Drones and sensor technology might soon help farmers predict alfalfa damage and yields.
Brian Luck is the Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist in precision ag and machinery systems at the University of Wisconsin. He says his team has spent time researching remote sensing in corn, soybeans, and alfalfa using unmanned aerial vehicles. “There’s a few yield monitors on forage harvesters as well that are feed roll displacement, and they work okay in alfalfa, but they work better in corn silage, so in alfalfa sometimes you get some interesting readings.”
He says supplementing the harvester’s yield monitors with remote sensing data should help farmers get a more accurate yield map.
