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EC ND | Over the past several months I have spent many hours looking at satellite imagery. I hope that my view on the importance of precision in AG can help everyone reading on NAT. From my experience satellite imagery is a powerful tool to be used to create layered prescription maps. Layered prescriptions maps are when you use several years of data and lay them on top of each other to create an average for the field. Many different kinds of data like NDVI, NIR, and yield maps can be added to these maps. This average map will help highlight problem areas in fields and also areas that will normally out produce the rest of the field. Now that I have said satellite data is good there is also a down side to it. These prescription maps are a very good starter for your field, but often we can run in to problems when trying to use data from satellites to make in season decisions. The best place to use satellite based prescription maps is when you are applying nutrients like P,K, and some of your N. Since your P and K are going to stay where you put them and will stay there for years to come it is pretty safe to apply them with your prescription maps. When applying N I think we should only apply 40-75 percent of the N up front if you have the equipment to do in season fertilizing. Then you can determine the amount of N needed to finish your crop according to the weather in season. This is where UAV imagery will come in strong when making in season decision and in season variable rate maps. Now with the ability to fly my field throughout the season I can see things that will not show in a layered satellite based prescription map. Different variables like nitrogen leaching, water damage, and crop stand can all be evaluate by in season high resolution UAV imagery. I can make a prescription map for sidressing based of an image that was taken moments before. This means I can apply the nitrogen where the plant needs it now, not where the plant needed it 10 days ago. Often the problem with satellite imagery is that the pictures are normally taken every 16 days and if it was cloudy on the day the picture was taken you will not have an image to use. These images also come in a 15-30 meter resolutions and UAV imagery is often 1-10 Centimeter resolution. UAV imagery will be the way for Farmers to manage every acre more precisely. New planters can be controlled by the row but with old mapping technology our maps were not designed to change that quickly and frequently until now. In order to make your fields 100% efficient you we should manage every square foot. Precision agriculture first started when fields were smaller than an acre and farmers placed every seed by hand at a perfect depth. Then as agriculture was advanced we lost precision with bigger equipment that covered more land per hour. When your planter can only control 30 feet at a time you may be crossing 2 or 3 zones that should all be managed differently to maximize yield. Now with newer equipment and mapping software we can make our management zones smaller to maximize our yield potential. Please feel free to call me crazy or let me know if you have a different idea. Take note that farming is going to be different everywhere and I am writing this based of farming in North Dakota. I hope this can give everyone an idea of how I use satellite and UAV imagery. | |
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The Importance of Precision Ag (UAV & Satellite imagery use)
