Precision drone for crop monitoring

[droneguy]

Hi, I have a few questions for any experienced farmers that might be reading this. I am in the process of creating a business to use camera mounted drones to monitor crops. You can fly directly over the crops and deliver a live video feed to where the drone operator is or I can put the footage on a DVD. I use a six rotor drone that weighs roughly 6lbs and can fly as far as the eye can see and it can hover in place. The drone can get as close to or as high above the crop as you want up to 400 feet. This can all be done very quickly. I guess my questions are:
1) Would you consider this to be a useful service?
2) How often would you use this service? (Weekly? Monthly?)
3) What other crop monitoring method would this replace?
4) What is this service worth to you? (How much would you pay?)
5) Would this tool be helpful for anything else ag related?
Any questions?
Thank you and I appreciate any input.

 

[Bob c]

will the drone tell me when the hay is ready to bale ?

 

[Wheatseeker]

Hi, I have a few questions for any experienced farmers that might be reading this. I am in the process of creating a business to use camera mounted drones to monitor crops. You can fly directly over the crops and deliver a live video feed to where the drone operator is or I can put the footage on a DVD. I use a six rotor drone that weighs roughly 6lbs and can fly as far as the eye can see and it can hover in place. The drone can get as close to or as high above the crop as you want up to 400 feet. This can all be done very quickly. I guess my questions are:
1) Would you consider this to be a useful service?
2) How often would you use this service? (Weekly? Monthly?)
3) What other crop monitoring method would this replace?
4) What is this service worth to you? (How much would you pay?)
5) Would this tool be helpful for anything else ag related?
Any questions?
Thank you and I appreciate any input.

You say it is a crop monitoring business - what aspect do you monitor and how is it quantified ?

 

[capfits]

In a sense a drone is a bit crude, what does it tell you? Different colours essentially.
These differences could be burst drain, drill ran out of seed or fertiliser, pest damage, etc etc

I would suspect most growers were professional enough that they may, know which areas of there crops are problematic and have plans in place to manage appropriatly.

In more valuable crops realtime monitoring of say soil water deficit take place and in others like potatoes for blight, there are forecasting services.

It is not say a drone may not have its uses in cropping, more that where it may make a significant contribution to management of cropping is yet to be identified.

Pigeon scaring perhaps?

 

[Northern farmer]

The drone can get as close to or as high above the crop as you want up to 400 feet.

Can you give more accurate figures about the lowest levels the drone can fly, how close to the crop?

 

[droneguy]

will the drone tell me when the hay is ready to bale ?

I don't suspect it will tell you when your hay is dry enough to bail unless you can tell by looking at it. From what I understand you need to physically feel it to see if its dry. I'm not a farmer, that's why I'm here. I need to hear from the experts to see if there is a use for this tool. Thanks for the question though. All thoughts, ideas, criticisms are welcome.

 

[droneguy]

You say it is a crop monitoring business - what aspect do you monitor and how is it quantified ?

I'm not a farmer but my thought is that the drone could help by:

• Seeing the true health of your field in a color contrast allowing you to see how much sunlight is being absorbed by the crop canopy.
• Detailed, high-quality images can be monitored and scrutinized to detect irregularities in different field zones spanning across large areas and even new regions to ensure healthy development.
  
• Allowing you to view your crop in real time and not rely on satellite images that may be old or obstructed by clouds.
• A drone fitted with an infra-red camera can help detect which plants are sick and which are healthy.
• You can get a quick birds-eye view of your crop and that may help you determine only parts of your crop need pesticides which may save you money.
• Detection of water stress on crops for efficient water management.
• Detection of nutritional stress on crops.
• Early detection of diseases and pests on crops.

As far as your question for how it is quantified, I am a little confused. In regards to the data collected by the drone, it is more qualitative that quantitative. If you mean how the business aspect is quantified or how we would charge. I would assume we would charge hourly for certain jobs or give a quote for certain jobs. This idea is still in its infancy and I appreciate any questions, criticisms, or ideas that you have. Thanks for the question!

 

[droneguy]

In a sense a drone is a bit crude, what does it tell you? Different colours essentially.
These differences could be burst drain, drill ran out of seed or fertiliser, pest damage, etc etc

I would suspect most growers were professional enough that they may, know which areas of there crops are problematic and have plans in place to manage appropriatly.

In more valuable crops realtime monitoring of say soil water deficit take place and in others like potatoes for blight, there are forecasting services.

It is not say a drone may not have its uses in cropping, more that where it may make a significant contribution to management of cropping is yet to be identified.

Pigeon scaring perhaps?

Thanks for your input! Essentially yes, the drone can give you real time HD pictures and HD video and from that you can see color irregularities which will tell you one thing or another. I was thinking an infra-red camera mounted would also be useful. I have read that an infra-red camera will help you tell whether or not certain plants are healthy or have an infection. I'm new to the subject so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I understand that most growers are professional enough to know their crops and the problem areas. Some farms cover many many acres though and I thought it would be useful to get a birds-eye view on the land and be able to fly down and get a close up if you saw any problem areas. Sure, they may rely on satellite imaging but that image might be old or maybe its cloudy that day? Maybe you have a bunch of sheep and you need to count them all. Flying up and taking an HD picture would make that job easy. These are all just ideas in my head and I'm trying to determine if they would be useful or not. In my neck of the woods there are a lot of almonds and walnuts and corn and crops like that with a tall canopy. I feel like a drone could come in handy with these types of crops. Thanks for your input! I appreciate the questions and welcome all comments, concerns, ideas, and criticisms. This idea is new to me and I want to cover all my bases.

 

[droneguy]

Can you give more accurate figures about the lowest levels the drone can fly, how close to the crop?

The drone can get as close as I'm comfortable flying it. I can keep my drone hovering 3 feet above a crop with ease and can go closer if needed. The drone also flys at roughly 17knots or 20mph in a strait line. Thank you for your question!

 

[Wheatseeker]

I'm not a farmer but my thought is that the drone could help by:

• Seeing the true health of your field in a color contrast allowing you to see how much sunlight is being absorbed by the crop canopy.
• Detailed, high-quality images can be monitored and scrutinized to detect irregularities in different field zones spanning across large areas and even new regions to ensure healthy development.
  
• Allowing you to view your crop in real time and not rely on satellite images that may be old or obstructed by clouds.
• A drone fitted with an infra-red camera can help detect which plants are sick and which are healthy.
• You can get a quick birds-eye view of your crop and that may help you determine only parts of your crop need pesticides which may save you money.
• Detection of water stress on crops for efficient water management.
• Detection of nutritional stress on crops.
• Early detection of diseases and pests on crops.

As far as your question for how it is quantified, I am a little confused. In regards to the data collected by the drone, it is more qualitative that quantitative. If you mean how the business aspect is quantified or how we would charge. I would assume we would charge hourly for certain jobs or give a quote for certain jobs. This idea is still in its infancy and I appreciate any questions, criticisms, or ideas that you have. Thanks for the question!

Ah, now we are are getting down to some nitty gritty ! In the OP you were offering to to film video and put it on a DVD. Now you are offering high quality stills with different light spectrums. Will these images be accurately stitched, georeferenced and to what resolution? This service does have a value as you are now in the remote sensing market. Things can now be quantified using software and comparing images over time. It may also involve a degree of ground truthing.
If you are just producing raw data it has a much lower value than a service that produces something accurate, calibrated and in a useable format.
By the way, do you always get up so early ?!!

 

[droneguy]

Ah, now we are are getting down to some nitty gritty ! In the OP you were offering to to film video and put it on a DVD. Now you are offering high quality stills with different light spectrums. Will these images be accurately stitched, georeferenced and to what resolution? This service does have a value as you are now in the remote sensing market. Things can now be quantified using software and comparing images over time. It may also involve a degree of ground truthing.
If you are just producing raw data it has a much lower value than a service that produces something accurate, calibrated and in a useable format.
By the way, do you always get up so early ?!!

Thanks for the input. I will take your ideas into account. I'm still in the information gathering stage of this idea and am trying to determine if it is worth investing the time and money into it. I'm glad it is getting people interested. I need to look into getting a gps program attached to it so I can map out problem areas and deliver a real time map to the client.