How Drones Are Changing the Agricultural Landscape
Drones are becoming a major force in many different industries, and the same is true of the agricultural sector too. Drones are making waves by helping crop growers and livestock owners in all kinds of new ways. Agricultural technology is nothing new, but drones are now taking things to new levels. Here are some of the ways in which drones are being used in agriculture.
Crop Assessments From the Sky
In order to get most out of their crop fields, crop growers need to know more about their crops and their land. This data can be gathered in part by drones, which are used to carry out crop assessments from the sky. Different imaging methods can be used to help assess the health of the crop, spotting fungal diseases and finding poor irrigation. They can also be used to gather data on the general conditions in the environment.
Spotting Water Catchments
Spectral and thermal imaging can be used via drones to spot water catchments on land. It’s possible for some parts of a field to dry out and there are other areas that might have standing water. Neither of these situations is good for farmers, so they need to be spotted fast and dealt with to return the land to good health again. It’s a way drones can provide farmers with the detailed information they need about their land.
Counting Livestock
Livestock farmers have to carefully track their livestock to ensure there are no problems. It’s not as easy as that sounds when a farmer has lots of livestock across a huge span of land. Using drones to count them from the sky is much quicker and a lot easier. They can also be used to spot damaged fences that need to be fixed to prevent livestock from leaving their designated fields.
Planting Seeds
Seed planting costs can be pretty high for farmers, but that’s something that’s beginning to change as seeds can now be plated from the sky via drones. There’s one company that’s created a drone system that allows 100,000 trees to be planted in a single day. They can even find areas where plants, trees and crops are most likely to grow in order to avoid wasting seeds. It’s clearly a lot faster and more effective than other planting methods.
Spraying Pesticides
It’s now possible for drones to fly low in a safe manner, and this means they can be used to spray pesticide on the crops. They’re also better at targeting specific areas of crop fields rather than using more pesticide than is necessary on crops that really don’t need to be sprayed. Some farmers are just starting to use drones for this purpose and it’s something that’s expected to increase in the future.
It’s just the beginning for the use of drones in agriculture. The use of these drones is only going to increase and improve over time as drone technology advances and new methods of harnessing their power are discovered. And they’ve already changed a lot in this sector and many others.