Cover crops are an essential part of crop rotations and winter cropping. They ensure soil and stubble is not left bare and at risk of erosion and weathering. Cover crops have many environmental benefits including improving soil structure, reducing nutrient leaching risk and as an integrated form of weed, pest and disease management.
Photo: Scout Point in Winter Beans crop with grass weed presence, showing normal image and AI image
In British farming, legumes are a common type of broad-leaved cover crop. Peas and beans are amongst the most popular legumes grown in the UK as they serve as a nitrogen fixing crop. This means they harvest nitrogen from the atmosphere and transfer it to the soil, where it will be used by following crops. Here at Drone Ag HQ, peas and beans are grown over the winter months, where Skippy Scout is used to take high resolution, leaf-level images during different stages of the crop’s growth. These scout point images help with early stage emergence to late stage plant cover, supplying crop cover and crop GAI data from the field. Additionally, these detailed images can help farmers, agronomists and other Skippy users with weed detection in peas and beans. As scout point images are taken 2m above the crop, weeds and diseases can be easily picked out for accurate and informed decision making.
If you are interested in using Skippy Scout, please get in touch with us!