Satellite Images Help Improve Field Scouting
This time of year, scouting your fields is a good way to check to see if you have problems with your crop. Improvements in satellite images can make your scouting much more accurate and productive. Improvements in resolution and timeliness have made pictures of your fields taken from space far more accurate and useful. Brian Early, with Corteva AgriScience, says the kind of images you can get from the Encirca system do not replace field scouting, but make it more productive, “It does not replace scouting your fields, but makes it more pinpoint scouting.“ He added you can prioritize your fields and choose which ones need to be scouted immediately.
With 3 meter resolution, updated every few days, you can quickly catch the development of disease and insect problems in your fields. “The Encirca system quantities each field into one of three buckets, low health, medium health, and high health. To me that is the thing that really helps you identify where to start looking,” stated Early.
The Encirca system has a follow me function that helps you find the exact spot in the field where the satellite says you might have an issue. Early says, “You can take a phone or tablet into the field and it will direct you right to where the problem is. The accuracy on this is really amazing.”
While this technology can make recommendations, it does not make decisions. That is up to you, the grower. See your Encirca representative for more details.