The period of
time between planting and pollination is the most critical for crop success.
During this time period growers have the opportunity to make changes to their
cropping strategy based on plant conditions. Information gathered through field
scouting is used to make these adjustments. To improve the information
available to farmers, the Agronomy team at Landmark has
added a new tool to their scouting program. A new tablet-controlled drone is
now available to help detect problems and prevent them before they occur.
Landmark added
the drone, a small forward-propelled helicopter with a built-in camera, to
their toolbox at the beginning of the 2013 growing season. The agronomy team
flies the drone above fields and is able to capture 360 degree aerial views to
quickly detect any disease or nutrient deficiency issues in the crop.
Dan Moehn, vice
president of Landmark Agronomy, says the tool provides a new and efficient
viewpoint to the team’s field scouting program.
“Whenever you
see a field from a different perspective, you’re able to pick up new
information,” he says. “If you’re standing at the end of a corn field, you have
one perspective but, when you get in the air, you can see a much larger view of
the field and can quickly spot areas that need attention.”
Agronomists
traditionally scout fields by walking the length of the acreage and looking for
problems – a process that may allow for areas to be missed or additional time
spent. Moehn estimates that the drone provides about a 60 percent time savings
and a more complete view of the field.
The drone is
controlled with a tablet. The agronomist lifts the tablet or tilts it down to
direct the drone until it reaches a height between 75 and 100 feet. The
agronomist then stops the drone and spins it 360 degrees to secure a full
aerial view. At a height of 100 feet, the drone can capture nearly 20 acres.
The drone captures footage in both video and photograph format and sends it to
the tablet controller.
“We look at
that footage and evaluate the field, looking for any problem spots,” Moehn
says. “If we see an area of crop that has signs of a disease or nutrient deficiency,
we can then walk to that area of the field and take a closer look.
“We’re looking
for early symptoms of disease pressure, nutrient deficiency or injury from
insects,” he explains. “Typically, dark green plants are the healthiest. If the
plant is showing signs of yellowness, it may be suffering from a nutrient or
disease issue that needs further investigation.”
The Landmark
agronomists rely on their education and experiences to make recommended changes
in fertilizer, pesticides or other field supplementation. The team also utilizes
Landmark Agronomy’s tissue sampling program for additional answers. When a plant
is in question, a piece of the leaf is collected and sent into a lab for
analysis. The lab technicians can determine possible nutrient deficiencies or
disease risk.
“We can get
the results back quickly enough to make a change and promote a good yield,”
Moehn says. “Now through pollination is the most critical time for plant
development; if we find a problem, we can still make an effort to change
things. When it gets later in the season, it becomes much less likely that
you’ll be able to fix a problem.”
Moehn
encourages growers to scout their fields at least weekly and to have an
agronomist scout the field bi-weekly through pollination and monthly through
harvest.
“The more
scouting we can do, the more probable it is that we’ll see problems before they
become bigger than they need to be,” Moehn says. “Preventing problems in the
field is especially beneficial in a market where every bushel counts.”
 |
| Dan Moehn is Landmark's Senior Vice President of Agronomy. He can be contacted at 608.819.3119 or daniel.moehn@landmark.coop |
No comments:
Post a Comment