Hi all! I am so sorry I took an unannounced hiatus from blogging, but I’m back and ready to share my plans for the next year of Spatially Challenged. But first, some life updates! Since I wrote to you last, I’ve gotten married, published two articles in Agronomy Journal, become an aunt, run my personal fastest 5k, and finished the majority of my PhD coursework (in approximate order of importance). I’m still working on my PhD in agronomy in a soybean and small grain extension lab at UW-Madison. My two main projects right now are a multi-state foliar fertilizer small plot study and a data-driven approach to predicting response to potassium fertilizer. The last field season for the foliar study just finished, and the first field season for the potassium study just got established–hopefully be sharing more about both soon!
Beyond life just getting really hectic, the main reason posting fell off my priority list this year is that I didn’t do much GIS or data analysis that I could share between February and September. I’m looking forward to writing about some of the work I’ve done on yield monitor data cleaning, fertilizer prescription recommendations, and data interpretation over the next few weeks. From there, I expect to learn many new regression techniques in 2021, and I’d like to highlight the resources I find along the way.
One thing I’ve found tough about this blog is that I have varying degrees of expertise in the different topics I write about. In the next few months, I will probably post about more things I’m /not/ an expert on than things I /am/ and expert on. I plan to share some of the struggles I fall into and some of the tools that I stumble upon and just generally be honest about the learning process.
As a reader, you can expect blog posts from me at least once a month this year. There will be fewer step-by-step guides than in the past and more highlights of methods I’m learning, tools I use, and cool work I’d like to elevate from collaborators and strangers alike. Thank you for reading, and I’m looking forward to the year ahead!
Spatially Challenged 