Mission, Success: The Real Value of Drones in Agriculture
It’s been estimated that agriculture could account for 80% of the commercial drone market, according to the Association of Unmanned Vehicles Systems International (AUVIS).
And, it’s no wonder – with their ability to get complete coverage across acreage, drones have the ability to offer deeper insights into how crops are doing across acreage, helping to optimize yields and unlock profitability.
It can be intimidating to get started with a drone. Which one should you buy? How much will it cost? What will you get from it? How do you use it? Read on – we’ll answer many of these questions in this article!
It Starts Here: What’s Your Goal?
Technological advancements have made drones easier to use, but they still can’t go with the press of an easy button! Using a drone does require some advance preparation. The FAA requires anyone who flies commercially to hold a Part 107 certification, which requires passing a test.
With this in hand, you’re ready get started! But, before you pull out your wallet and buy the coolest drone you can find (and don’t get us wrong, there are some cool drones out there!), it’s important to start with what you want to achieve.
All drones aren’t created equal. Some aren’t equipped for mapping, and others can only capture some of the imagery that is required for analysis. So, as you think about the drone that you want, think first about what you want to get out of it. Are you hoping to get crop health data throughout the season? How about Stand Count, to understand early emergence and fuel replant decisions? Do you have interest in getting an early indication of yield prior to harvest?
Knowing what you want to do with the data will help inform the best ag drone system for your needs. With this in mind, you can determine whether a multirotor or fixed-wing drone may work best; or whether you need an RGB or multispectral sensor to capture imagery.
It’s important to note that costs for drones vary significantly; and this is often due to the capabilities that the system holds. This is why it’s important to understand how you want to use your drone – because the price tag doesn’t always indicate how well it will work for your needs. (This is where it can help to speak with a drone specialist for input.)
Planning for a Successful Mission
Once you have a drone in hand and you’re ready to get up in the sky, it does require some advanced preparation. This will ensure a successful flight and data capture.
It starts by mapping your mission and ensuring that settings are set appropriately, given the data you wish to capture. Drone sensors – which are also call cameras or imagers – will capture snapshots from the sky, which can give you a bird’s eye view into what’s happening.
These images can also be stitched – or combined – into one image to give you a full view of the field. Stitching this singular image, which is commonly referred to as an ortho or mosaic (both short for orthomosaic), can be useful to uncover what’s happening across the field and even help identify trends within the season or year over year.
Beyond a mosaic, the imagery can also be processed via a third-party like Sentera to get plant-level measurements to understand what’s happening within your fields. This unlocks data sets like population counts, to understand what emerged early in the season to inform replant or input decisions.
Now, why is this important? Depending on how you wish to use the imagery you’ve captured will determine how you should plan for your mission. Capturing imagery for a mosaic, for instance, will require a certain amount of overlap to accurately combine the images together.
Most of the time, flight planning is done via an app – like Sentera’s FieldAgent Mobile – where there are presets and defined settings to simplify it based on available data products.
Controlling the drone can be done with a controller that comes with the drone, or by using a flight app on your smart phone or tablet. Throughout the mission, the pilot’s primary role is to watch for any potential issues or hazards, prepare for battery changes, and keep the drone in the air.
Mission, Accomplished: Are Drones Worth It?
With the data captured and the imagery processed into the format of your choice, it’s time to look at what the data says – and the story its telling for your season. In doing so, it can help to inform critical decisions.
For Erich Eller, president of ForeFront Ag Solutions, and his team, precision ag – including drone technology and analytics – serves as one piece of the puzzle to maximize grower relationships and help build trust with growers.
Ellers’ team focuses on helping to inform growers how to maximize yield. This boils down to insight into where they should focus their time, whether it’s early in the season for replant or to identify input needs and amounts.
In one instance, the team did a study on the value that Stand Count was able to provide to their customers. It started at emergence, with the ability to inform key replant decisions.
With that approach, ForeFront Ag Solutions helped one grower make an extra $50,000 on a 150-acre field.
This is just one example of the value of drones in the field – and what it’s able to do to boost productivity and drive efficiency. As we look to the future of agriculture, it’s in the air – and the only question that remains: are you ready?
Download our free Ultimate Scouting Guide to Optimize Field-level Visibility to dig deeper into the role of drones in capturing scouting data, and the value it provides.
