Winter Drone Surveys of Farmland Could Provide Valuable Data
New drone software promises to maximize the farming industry.
Agricultural drone use is needed for all-season weather conditions and Agribotix’s FarmLens software is reportedly capable of handling aerial crop surveying during the later winter months to survey bare fields before planting. The agriculture-centric drone company can help growers and farmers more clearly understand how their crops are doing, enabling them to make more informed decisions on how much input and labor to expend, and ultimately run a more efficient business.
The agricultural industry can benefit significantly from unmanned aerial vehicles. We've reported on the monitoring of livestock and surveying property to even autonomously planting, growing and harvesting crops. According to PR Newswire, Agribotix has partnered with Frenchman Valley Coop, a renown agronomy leader, to collect and analyze aerial data regarding crop performance in order to maximize business efficiency.
The Colorado-based company, which proudly calls its FarmLens software “The Gateway to Precision Agriculture,” provides one essential promise to growers: increased yields and potentially lower financial input. According to PR Newswire, February and March are prime surveying months, as the desolate fields indicate pretty clearly where herbicide or other so-called inputs are needed. With drones this type of surveying can effectively prepare growers with precision as to where expenditures are needed, and which areas can be ignored.
To make things as user-friendly as possible, the FarmLens software lets users look at the recorded soil and its color on their smartphones and tablets, provide a virtual guide around the designated field, and is compatible with a variety of popular farm management software. Drones are affordable and capable enough these days that businesses that could benefit from a bird’s-eye view would be wise to invest in the technology.
Let's take a look at Agribotix and what it can offer to growers.
Vice President of Agribotix, Jason Barton, is aware that not all farmers and growers are chomping at the bit to employ drones and unfamiliar software in their work. The key, according to him, is taking it slow and letting both agronomists and growers come to appreciate the tech for themselves. “We want to make sure that when an agronomist from a coop like Frenchman Valley approaches customers or prospective customers, they can first listen to what those growers are already doing and what they’re trying to accomplish,” he said. “Then the agronomist will be confident how the results from FarmLens will add value to those operations. That puts both the grower and agronomist in a much better position to be successful right away and for years to come as growers and the technologies they use continue to change.”
It’s clear that the agriculture industry is going to increasingly implement UAV technology in its overall business model. The drone is a practical, inexpensive, data-collecting tool that any large-scale grower worth its salt should reasonably implement. It’s no surprise that companies like Agribotix are developing software aimed at this market. The question is, just how ubiquitous will tech like this be in the next few years? Stay tuned, we’ll find out soon.
