Relating planter downforce and soil strength

Soil strength is a property that contributes to agricultural outcomes and describing related soil attributes. It is typically measured at low throughput with manual implements or approximated on-the-go with unique systems, limiting the robustness and broader applicability of data sets. This work assessed the viability of planter downforce as an on-the-go and relatively standardized means to collect soil strength data. Manually sampled soil mechanical and physical property data was collected and compared with planter downforce. Medium to high relationships were observed between planter downforce and vane shear strength (r2 = 0.76), cone penetration resistance (r2 = 0.67), and bulk density (r2 = 0.78). These indicate planter downforce - a dataset extensively collected by modern planters - has the potential to meaningfully describe distributions of soil strength in agricultural fields, and thereby serve as a useful soil informatics dataset to improve modeling of crop development and productivity.