A system and method for evaluating soil characteristics. The system and method includes providing one or more soil test kits to a user. The soil tests kits may include ion-exchange resins and may instruct the user to collect a soil sample from his/her growing area, to combine the soil sample with the ion-exchange resins, and to provide the combination to the system for analysis. Other test kits may not include ion-exchange resins and may instruct the user to provide a soil sample from his/her growing area to the system for analysis. The system evaluates the ion-exchange resins and/or the soil samples to identify nutrient levels, pH levels, and other characteristics of the soil. Using the evaluation results, the system provides feedback, recommendations and/or products to the user to improve the soil conditions and to ensure a successful crop, yield, quality, and nutrient density. The system and method also may include providing a second soil test kit to the user at a predetermined time after the first, to evaluate a second soil sample, and to compare the second evaluation results with the first to assess the improvement of the soil conditions.

Systems, methods and apparatus are provided for monitoring soil properties including soil moisture, soil electrical conductivity and soil temperature during an agricultural input application. Embodiments include a soil reflectivity sensor and/or a soil temperature sensor mounted to a seed firmer for measuring moisture and temperature in a planting trench. A thermopile for measuring temperature via infrared radiation is described herein. In one example, the thermopile is disposed in a body and senses infrared radiation through an infrared transparent window. Aspects of any of the disclosed embodiments may be implemented in or communicate with an agricultural intelligence computer system as described herein.

In various embodiments, an analytics system determines nucleic acid sequence reads of genetic material in a soil sample from a geographical location. The analytics system determines a first set of measures of a plurality of gene functions represented in the nucleic acid sequence reads. The analytics system determines a second set of measures of a plurality of metabolic pathways of microorganisms present in soil at the geographical location. The analytics system determines a third set of measures of a plurality of soil health indicators of the soil at the geographical location, the plurality of soil health indicators including a plurality of levels of granularity. The analytics system determines a measure of an agronomic attribute of the soil at the geographical location as a function of the first, second, and third sets of measures.

A system and method for evaluating soil characteristics. The system and method includes providing one or more soil test kits to a user. The soil tests kits may include ion-exchange resins and may instruct the user to collect a soil sample from his/her growing area, to combine the soil sample with the ion-exchange resins, and to provide the combination to the system for analysis. Other test kits may not include ion-exchange resins and may instruct the user to provide a soil sample from his/her growing area to the system for analysis. The system evaluates the ion-exchange resins and/or the soil samples to identify nutrient levels, pH levels, and other characteristics of the soil. Using the evaluation results, the system provides feedback, recommendations and/or products to the user to improve the soil conditions and to ensure a successful crop, yield, quality, and nutrient density. The system and method also may include providing a second soil test kit to the user at a predetermined time after the first, to evaluate a second soil sample, and to compare the second evaluation results with the first to assess the improvement of the soil conditions.

Methods and systems for generating agronomic indices and executing one or more actions in response to said agronomic indices at an agriculture site, the method comprising: receiving a set of samples associated with the agriculture site; generating a sample dataset upon processing the set of samples with a set of sample processing operations; generating a set of microbiome-associated features upon performing a set of transformation operations upon the sample dataset, wherein the set of microbiome-associated features comprises a first subset of taxonomic annotations, a second subset of functional annotations and a third subset of ecological indices; generating values of a set of agronomic indices based upon the set of microbiome-associated features; and executing an action for producing a desired outcome at the agriculture site, based upon the set of agronomic indices.

Devices, methods, kits and means for easy, accurate, and fast estimation of soil microbial load, including fungal load, and fungal to bacterial ratio are described. The methods include extracting soil biomass into an extraction fluid to obtain a soil extract and detecting the fungal fraction, the bacterial fraction, and the fungal to bacterial ratio in the soil extract. The devices typically include microBIOMETER®, devices for particle size discrimination, and devices for absorbance and reflectance detection. The difference in microscopic sizes or spectroscopic absorbance of the fungal particles relative to those of the bacterial particles is used to compute the contribution of each type of particle to the biomass. In one example, the relative coverage of the microBIOMETER® device membrane by the fungal and/or bacterial particles can be measured by and then calculated using a cell phone camera and application.

A biological sample analysis device that is an easily portable free-standing device for determining the rate of deterioration of biological samples.

Devices, methods, kits and means for easy, accurate, and fast estimation of soil microbial load, including fungal load, and fungal to bacterial ratio are described. The methods include extracting soil biomass into an extraction fluid to obtain a soil extract and detecting the fungal fraction, the bacterial fraction, and the fungal to bacterial ratio in the soil extract. The devices typically include microBIOMETER®, devices for particle size discrimination, and devices for absorbance and reflectance detection. The difference in microscopic sizes or spectroscopic absorbance of the fungal particles relative to those of the bacterial particles is used to compute the contribution of each type of particle to the biomass. In one example, the relative coverage of the microBIOMETER® device membrane by the fungal and/or bacterial particles can be measured by and then calculated using a cell phone camera and application.

A biological sample analysis device that is an easily portable free-standing device for determining the rate of deterioration of biological samples.

A system and method for evaluating soil characteristics. The system and method includes providing one or more soil test kits to a user. The soil tests kits may include ion-exchange resins and may instruct the user to collect a soil sample from his/her growing area, to combine the soil sample with the ion-exchange resins, and to provide the combination to the system for analysis. Other test kits may not include ion-exchange resins and may instruct the user to provide a soil sample from his/her growing area to the system for analysis. The system evaluates the ion-exchange resins and/or the soil samples to identify nutrient levels, pH levels, and other characteristics of the soil. Using the evaluation results, the system provides feedback, recommendations and/or products to the user to improve the soil conditions and to ensure a successful crop, yield, quality, and nutrient density. The system and method also may include providing a second soil test kit to the user at a predetermined time after the first, to evaluate a second soil sample, and to compare the second evaluation results with the first to assess the improvement of the soil conditions.