Agronomic Insight from Imagery

We have worked with imagery acquired from satellite, manned, and unmanned platforms for several years.

Leveraging our experience with multiple platforms of imagery acquisition, creative analytics, agronomic insight, and our balanced soil fertility philosophy, we are able to produce interpretations of farm data that few in the industry can rival.

See Also:  Precision Ag


Advanced Mapping Products (AMP)

By utilizing the latest technologies, we are able to visualize crop health and other variables in ways we never before could.

One example of this is Relative Biomass mapping, which unlike NDVI, is not inferred by the reflectance of the crop–allowing us to literally view the condition of the crop in a new dimension!


We have also identified many uses for conventional (RGB) photography in documenting and assessing yield-limiting factors–empowering operators of inexpensive off-the-shelf UAVs to extract even more value from their imagery.

Below is an example of how we may use RGB photography to document infestations of pests, in this case, volunteer corn in soybeans. This weed can account for 1% yield loss for approximately every 100 clumps per acre. Here, we had approximately 1,000 clumps per acre and the corn covered 4.5% of the field’s total area. A review of the yield data showed that yields were 4-6 bushels less where volunteer corn was present.


Another innovative solution that we offer growers is the ability to map and classify the micro-environments within their fields.  Applications of this product are numerous:

  • Variable rate fertilizer
  • Variable rate lime
  • Variable rate amendments
  • Variable rate planting
  • Targeted pesticide applications (as opposed to treating the entire field–only treat the micro-environments that will have the highest probability of incubating pests or disease)
  • Guide scouting and sampling activities

The accuracy of our process in delineating soil variables is exceptionally high and often rivals EC mapping (and at a fraction of the cost).

*TEC is the Total Exchange Capacity

With just a few soil samples, we can turn these zones in to an accurate assessment of important soil physical and chemical properties, which enables precise placement of the right input, in the right place.

Utilizing our process of micro-environment classification, we can more accurately visualize spatial variability than more labor intensive methods, such as grid sampling.

Below are two maps for Soil Organic Matter. On the left from grid sampling (2.5 acre grids, 55 samples total). On the right, from zones (seven zones, seven samples). Correlation with our zones and soil organic matter was 0.91 (very strong) and exchange capacity was 0.99!