2nd hand N Sensor

[Rhiza-UK]

Satellite imagery means that you can plan in advance rather than go into the field and have no idea how much N you're going to be applying. Also a very useful tool for crop monitoring when images can be accessed on your phone or tablet in just a couple of taps. Crop walking can be targeted and any areas of poorer crop can be quickly identified. Satellite imagery is simply a much more versatile tool with many more uses than just varying nitrogen.

Cloud and frequency issues are soon going to be a thing of the past with SAR imagery being cloud penetrating and scanning every 3-6 days. Additional information such as growth stages, biomass and leaf area index will help with guiding spray timings and yield predictions.

 

[SoilMadYorkie]

Satellite imagery means that you can plan in advance rather than go into the field and have no idea how much N you're going to be applying. Also a very useful tool for crop monitoring when images can be accessed on your phone or tablet in just a couple of taps. Crop walking can be targeted and any areas of poorer crop can be quickly identified. Satellite imagery is simply a much more versatile tool with many more uses than just varying nitrogen.

Cloud and frequency issues are soon going to be a thing of the past with SAR imagery being cloud penetrating and scanning every 3-6 days. Additional information such as growth stages, biomass and leaf area index will help with guiding spray timings and yield predictions.

How outdated are the maps the farmer would receive? I would assume the images would be susceptible to shadow, this would therefore give false readings? Not really knowing much about the satellite side of N management some more information would be useful.

I understand the cost could be less so are you sacrificing accuracy for cost? Or is this sort of data aimed at the smaller farmer?

 

[Rhiza-UK]

How outdated are the maps the farmer would receive? I would assume the images would be susceptible to shadow, this would therefore give false readings? Not really knowing much about the satellite side of N management some more information would be useful.

I understand the cost could be less so are you sacrificing accuracy for cost? Or is this sort of data aimed at the smaller farmer?

Every part of the UK currently gets scanned every 4-6 days and turnaround time from the picture being taken to processed and available is approximately 48 hours. With regards to maps being outdated which is generally a negative which is levelled at satellite imagery...unless some action has been taken to address variation in a crop, then that variation will still be there whether the image is 2 days or 10 days old. Satellite images are taken at specific times of day to ensure that shadows are not an issue (attached picture is exactly why you don't take them in the morning!), and all imaging techniques need to factor this in.

We provide NDVI imagery, with which our users can set a maximum, minimum and average (target) rate they wish to apply. This allows our users to be fully in control of what they are applying, how much and where. I would always recommend groundtruthing in the field to calculate what to set the rates at and to ensure maximum N use efficiency.

Cost of imagery is £3.60/ha/yr with which you can make unlimited variable rate plans and access all the imagery on your mobile or tablet through our SeeCrop app. Imagery is more accurate at 5m and 10m resolution and scans every part of the field, whereas N sensors only scan the area next to the tractor/sprayer.
This sort of data is appropriate for all sizes of farms. Large farms can get a snapshot of their entire farm on one single day allowing whole farm crop monitoring and field comparisons, whilst smaller farms do not need to outlay large upfront hardware costs and worry about paying those off across x number of hectares.

 

[SoilMadYorkie]

Every part of the UK currently gets scanned every 4-6 days and turnaround time from the picture being taken to processed and available is approximately 48 hours. With regards to maps being outdated which is generally a negative which is levelled at satellite imagery...unless some action has been taken to address variation in a crop, then that variation will still be there whether the image is 2 days or 10 days old. Satellite images are taken at specific times of day to ensure that shadows are not an issue (attached picture is exactly why you don't take them in the morning!), and all imaging techniques need to factor this in.

We provide NDVI imagery, with which our users can set a maximum, minimum and average (target) rate they wish to apply. This allows our users to be fully in control of what they are applying, how much and where. I would always recommend groundtruthing in the field to calculate what to set the rates at and to ensure maximum N use efficiency.

Cost of imagery is £3.60/ha/yr with which you can make unlimited variable rate plans and access all the imagery on your mobile or tablet through our SeeCrop app. Imagery is more accurate at 5m and 10m resolution and scans every part of the field, whereas N sensors only scan the area next to the tractor/sprayer.
This sort of data is appropriate for all sizes of farms. Large farms can get a snapshot of their entire farm on one single day allowing whole farm crop monitoring and field comparisons, whilst smaller farms do not need to outlay large upfront hardware costs and worry about paying those off across x number of hectares.

Working it out on a 600ha farm, £2160/yr for satellite maps. Or a second hand NSensor at £4500. I know you would have to include service costs but it still seems a bit out if you ask me?

With that you would still get all the N and biomass maps available to import into GateKeeper. I know I wouldn't be waiting for plans or the satellite to pass again.

Would cloud cover cause issues with the imaginary? Or cloud shadow on fields?

 

[Rhiza-UK]

Working it out on a 600ha farm, £2160/yr for satellite maps. Or a second hand NSensor at £4500. I know you would have to include service costs but it still seems a bit out if you ask me?

With that you would still get all the N and biomass maps available to import into GateKeeper. I know I wouldn't be waiting for plans or the satellite to pass again.

Would cloud cover cause issues with the imaginary? Or cloud shadow on fields?

£3.60 is just solely for the satellite imagery service, it's as little as 80p/ha if doing soil sampling through us. In which case £480 over 600ha Service also includes our SeeCrop agronomy app for crop monitoring and recording observations (http://www.Rhiza-UK.com/precision-farming/seecrop/) and allows seed plans as well as N plans to be created.

Satellite also gives you an image of the whole field, not just 25% of the field. A large proportion of a tractor mounted sensor map (and an EC scan for that matter) is an estimate of what's in the gap between where the scanning actually takes place. Means there are lots of areas of the field which aren't being scanned and therefore any problem areas can be missed. Our satellites are scanning every part of the field on a 5m resolution which is a much more detailed and accurate picture.

Cloud cover does currently affect optical satellites, however there are more satellites up than ever before so regularity is always improving. We're also developing SAR imagery which is cloud penetrating and additionally provides updates on growth stage, leaf area index and biomass. We're trialling it on 20 farms across the country this spring and will make it available to our users for next season.

 

[SoilMadYorkie]

so how much is the soil sampling going cost, things seem to be getting expensive. say i wanted basic plus broad spectrum on a 1ha. 600ha split over 2 years.

 

[Rhiza-UK]

We don't generally sample on 1ha grids, it's very flawed in that again you are sampling a very small area (16 cores in a circle around a quad bike) and extrapolating that data over a much larger area. Soil doesn't vary in anything like a grid pattern, and those curves you see in grid sampled maps are just the result of a process called kriging.

We sample based on soil zones, where we assess the variation in soil type, yield and historical management, before then targeting soil sampling with 24 cores in each zone, covering a W or other representative pattern across that whole zone. This provides a much more accurate assessment of the variation in soil type and how those soil types vary in their nutrient availability.

I'll DM you package prices.