Corn Farmers Save $10 an Acre on Nitrogen With the PrecisionHawk Smarter Farming Drone Package

While nitrogen deficiency can be devastating to corn yield, it is one of the few inputs a grower has control over in-season. The real question is, where should growers target their sidedress application within the field to get maximum return on investment? Using the Smarter Farming Package, drone data reveals where a grower needs to sidedress for efficient use of inputs during the season.

SUMMARY

Nitrogen is one of the primary factors that determines realistic yield expectations for corn, yet the traditional approach to sidedressing is to treat fields uniformly with the same amount of nitrogen.

Corn prices are constantly in flux, ranging from a high of $8.00/bu in Jul ‘12 to $3.05/bu in Aug ‘16. Meanwhile, N input costs can vary from $40/acre to $60/acre depending on target yield. With volatile commodity prices and unpredictable weather conditions, farmers need information to optimize their yield while maintaining a budget.

PROBLEM

N sidedressing is often a binary decision – yes or no – and how much? The typical process, pictured below, involves consulting last season’s prescription with adjustments for losses in addition to various sampling methods: visual, soil, or plant tissue. None of these methods can quickly or reliably determine precisely where to sidedress, prompting farmers to sidedress the entire field uniformly.

CURRENT SOLUTION

Consult last year’s prescription, account for loss.

1 2 3

Visually detect leaf firing. Sample & verify across field.

Use N soil samples to further validate N deficiency hypothesis.

CURRENT PROCESSES TO DETECT N DEFICIENCY(Pre-planting data, time consuming scouting and localized sampling)

THE SMARTER FARMING PACKAGE

The Smarter Farming Package includes a DJI M100 Drone, 1 visual and 1 multispectral sensor, DataMapper flight app and software platform for rapid drone image mapping and analysis. In 2016, corn farmers across the US Midwest began using the Smarter Farming Drone Package to better estimate how much N their fields really needed. This case study shows how the Smarter Farming Package can be integrated into an existing production practice to reduce nitrogen input costs while maintaining target yield.

USING THE SMARTER FARMING DRONE PACKAGE, A 320 ACRE HALF-SECTION CORN FIELD CAN BE SURVEYED IN APPROXIMATELY 45 MINUTES.

To find out their actual N deficiency rates and locations, they flew their drone at the start of V4 in mid June with the DJI Zenmuse X3 multispec sensor (records blue, green, and near infrared bands). A 320 acre field, when flown at 400 feet, can be completed in about 45 minutes using the DataMapper Inflight App and the DJI Matrice 100. The captured images were then uploaded to DataMapper, where they were automatically stitched into an orthomosaic, 2D map of the field.

Once the farmers had their maps, they used the Green Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (GDVI) algorithm in DataMapper. The output, shown on the left, indicates high probability for N deficiency areas in red.

After ground truthing a sample area and consulting with their agronomist, the growers had a more complete picture of where nitrogen needed to be applied in order to maximize their potential yield and minimize their input costs. On average, the Smarter Farming Drone Package analysis revealed that only 30% of corn fields were actually N deficient.

Finally, growers were able to visualize the products of their surveys through shapefiles directly sent to their farm management platforms, like the John Deere Operations Center, through the DataMapper API, which streamlined the process from decision making to precision application. The entire process from drone flight to data upload and analysis to N application was completed in two days.

Based on the information gleaned from using the Smarter Farming Drone Package on typical corn/corn 320 acre fields targeting 140 bu./acre, growers were able to determine that the average actual N deficiency was only 30% of the total field, rather than the 100% the farmers would have otherwise dressed. This resulted in a $9.80 savings per acre.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT

Under the traditional method, the only way growers could be confident in reaching their, on average, 140 bu. target would be to apply 175 lbs of nitrogen to every acre, 35 extra lbs above the average baseline rate of 140 lbs/acre.

THE SMARTER FARMING PACKAGE is presented by PrecisionHawk, an aerial data acquisition and analysis company.Learn more today at precisionhawk.com/DJIFarmer

1TRADITIONAL

METHODSMARTER FARMING METHOD

Consult last year data, followed by one or all of the below:Optional 3-5 Soil Samples

Optional 3-5 Visual Samples

DETECTING N DEFICIENCY

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1 Fly DJI Matrice 100

Upload images, use GDVI analyze in DataMapper

Ground Truth Sampling

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1DAY

1 WEEK

DECISION TO APPLY N

Under the Smarter Farming method, farmers were able to quickly determine that their fields were actually only deficient on 30 percent of the field. Knowing this, they only applied the incremental 35lbs of nitrogen to those 96 acres.

At an average of $0.40 cents/lb of nitrogen, the farmers were able to save an average of $9.80/acre in N input.