Ever wondered how to make more use of the information from a drone photograph to improve crop production? For example how can aerial images taken of crops with high weed densities be used to refine a seed rate or herbicide plan?
Well this what Omnia Precision Agronomy offers. The map layer tool turns a simple drone photograph into a map or layer that can be used within Omnia.
The methodology is pretty straightforward and easy to use, explains Oliver Wood, Hutchinsons, precision technology manager. “We have made it so that the user can see the field map on one side of the screen and the drone picture on the other side. It is then a case of simply adding reference points to both the picture and field map so that Omnia knows how to process the image.”
“We know farmers are facing huge issues with grass weeds at the moment, and more often than not it’s a problem with individual parts of fields, and this new tool offers an accurate means of measuring and recording these so that a strategy can be tailored to suit this, he says.”
“For example, if wanting to judge the levels of black-grass in an oilseed rape crop, flying a drone is a really useful way of looking at the crop and gaining a visual picture of the weed pressure – until now there has not been a way to accurately record or map the weeds within a precision farming system.”
“However, this is now a straightforward task in Omnia. Visual drone imagery is easily and accurately converted into a weed pressure map or layer within Omnia which can then be used in combination with a range of other maps such as seedbed condition, nutrient status and so on within the Multi Dimension Analysis function to give an appropriate variable rate input plan.”
“This can be used across a range of crops to help manage specific issues for example identifying PCN patches or hotspots in potatoes, or accessing the growth of a dense maize crop.”
