Drone On!
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If you’re not sure what to realistically expect from a UAS, you’re not alone. Drones are still in the “curiosity” stage for most farmers. Many seem interested in them, but the industry is still hashing out how farmers can use drones optimally without being cost-prohibitive.
Broadly speaking, drones can currently provide three different types of imagery, depending on the equipment and what the farmer wants to determine.
- RBG or true color photos are aerial photos taken with a 35 mm camera, which provide a bird’s-eye view of fields.
- NIR/MultiSpec/HyperSpec photos provide normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) maps and help visualize which areas are healthy or stressed by measuring biomass.
- Thermal photos, which identify crops that can best tolerate drought or cooler temperatures.
To learn more about what types of drone technologies may make sense for your operation, listen to The Deal With Yield® episode I cohosted.