The cutting edge
Arkansas farmers prepare for the future
Technology has become a big part of people’s lives over the past decade. They can purchase inexpensive drones for hobby flying and use smartphones to find their way around town. Now, the state’s farmers are using similar technologies to improve their farms’ profits.
One of the most promising farm technologies is the use of drones. These small unmanned aircraft have many potential uses on farms. The popularity of drones has risen among hobbyists over the past decade as a result of a decrease in the cost of drones, and now farmers can reap the benefits this technology offers.
A drone’s ability to give a bird’s-eye view of crops and livestock is beneficial to farmers. This information can be useful in cases of storm damage. A farmer could use the drone to take high-resolution photos, then use software to determine how much of a crop has been damaged. Another use could be for a rice farmer to quickly evaluate levee gates.
Terry Spurlock, assistant professor and extension plant pathologist at the University of Arkansas System Cooperative Extensive Service in Monticello, said one of the current issues with drones is that the Federal Aviation Administration has only recently created regulations for their commercial operation.
“At this point, we really can’t say what we can and can’t see because we haven’t had the laws in place for us, as scientists, long enough to actually go out and determine how useful this stuff is,” he said. “We just haven’t collected enough data.”
In order to operate a drone for commercial purposes, the FAA requires that the operator obtain a Remote Pilot Airman certificate, the drone must be registered, and the aircraft must be kept in sight.
While the regulations are new and the applications are still being tested, Spurlock said that the more farmers use drones, the better the technology will get. Scientists are still studying the technology, he said, to see how useful it will be as far as farm profitability, disease detection and pest detection.
“We will know how useful [drones] are very quickly when they get out into the market more and more, and you start hearing the feedback,” he said.
For more information on FAA drone regulations, visit www.faa.gov.
Other technology that is becoming more and more prevalent on Arkansas farms is guidance and automatic steering systems. These systems use global positioning systems to give those who are driving tractors better control over harvesting. These systems can reduce fatigue, decrease gaps and overlaps, and improve accuracy.
Tractors equipped with this GPS technology and equipment to monitor yields can give farmers even more data to help them understand which sections of their property produced more product and are the most profitable. This georeferenced spacial analysis can generate thousands of data points that farmers can use to make future planting decisions.
“You get this huge data set that you can make maps out of and understand what part of the field maybe was more profitable due to high yield versus areas of the field that did not produce well,” he said.