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Eye In The Sky
Aerial Systems Can Provide A New Tool For Scouting
BETTY VALLE GEGG-NAEGER
MidAmerica Farmer Grower
MILAN, TENN.
One stop at the Milan No-Till Field Day recently was a display on the uses of unmanned aerial systems in agriculture (UAVs or UASs). Dr. Mike Buschermohle, precision ag specialist with the University of Tennessee Extension, discussed these systems.
“I think the most rapidly adopted use of UASs will be directed scouting, where we can use a video camera to get a bird’s eye view of the field,” he said. “That’s going to give us the ability to go to areas of the field that we need to spend more time scouting. With a rotary wing UAS, we can drop down onto the top of the plant canopy to get a closer look at problem areas to be able to tell what we need to be scouting for as we go out into the field.”
Another use these systems provide is actual mapping where aerial cameras shoot color, near infrared or thermal images. These photos can be stitched together to make a map, and the map can provide data to create management zones in the field to help plan variable rate application of crop inputs.
Dr. Mike Buschermohle, precision ag
specialist with the University of Tennessee
Extension, speaks about UASs and he believes
they will most rapidly be adopted for scouting.
Photo by John LaRose, Jr.
This technology is evolving, cameras are evolving, data processing is evolving and right now there’s a tremendous amount of interest on how to use UASs.
“I think the biggest take home message is: If you’re thinking about buying one of these, the question you really need to ask yourself is what you will do with the data. That’s going to determine what type of system you will need,” Buschermohle said.
The farmer needs also to consider how he will process the data. The ultimate goal is to be able to use that data to make a management decision to increase profitability and make the farming operation more sustainable. ∆
BETTY VALLE GEGG-NAEGER: Senior Staff Writer, MidAmerica Farmer Grower
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