Enhancing Your Farming Business with 3 Essential Sensors in Agriculture for Actionable Data
- Jack Harris
- Apr 26
- 6 min read
FieldCraft Technology can offer farms multiple ways of capturing data for their fields, but which one is best? Should the approach be more of a pick-and-choose situation? Should the right sensor be used for the right scenario?
This short blog will explain 3 sensors in agriculture which can be used on the farm to collect and utilise data, all of which are available from FieldCraft Technologies, why you would use them and the different benefits they bring to your business.
Tractor-Mounted Sensors
The Fritzmeier ISARIA PRO Active and ISARIA PRO Compact are available to buy or rent from FieldCraft Technologies.
The ISARIA PRO offers farmers an excellent level of control over nutrient management because, unlike other systems, the ISARIA PRO allows yield potential maps and soil zones to be used as a background decision tool. This means when applying fertiliser variably on the go, the ISARIA PRO will check yield potential and current crop conditions before deciding on fertiliser rate. Able to work day or night and unaffected by external conditions, thanks to its active light source, the ISARIA PRO gives growers the most flexibility on data capture (in scan mode), nighttime spray operations and multiple crop uses and specific algorithms.
The ISARIA Compact is a more entry-level system for variable rate. Smaller than the ISARIA PRO, but still has most of the great features of the big brother product. Designed for quick scanning and variable rate fertiliser jobs on the go, the ISARIA PRO Compact is designed for daytime use only and has built-in light sensors to compensate for changing lighting conditions, although up to 14-15 hours is achievable for total day use.
Because these sensors are on the tractor, they are very close to the crop and get a great close-up up detailed look at the chlorophyll content of plants. With specific algorithms for multiple crops, they can offer users a wide variety of ways to return their investment quicker.
The tractor-mounted sensors also don't suffer from changing lighting conditions, weather events or spotty cloud cover. You can scan a crop or apply VR fert anytime that suits you, as it's there ready to go when you are.
Data can be synced back to the ISARIA PRO Connect portal to analyse data, share with other platforms and plan future applications.
The initial cost of tractor-mounted sensors can be high, with such advanced technology packed into the ISARIA PRO Active and Compact, precision German engineering and excellent build quality, it's not hard to see why. The upside to this is that you own the equipment, so there are no ongoing fees or subscriptions.
Plus, you can use the sensors for:
Scanning
Live VR nutrient applications, including slurry
Import data to help aid decisions
Use in any green crop
Specific algorithms for Cereals/OSR/Potatoes and Grass
Grassland re-seeding on the go
Drone Technology
FieldCraft Technologies can survey your fields using our RGB or RTK Multispectral drones.
Offering unparalleled detail, drones offer a different perspective on fields, with advances in camera technology, resolution on the ground can be high enough to detect weeds, count plants and accurately size them.
With a wide variety of uses for drones, the cost of flying fields and time to process data is mitigated by chemical savings, deeper understanding of field conditions and the ability to make variable rate plans for whatever you can think of.
Flights are flown with a pre-mapped plan, which determines drone height/speed/camera overlap and resolution on the ground.
For a general flight, looking at crop variance for yield potential zones or to see how an on-farm trial is doing, a flight height of 250-400 ft is fine. Resolution on the ground isn't enough to count plants, but it is good enough to capture the relevant data needed.
A 12-hectare field at this height will take about 10-12 minutes to fly. After the flight, images are collected, uploaded and stitched together to give you one image of the field, often called an Orthomosaic image.
This process can take as little as 20 minutes if only using an RGB camera or up to an hour if using multispectral imagery. In principle, the flight and data can be quickly turned around into a usable file for sprayers or spreaders on the same day if needed.
For in-depth plant health, a multispectral drone is a must. The extra wavelengths offered by this technology allow for imaging past what we can see as humans. Early detections of crop stress and onset of disease, as well as more accurate access to vegetation indices like NDRE (Normalised Difference Red Edge), lend themselves to variable rate fertiliser use.
One of the benefits of having time to analyse data is being able to decide on multiple factors, and also knowing what you will need for each plan.
Having more detailed maps allows for the potential to see weedy areas and create spot spray plans ahead of the sprayer.
A very low flight targeting plant count and size result in a slower flight time and larger data set, but will give extremely high resolution on the ground.
Plant size and count allow growers to manage fertiliser plans along a section of the field or target harvest operations to specific areas in the field.
For trial professionals, a drone flight can provide excellent high-resolution plot analysis.
For higher resolution imaging and extreme detail, drones are a great fit. One of the downsides is the need for a flight pre-treatment instead of on-the-go spreading or spraying. This is offset by the quick turnaround of data and the ability to know and plan what you want to do in each field. Another benefit is a snapshot of the field at any given time with detailed images.
Timely flights and catching weather patterns can be tricky, but it is doable, and with FieldCraft Technologies multiple years of drone experience, we can get your data when you need it and in a format that is best for your farm.
Data is easily accessible via an online portal, and all raw data (photos) is yours; you will be sent the files for your records.
Satellite Technology
FieldCraft Technologies can offer satellite images for your farm. Included in the price is a mobile scouting app so you can see images at your fingertips.
The cheapest option of the three initially allows a quick look into the variability of your fields and the ability to generate variable rate plans for nutrients or treatments.
Having access also allows you to look back in time and see how previous years crops looked and spot trends and field limitations.
Resolution is lower when compared to the ISARIA PRO Active/Compact and Drones, but satellite data allows for office-based decisions to be made without a lot of input or resources.
Satellite data often relies on clear, cloud-free days, which some years might be hard to find when you need it the most; however, with advances in technology, satellites are able to cover areas more frequently and get the images you require.
FieldCraft Technologies can offer satellite services which include multiple indices in RGB and Multispectral ranges, meaning you get similar results to the drone, just at a lower resolution.
Weather data is included in the satellite service and field league tables, allowing you to see trends over multiple fields of the same crop or varieties to target field walking.
Summary
Whatever you think is the best fit for your farming business, FieldCraft Technologies is here and can help.
Sometimes a mixture of all three is required, and that is easily achieved with our flexible approach to precision tech.
Want to rent an ISARIA PRO Active for a few months to scan and do variable rate applications on the go? No problem, buy an area of satellite images to get previous cropping trends to use as a yield potential map for the ISARIA PRO Active? We can do that. Want to use a drone to look at the establishment of your potatoes? We can do that too.
There is no right or wrong way of targeting the way you approach precision.
Costs vary for each of the three sensor types we have mentioned, and each offers different benefits.
Although the ISARIA PRO Active is the most expensive of the three, with no other costs after initial purchase, the return on investment could be 1-2 years based on increased yield and quality in a wide range of crops. Treating areas for their potential instead of even crops is the aim of the game. Being on the farm at all times means you can use it anytime you want.
Satellite images offer the cheapest way to look at variance on the farm, but will be a cost every year it is used (albeit a low cost)
Drone data is mid-range for cost per hectare, but with excellent precision and detail, it can be used as and when required.
If you want to learn more about what FieldCraft Technologies can do for you, click here.
Share this with your friends if you found this interesting, and check out our shop for RAM Mount products, which can be used on the farm. For a discount, email us directly, and if there is something specific you want that we don't have, let us know, and we'll source it for you.
WhatsApp: 07774043344
Email: info@fieldcraft-tech.co.uk
