Systems and methods for real-time measurement and control of solid fertilizer coverage on agricultural targets

A system for automatically measuring solid fertilizer coverage on a target agricultural surface, the system comprising:

• one or more sensors, wherein the one or more sensors capture data reflecting the state of the target agricultural surface after and/or before distribution of the solid fertilizer by a spreader onto said target agricultural surface;
• a processor of a computing device;
• and
• a memory having instructions stored thereon, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
• receive the data captured by the one or more sensors reflecting the state of the target agricultural surface after and/or before distribution of the solid fertilizer;
• and
• either or both of (I) and (II) as follows:
• (I) use the data captured by the one or more sensors to automatically determine a fertilizer coverage value on the target agricultural surface;
• and
• (II) use the data captured by the one or more sensors (and/or the fertilizer coverage value determined in (I)) to automatically determine a value and/or adjustment of one or more fertilizer spreader parameters to achieve a desired level and/or uniformity of solid fertilizer coverage on the target agricultural surface.