NuTec Soil Precision Fertility Application and Management

With over a decade of experience in precision farming and GIS mapping, NuTec Soil specializes in precision fertility analysis and variable-rate application and management for golf courses. 

NuTec owner Marc Thigpen spent thirty years growing tobacco, cotton and vegetables on his family’s farm near Trenton, North Carolina before founding NuTec. Having “grown up” with GPS as it became mainstreamed in agriculture, Thigpen was fully aware of the benefits that precision application of lime and fertilizer had brought to farm yields — while reducing material costs in the process. With an agronomics degree from NC State and a single-digit handicap, he realized that there could be a use for that technology to optimize soil fertility management on golf courses if precision agriculture technology could be brought down to golf course scale.

Thigpen spent three years crunching the numbers, tinkering with the math and massaging the software to do just that.  He then worked with agronomists from the NC Dept of Agriculture to develop agronomic programs for implementation with the technology. NuTec Soil was born.

NuTec's Precision Application Division offers a complete nutrient optimization program based upon 1000+ GPS-located soil samples of your golf course. Complex algorithms guide precision lime application by NuTec's custom vehicles to balance pH across the property, followed by individual element fertility applications (down to the square foot).

As pH and nutrient levels balance out, growth becomes more uniform across the golf course and subsequent  nutrient requirements are reduced. NuTec precision-application customers typically see a 30-40% reduction in fertility inputs in the second and third years and beyond. 

Services include GPS sampling (soil, plant and nematode); variable rate lime and fertilizer applications; precise area calculation of fairways, tees, greens and sand traps; application of pre-emergent herbicides; location of irrigation lines and underground infrastructure; and 3-D topographic maps.

In 2011, NuTec introduced the first GPS-guided autocontrol sprayer attachment for your Toro Multi-Pro or John Deere Pro-Gator vehicle: the Turf Geeks Autocontrol Spray System. The Turf Geeks sprayer attachment — approved by Toro — puts precision application control in your hands, on your golf course.