Agronomist with a Drone?

[richard hammond]

Is an agronomist with a drone a forward thinking chap or a lazy fella who thinks feet in fields is not the answer!

your thought please would be appreciated!

Is tech better than the experienced walker??

 

[willy]

Got to be the way forward, why not scan the whole field quickly rather than walk a small proportion slowly.

 

[Farmer Roy]

Larger field sizes maybe, but a drone is a great tool to scan the field & show where to walk to find problems.
Nothing beats being able to look at a crop from above to get a complete picture

 

[Warp Land Farmer]

I believe only a fool would ignore technology today, hybrid with the ability to understand what the screen is showing should give the chap the ability to focus on the problem area and farm for that (which has to be the best long term way in my thought process). Combine it with boots on the ground to interrogate the airborne intel could / should give excellent results as I can see it would be a better use if his precious time rather than the random pattern walk which could forgivingly miss the worst of it. The idea needs work to put into practice, but as they say practice makes for perfection. I would be happy to host a trial of such an idea.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

I am only a lowly livestock farmer but I wouldn't call using anything that can draw attention to a particular area "lazy", quite the opposite, if you are paying for a service then you want the best possible service for your money.

If it means spotting a few hectares that are under pressure, in a more timely fashion, for less miles of walking, then it makes sense to.

 

[Nearly]

Cheaper to buy an agronomist a drone than buy them a quad.
Cover more acres too.

 

[Farmer Roy]

I am only a lowly livestock farmer but I wouldn't call using anything that can draw attention to a particular area "lazy", quite the opposite, if you are paying for a service then you want the best possible service for your money.

If it means spotting a few hectares that are under pressure, in a more timely fashion, for less miles of walking, then it makes sense to.

But apparently you're only a "proper" farmer if you toil away every waking hour 7 days a week, doing everything yourself & not using contractors ?
Maybe you're not a "proper" agro unless you walk every square inch ? Maybe laptops & email are just lazy tools ? Maybe they should bicycle between jobs rather than driving, as that is just a bit lazy . . .

 

[BenB]

Is an agronomist with a drone a forward thinking chap or a lazy fella who thinks feet in fields is not the answer!

your thought please would be appreciated!

Is tech better than the experienced walker??

Richard, my opinion is that no tech is better than experienced walker, but does have the potential to enhance services offered and potentially save some time walking (time which hopefully could be used to spend more 'strategic' time with the customer?).

I think this sort of tech should be an aid to target problem areas better rather than a 'replacement' for walking. However I don't think the tech is really even at that stage yet in terms of getting enough value out of it.

Drones just don't make sense to me as a crop walking replacement yet. If I have to turn up to the customer, get my drone out, fly it across everything that needs flying, then assess all the imagery (if I can get it back that fast) then go out and walk the bits that need walking - I could have just walked it all as normal in that time !

Or I employ someone who goes out a day or two before me to fly the drone and get the imagery, then I can assess before I get on farm and target areas to walk accordingly. Now you need 2 people for a job that took 1 and fees have to rise?

As @Clive has said before, as satellite imagery gets better and better, this has to be the way forward, high resolution images on demand - no person spending time flying a drone, no UAV licences/insurances/costs to me.

The big overall problem for me is what I can actually do with the imagery (whether its satellites or drones). I am still waiting for when I can open up a program, select a field, click 'Black-grass/Brome/Wild Oat/etc. Map' and I am presented with an accurate weed map of the field, based on the most recent satellite image. At the end of the day we are all human and even if I walk a field 10 times looking for black-grass the chances of missing some are still highly likely (without historical knowledge).

I've always wondering if one day, most agronomy will be done by drones, satellites and algorithms and having someone actually walk the crops will be considered a 'premium' service!!

 

[Clive]

Is an agronomist with a drone a forward thinking chap or a lazy fella who thinks feet in fields is not the answer!

your thought please would be appreciated!

Is tech better than the experienced walker??

It’s not better but it is a time saver and a great way to get an overview so you can target where to go walk

They are small and take seconds to get from bag to airborne and battery life / range means you can cover a fair airea fast. I thought mine would be just a toy but it actualy been really useful on the farm so far

Have you seen skippy ?

https://droneag.farm/skippy-scout/

This kind of thing makes it easy and fast / automated, hopefully will get to try it soon as a beta tester

I do think longer term regular satalite images are a better answer though. SAR makes that posible twice daily over every acre so it would be a fit agronomist that could cover ground like that !

What’s missing (for now) is the algorithms that turn the images into decisions and that’s why agronomists jobs are safe .............. for now !


Have a go with mine next time your here, no skill required, even Henry can fly it without crashing !

 

[fudge]

I ran this by my agronomy provider, Scapegoat and Chancer, they were seem quite interested until I said it could lead to a reduction in cost. Strangely they envisaged charging more for the service, saying a greater level of precision would create better returns, which in their view would be necessary post brexit. According to them now is exactly the wrong moment to think about paying less for agronomy. To which I replied I certainly wasn't going to pay more. There is no need to report the rest of the conversation.

 

[B'o'B]

I ran this by my agronomy provider, Scapegoat and Chancer, they were seem quite interested until I said it could lead to a reduction in cost. Strangely they envisaged charging more for the service, saying a greater level of precision would create better returns, which in their view would be necessary post brexit. According to them now is exactly the wrong moment to think about paying less for agronomy. To which I replied I certainly wasn't going to pay more. There is no need to report the rest of the conversation.

Wow!

 

[yellow belly]

Get the agronomist on the sprayer as the best way to see all the crop is in the Fert or sprayer seat

My agronomist is now main sprayer operater
As I did for the last 35 years

 

[T Hectares]

Get the agronomist on the sprayer as the best way to see all the crop is in the Fert or sprayer seat

My agronomist is now main sprayer operater
As I did for the last 35 years

Kind of what I do, most of the spraying myself, most of the agronomy myself and use an Independent on a reduced fee for more of a second opinion / strategy help / product advice.
We walk to the areas I need advice on as I've driven over and walked these fields myself in between visits.

As for drones, could be useful eventually when the interpretation development work is more advanced, but they can't pull a plant up to look at roots, check underneath a leaf for mildew spores, check slug traps and under stones for slugs etc

Potentially daft drone question coming up...
Can they be programned to fly off on a pretty determined route autonomously or does legislation require them to be controlled by a pilot ???

I could see a good use for them to be set off twice a day to scare pigeons off rape or to be set off to fly over emerging rape to check I'm while I'm sat on a tractor monitoring it but is this legal or practical ??

 

[B'o'B]

Kind of what I do, most of the spraying myself, most of the agronomy myself and use an Independent on a reduced fee for more of a second opinion / strategy help / product advice.
We walk to the areas I need advice on as I've driven over and walked these fields myself in between visits.

As for drones, could be useful eventually when the interpretation development work is more advanced, but they can't pull a plant up to look at roots, check underneath a leaf for mildew spores, check slug traps and under stones for slugs etc

Potentially daft drone question coming up...
Can they be programned to fly off on a pretty determined route autonomously or does legislation require them to be controlled by a pilot ???

I could see a good use for them to be set off twice a day to scare pigeons off rape or to be set off to fly over emerging rape to check I'm while I'm sat on a tractor monitoring it but is this legal or practical ??

They can do everything themselves from taking off to working out when to come home for a fresh battery.
But....
There’s always a but....
The pilot has to maintain sight of drone (even/especially when flying on autopilot) and the drone can’t fly more than 500m away from the pilot or fly more than 120m high.

 

[fudge]

Kind of what I do, most of the spraying myself, most of the agronomy myself and use an Independent on a reduced fee for more of a second opinion / strategy help / product advice.
We walk to the areas I need advice on as I've driven over and walked these fields myself in between visits.

As for drones, could be useful eventually when the interpretation development work is more advanced, but they can't pull a plant up to look at roots, check underneath a leaf for mildew spores, check slug traps and under stones for slugs etc

Potentially daft drone question coming up...
Can they be programned to fly off on a pretty determined route autonomously or does legislation require them to be controlled by a pilot ???

I could see a good use for them to be set off twice a day to scare pigeons off rape or to be set off to fly over emerging rape to check I'm while I'm sat on a tractor monitoring it but is this legal or practical ??

I can’t see why one cannot use a ground based robot for pigeon scaring. It could fire of a few salvos as it nipped up an down the rows weeding.

 

[Clive]

Kind of what I do, most of the spraying myself, most of the agronomy myself and use an Independent on a reduced fee for more of a second opinion / strategy help / product advice.
We walk to the areas I need advice on as I've driven over and walked these fields myself in between visits.

As for drones, could be useful eventually when the interpretation development work is more advanced, but they can't pull a plant up to look at roots, check underneath a leaf for mildew spores, check slug traps and under stones for slugs etc

Potentially daft drone question coming up...
Can they be programned to fly off on a pretty determined route autonomously or does legislation require them to be controlled by a pilot ???

I could see a good use for them to be set off twice a day to scare pigeons off rape or to be set off to fly over emerging rape to check I'm while I'm sat on a tractor monitoring it but is this legal or practical ??

See my link above re “skippy”

Points of interest “flight plans” can be created in Lichi and dji go software as well

 

[warksfarmer]

I ran this by my agronomy provider, Scapegoat and Chancer, they were seem quite interested until I said it could lead to a reduction in cost. Strangely they envisaged charging more for the service, saying a greater level of precision would create better returns, which in their view would be necessary post brexit. According to them now is exactly the wrong moment to think about paying less for agronomy. To which I replied I certainly wasn't going to pay more. There is no need to report the rest of the conversation.

Get rid of them. Just shows they are money grabbing leeches with no interest in the environment and your expensive asset.

 

[warksfarmer]

The technology isn’t quite there yet. We bought a drone a couple of years ago. £1750 and it’s been used about a dozen times. It can’t see what you can see on foot.

That skippy thing looks interesting though but instead of marked points I want to see it flying up and down every tramline with sensing technology to take in everything in the field, then give me averages. I want it to automatically send the data to me field by field every time it flies.

To do this camera technology needs to come a long way because I want it to tell me where there is BG and RG for example. It needs to differentiate between the two. It needs a built in weed database recognition tool.

I want it to tell me about different diseases and pests. The technology just isn’t there at the moment because it needs to fly up and down the tramlines at 20mph taking all this in all the time.

Battery life needs to be ten fold because 20 mins isn’t enough, no where near. It needs to fly for 8 hrs a day.

It’s coming no doubt but at the minute they are toys, not management tools.

 

[Clive]

The technology isn’t quite there yet. We bought a drone a couple of years ago. £1750 and it’s been used about a dozen times. It can’t see what you can see on foot.

That skippy thing looks interesting though but instead of marked points I want to see it flying up and down every tramline with sensing technology to take in everything in the field, then give me averages. I want it to automatically send the data to me field by field every time it flies.

To do this camera technology needs to come a long way because I want it to tell me where there is BG and RG for example. It needs to differentiate between the two. It needs a built in weed database recognition tool.

I want it to tell me about different diseases and pests. The technology just isn’t there at the moment because it needs to fly up and down the tramlines at 20mph taking all this in all the time.

Battery life needs to be ten fold because 20 mins isn’t enough, no where near. It needs to fly for 8 hrs a day.

It’s coming no doubt but at the minute they are toys, not management tools.

All that tech is here right now although some of it like weed id isn’t commercial yet I guess but you could still make maps from ground truthed images. Battery life is 30mins plus and it takes seconds to change to one of the 3 batteries that came with mine giving me 90mins which is more than enough for just about anything . 4K canners with zoom can see anything my eyes can, drop low and zoom in and you can see detail on a leaf it’s that clear - a lot has changed in 2 years in the drone world it seems

I bought mine thinking it would be a toy really but it actually proving very useful so far. Been to a farm away from home this morning and wizzed around 1000ac in about 20mins. Decided from what I saw where I needed to go take a closer look and did so. Could have spent a day walking every field so it certainly my saved time

SAR is easier though so I dont think drones have a long term future. They are becoming old tech already so I don’t think they are the future as far to labour intensive vs a satalite with radar

 

[fudge]

Get rid of them. Just shows they are money grabbing leeches with no interest in the environment and your expensive asset.

TBF my actual agronomy provider has a very stable pricing structure and wouldn’t dream of trying to sell me a service I didn’t need over and above their standard charge, he is actually quite bright and knows me very well. My general point is that professional service providers are very good at maintaining their charges and imo, keen to flog gimmicks which add no value. Drones fall into this category for me. As with much of precision agriculture the science hasn’t caught up with the information gathering as far as actually making decisions is concerned. I doubt it ever will, how can ai ever know what I want to do with my money!