarchical and non-hierarchical clustering methods were applied to create clusters. Results showed that using the data from commercial combine monitoring systems enables determining the zones. Multiple yield data are recommended as the values of analyses increase with the increased number of input datasets. However, commercial data have limitations in terms of complexity.

Keywords

• management zones
• clusters
• yield data
• yield potential
• standardization