Grasslands play an important role in global food security. However, there are increasing pressures to improve the sustainability of ruminant farming. Precision nutrient management tools (e.g., proximal soil sensors for soil mapping) offer opportunities to improve nutrient use efficiency through spatially-variable nutrient application rate maps. Despite little research validating these technologies on grasslands, commercial companies promote these technologies to grassland farmers. In this study, the accuracy of commercial companies offering these services was evaluated by comparing soil pH, P, K, Mg and SOM measurements derived from conventional soil sampling and laboratory analyses to measurements derived from the commercial operators, across a range of soils that are typical found in UK grasslands. Results showed that soil mapping services utilising gamma-ray spectroscopy (GRS) were not sufficiently accurate to predict soil pH, P, K and Mg on grasslands, and subsequently inappropriate for nutrient management planning for variable rate lime and nutrient application. Conversely, both GRS and visible-near infrared spectroscopy (Vis–NIR) accurately predicted between-field SOM variations in grassland soils but not within-field variation. This study emphasises the need for further research to explore the limitations of, and opportunities for, the universal application of these technologies across different soil types and/or land uses before their commercial application. It is therefore highly recommended that commercially-available soil mapping services are subject to certification, similar to centralised soil testing laboratories, to ensure data are accurate for soil management interpretation. The lack of reliability of such systems risks farmers’ confidence in the value of soil mapping, which could severely hinder future adoption of potentially valuable technologies.

草原在全球粮食安全中发挥着重要作用。然而，提高反刍动物养殖可持续性的压力越来越大。精确的养分管理工具（例如，用于土壤测绘的近端土壤传感器）通过空间可变的养分施用率图提供了提高养分利用效率的机会。尽管很少有研究在草原上验证这些技术，但商业公司还是向草原农民推广了这些技术。在这项研究中，通过将传统土壤采样和实验室分析得出的土壤 pH、P、K、Mg 和 SOM 测量结果与商业运营商得出的测量结果进行比较，评估了提供这些服务的商业公司的准确性。典型的发现于英国草原。结果表明，利用伽马射线能谱 (GRS) 的土壤测绘服务不足以准确预测草原上的土壤 pH 值、P、K 和 Mg，因此不适用于变速石灰和养分施用的养分管理规划。相反，GRS 和可见-近红外光谱 (Vis–NIR) 都准确预测了草地土壤中 SOM 的田间变化，但不能预测田间变化。本研究强调需要进一步研究，以探索这些技术在商业应用之前在不同土壤类型和/或土地用途中普遍应用的局限性和机会。因此，强烈建议商业上可用的土壤测绘服务需要经过认证，类似于集中式土壤测试实验室，确保土壤管理解释的数据准确。此类系统缺乏可靠性会危及农民对土壤测绘价值的信心，这可能会严重阻碍未来采用具有潜在价值的技术。