Geostatistical analysis of soil properties and corn quality

This study used geostatistical methods to examine the spatial structures of soil properties and corn quality parameters for the year 2000 in an Eastern Illinois corn field. It was found that soil properties were either strongly or moderately correlated in space. Corn oil did not show any spatial dependence, corn protein and starch of two Pioneer hybrids, 33G26 and 33Y18, showed either strong or moderate spatial dependence. Spatial dependence of corn quality parameters were weaker compared with soil properties, and their spatial structures were quality parameter- and hybridspecific. Attempts to use more intensively measured surrogate data (corn yield, relative elevation, and soil electrical conductivity (EC)) and co-kriging to estimate spatial patterns of corn quality parameters were not very successful with data from 2000 for this field.