Sustained agricultural productivity is largely dependent on our management of soils.  Soils, however, are inherently challenging to manage effectively given their variability across fields and their varied response to changes in practices coupled with the high cost of sampling and laboratory analysis.  There are however a number of emerging technologies that can improve agricultural producers’ understanding of soil responses to changes in management.  In this talk, Dr. Smukler will share results from his laboratory’s work using a variety of these technologies to evaluate soil properties at various scales.  His work has demonstrated how mid-infrared spectroscopy can substantially reduce the cost of analyzing certain soil properties without compromising precision or accuracy.  With this increased capacity to cost-effectively sample and analyze soil, his lab has used high-resolution drone imagery to predict soil properties such as electrical conductivity and texture at the field scale and medium-resolution satellite imagery to predict properties such as soil workability and soil organic matter content across landscapes. These techniques could substantially enhance the evaluation of a broad range of agricultural management practices for improved soil management.