Drone helps berry farm preserve environment
PLANT CITY — A black drone with eight propellers and six cameras mounted on its belly zooms across Sam Astin’s strawberry field, gathering data that can help him save money on production and reduce his farm’s carbon footprint.
Buzzing along at 350 feet, it takes the ground-controlled aircraft just 11 minutes and 16 seconds to pass over 22.5 acres and capture 219 images.
If a yellow patch shows up on the near-infrared photographs, that alerts the staff at Highland Precision Ag — and eventually, the grower — that there is an issue with some of the plants. The drone team can then come back with more specialized cameras and lenses to pinpoint the problem, whether that’s spider mites, mold or something else that could kill them or hinder peak production.
As the human population has increasingly encroached on this country’s farm fields, some growers have gotten a black eye for their use of chemicals and water, said Highland Precision Ag founder and President Steve Maxwell. He said the technology his company is refining can change that.
Over the next three years, the system Highland Precision Ag is developing will give farmers custom computer dashboards on which they can monitor their crops, follow recipes for treating disease and treat only those areas of their fields that need it.
“Most farmers today just broadcast chemicals” across their fields, Maxwell said. “We want to get to the point we can build a recipe with fertilizer or chemical companies, a customized treatment plan. That will reduce the footprint, environmentally, while still producing the yields we need to produce for a hungry world.”
Right now, he said, the technology “is like the clunker cellphone you had to hold with two hands. Technology is moving so fast, it’s changing every few months.” As it becomes more precise, his company’s system will be ready for use not only by berry farmers but those growing sugar cane, tomatoes, watermelons, citrus and more.
The key to the success of this venture is connecting software, research and the farmer, said Maxwell, who also owns Highland Packaging Solutions in Plant City, providing labeled containers used by berry, egg and vegetable farmers.
At a time when drones are reaching their height in popularity with recreational ground pilots, their entree into local farm fields has created some curiosity, Maxwell said. For farm neighbors, seeing the tiny aircraft buzzing overhead can be disconcerting, he concedes.
But fear not. While these drones may appear to be flying over nearby houses, they are photographing only farm fields outlined by GPS coordinates, said Wade Carter of Highland Precision Ag Mulberry. “If a human did happen to get on one of the images, they would just show up as a red blob.”