Clemson offers free digital tools to support South Carolina farmers

As the 2025 growing season kicks off, the Clemson Extension Precision Agriculture Program offers free web apps to help farmers boost productivity and make informed decisions.

“Many of these tools were developed in collaboration with Extension team members and Clemson professors after South Carolina growers expressed concerns related to applying the proper amounts of inputs needed for their crops to grow,” said Kendall Kirk, director of the Clemson University Center for Agricultural Technology (CU-CAT). “We realized we could make people’s lives easier by automating some of these calculations.”

Each web app includes clear operating instructions, is mobile-friendly and easy to use. Available tools are:

Drip fertigation

This app calculates daily and weekly fertilizer rates for drip fertigation and includes recommendations for many horticulture crops. Drip Fertigation Calculator tutorial video.

Fertilizer blend

This app evaluates different cost-effective fertilizer blends for meeting nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK) fertilizer application requirements. It includes a worksheet for manure application and other deductions.

Injection pump settings

This app determines injection pump settings for chemigation and fertigation. It includes parameters for many popular injection pump models.

Lime rates

One of the more popular tools, this app calculates lime requirements based on soil test results and target soil pH.

Reverse lime rates

This app determines soil pH resulting from applying a particular rate and source of agricultural lime.

Liquid fertilizer solutions

This tool calculates nutrient compositions of liquid solutions from soluble fertilizers.

Soil acidification

This app is helpful if lowering soil pH is required for a field, such as recommended for some horticultural crops, especially blueberries.

NPK recommendations (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium)

Developed in collaboration with the Clemson Ag Service Laboratory, this app provides Clemson NPK fertilizer recommendations based on soil test fertility labels.

Apps for peanut farmers

Peanut farmers can use specialized apps to calculate digger conveyor speeds, estimate yields and determine loan rates. With the U.S. Department of Agriculture reporting  82,000 acres of peanuts were planted in South Carolina in 2024, worth more than $75 million, these tools offer critical support.

Apps for grain and livestock producers

Additional apps serve grain and livestock producers. The EMC Calculator, developed with Aaron Turner, an agricultural mechanization and business assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Sciences, forecasts equilibrium moisture content for stored grain based on local weather conditions. Many producers use this as a decision aid for grain bin fan operation.

Livestock producers can use the Feed Ration Calculator and Feed Ration Optimizer to balance custom feed mixes and cut costs while meeting nutritional goals.

Precision Agriculture is a CU-CAT program, based at Clemson’s Edisto Research and Education Center in Blackville, South Carolina. CU-CAT scientists constantly work on new tools like software, sensors, drones and robots to help make farming easier and more environmentally efficient.

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