By Brad Haire
University of Georgia
TIFTON, Ga. — Farmers have to keep a sharp eye on their fields.
A lot can go wrong if they don’t. But to really see and
understand a situation, you sometimes have to step back from it.
Or step up. Way up.
Aerial Help
Aerial images of fields can help farmers better manage their
crops and save them time and money, said Tasha Wells, a research
coordinator at the National Environmentally Sound Production
Agriculture Laboratory here.
Wells is coordinating research on a cost-efficient aerial camera
system to use in low-flying airplanes. She and other experts
with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences are developing this system with the help
of a local pilot.
The system is portable and built using off-the-shelf components.
But some airplanes will require major adjustments to use the
system. Wells hopes a new local business can be created from
this research.
The aerial imagery research has already helped some farmers see
their fields in different ways, she said.
Variations
Farm fields, even small ones, can have a lot of variations, she
said. The distinct patterns of weeds, crop growth and soil types
become more distinct from a bird’s-eye view.
Couple the aerial photo with Global Positioning Satellite and
software technologies, and you have more than just a picture.
You have a precise reference tool that shows what’s happening to
a crop in a field.
“We can use the images to see what areas of a field are similar
and what areas are different,” she said. “And the farmer can
determine how best to deal with these areas.”
Farmers need this kind of information more than ever.
Decision-maker
The U.S. farm economy was hurting well before the Sept. 11
attacks put the overall national economy into question. The
profit margin for many U.S. farmers has dramatically narrowed
over the past decade.
Farmers need decision-making tools to help them better use farm
resources such as fertilizers, herbicides and water, Wells said.
Right now, the difference between making and losing money for
many farmers greatly depends on how well they know their fields
and how much or how little they use these resources.
But even in good economic times, she said, farmers want to know
how to use these resources wisely.
Precision Tools
Precision agriculture technology, like aerial imagery, primary
purpose is to identify and measure the variability within a
field.
“Managing this variability for optimal gain often means
decreasing inputs in the less productive areas and increasing
inputs in the more productive regions,” she said. “So, instead
of making fields more uniform, more often than not variability
may be enhanced.”
The overall goal of precision agriculture research, Wells said,
is to develop tools farmers can use to make better, more
efficient decisions on how to grow their crops.
No one tool is the “silver bullet,” she said, for perfect crop-
management decisions. But the more detailed information a farmer
gets, the better his decisions.
“The aerial imagery is just one way, or means, to develop these
low-cost reference tools for farmers,” she said.
