Does precision farming help to manage drought?

Now that the harvest is approaching, we can look back on an interesting year. Farmers who have kept their crops up and running can count on a good year, but on the other hand, the first plots of less than 10 tons have been harvested or sometimes even plowed under.

Earlier I told about it demo plot that we are following this season. This parcel of potato chips of the Lady Claire variety is located in Zeewolde. The clay soil retains moisture well and with a draft on 2 sides of the plot, supplying water was no problem either.

Counting attendance
We started this season with a new product from Droneworkers: attendance counts. Due to the heavy rainfall and poor quality of various batches, there were problems with the turnout this year. This creates a lot of uncertainty for the grower and supplier. The turnout counts quickly and objectively map the turnout. Fortunately for Mts. van Es, this plot had an average turnout of 94%, with a few misses here and there. That's very neat.

This information also reappears during fertilization: if halfway through the season it appears that growth is lagging behind on part of the plot, it makes no sense to adjust the spot with extra fertilization. In fact, the plants that are there get more sunlight and nutrients. An extra high dose of fertilizer or other fertilizer will ensure that these tubers grow out of size even earlier, with possible consequences for quality.

Mysterious soil
This season we also paid attention to growth, fertilization and soil moisture. Growth went well. We started taking (wet chemical) soil samples around crop closure to determine the availability of nutrients. Based on drone images, we took a soil sample in 6 places (in good, moderate and lesser places).

The availability of nitrogen varied from 22 to 85 kilos per hectare. However, due to a mysterious soil correction factor, the soil science laboratory advised to spread 125 kilograms of pure nitrogen per hectare everywhere. If we had administered this, there would have been a lot of problems. Due to the lack of clarity, it was decided not to apply variable fertilization.

Past was revealed
During the drought period, we also collected drone images using an experimental thermal imaging camera. The temperature of the crop is a good indicator of drought. The algorithms that use the weather data, soil maps and drone images can predict soil moisture.

The map of the measured plot shows remarkable stripes (transverse to the direction of travel), which are 12 meters apart. After long brainstorming, the possible reason was found: ditches from the time of the Rijksdienst voor de IJsselmeerpolders (RIJP), which were also every 12 meters.

Furthermore, a strip can be seen between the third and fourth spray track that has been irrigated twice (due to overlap). The soil on the left side of the plot has a better moisture-supplying capacity. Unfortunately, there are currently few machines available that can irrigate at this level, although drip hoses or new ones offer irrigation reels a possible outcome.

Measuring yield during harvesting
New techniques (such as drones) make it possible to work at plant level with increasing scale. Measures in cultivation, which were previously literally invisible, can also be adjusted. Soon (in collaboration with Grimme and dealer Weevers) a demo harvester with yield sensors will be available to harvest this plot.

In this way a good estimate can also be made of the variation in yield within this plot. In addition, a conservative estimate can be made of the usefulness of precision agriculture.

Bert Rich

Bert Rijk is co-owner of Aurea Imaging. That company has been flying drones since 2010, some of which are designed and built by itself. According to him, drones offer the solution for flexible deployment and better images.

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