AgriSpec® — the rugged, field portable Vis/NIR analyzer designed specifically for analysis of a wide range of organic and inorganic materials, including nutrient and moisture properties in soil, monitoring the composition of manure and other biosolids applied as fertilizer to agricultural lands, animal forage, food products, wood products, paper, textiles, and petrochemicals.
While NIR is typically performed in the laboratory, AgriSpec® makes field use of NIR not only possible, but practical. Many studies have established that NIR provides a means for rapid non-destructive soil analysis. Several studies have found that it is not necessary to dry or grind the samples, rather, measurement of intact soil samples provides results similar to more processed samples for a wide range of soil properties. In a study funded by Agri-Food Canada, the soil sample collection at the Canada/Manitoba Soil Survey was used to develop NIR calibrations for organic carbon, total nitrogen, cation exchange capacity, sand fraction, silt fraction, clay fraction, copper, zinc, chromium, nickel, cadmium, and manganese.

AgriSpec®, among its many applications, is also ideally suited for rapid in-field analysis of both living foliage and dried plant materials for the determination of nitrogen, lignin, cellulose and soluble sugars in plant tissue. It is possible to model more complex attributes such as herbivore feeding rates from foliage and prediction of crop yield. AgriSpec® is well suited for rapid in-field chemical and mineralogical composition analysis of sediments, which, when measured by NIR, are similar to those measured in soils, including, total carbon, organic carbon, total nitrogen, phosphorus, percent organic matter, and moisture.

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