Farm & Ranch
AgriLife Research in Amarillo taking to the skies with drones
By: Kay Ledbetter
Writer: Kay Ledbetter, 806-677-5608, [email protected]
Contact: Dr. Brent Auvermann, 806-677-5600, [email protected]
Dr. Jackie Rudd, 806-677-5600, [email protected]
AMARILLO – The maiden voyage of the first unmanned aerial system or drone by Texas A&M AgriLife Research in Amarillo was flown over wheat plots just before their harvest in the final week of June.
Shannon Baker prepares a quadcopter for flight over Texas A&M AgriLife Research wheat breeding plots in Moore County, (Texas A&M AgriLife Communications photo by Kay Ledbetter)
Dr. Brent Auvermann, Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center director in Amarillo, said it was the first step into dedicated unmanned aerial system, UAS or drone-based AgriLife Research in the High Plains.
Texas A&M AgriLife already has a well-established UAS program, Auvermann said, but much of the work to date has been done through the Lone Star UAS Center of Excellence and Innovation at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi or on the Texas A&M University campus in College Station.
“We needed operational freedom to fly under federal rules,” he said. “We couldn’t rely or wait on someone to come from Corpus Christi to fly here. We needed to be nimble. When we get conditions suitable to fly, we need to be ready to go and sometimes we may only have a couple of hours’ notice.”
He said for safety, risk management and compliance, he prefers the winds be 15 mph or less, which doesn’t happen with any consistency in this region.
Auvermann said new regulations published in 2016 by the Federal Aviation Administration made it legal to get individual UAS pilot licenses to operate small crafts weighing less than 55 pounds, under 400 feet above ground level and only in uncontrolled airspace, with a few exceptions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKigyrYxq1s
Seven individuals from AgriLife Research in Amarillo and Lubbock, as well as one U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service employee at Bushland, went through training and passed a federal exam. That was followed by hands-on training on the Texas A&M University farms near College Station.
In addition, a four-bladed quadcopter and six-bladed hexacopter have been purchased for use in research programs through the AgriLife center in Amarillo, Auvermann said. The quadcopter is equipped with a digital camera and a RedEdge multispectral camera able to capture visible and infrared light bands. The hexacopter will have a hyperspectral camera able to capture visible, infrared and ultraviolet bands of light.
He said there’s a classic distinction on what is done on the College Station campus and what will be done at the Amarillo research center.
“We want to focus on what the producer can do with the information we are gaining,” he said. “On campus, they are looking at things more on the fundamental and developmental levels. You might say we are the test bed. They develop techniques, algorithms and work flows, and then we will streamline and simplify and tailor applications of the technology to what the producer really needs.”
At the AgriLife Research center in Amarillo, Auvermann said some key areas of use for the UAS will be managing crop diseases and water stress, predicting yield potential in crop-breeding programs and even measuring animal health in livestock facilities.
The maiden voyage of the first unmanned aerial system or quadcopter owned by Texas A&M AgriLife Research in Amarillo. (Texas A&M AgriLife Communication photo by Kay Ledbetter)
“We’re working here with a quadcopter, which is really good for low-elevation studies and imaging. Those with much larger acres will probably want to use a fixed-winged platform, but this one suits us because it is very easy to control at low altitude and covers small plots low and slow.”
Auvermann said it is more than just about collecting images.
“It’s about extracting what I call actionable intelligence,” he said. “What can we learn from the images that a farmer can use to make adjustments in the field? Maybe they can make a decision to abandon a field where further irrigation would be a waste, or they can add extra inputs when yields are looking better than expected. It might help them decide whether to treat a small section or a whole field if insects or disease are a problem.”
The drones allow researchers to use infrared sensors across the field to identify soil-water dynamics and anything that might affect that process of growth, he said.
“We can fly the fields weekly and detect changes in transpiration that are not yet visible to the naked eye, and do all of that in less time than physically walking the fields,” Auvermann said. “On feed yard surfaces, we can use thermal imaging to detect ‘hot spots’ for greenhouse-gas emissions.”
Dr. Jackie Rudd, AgriLife Research wheat breeder in Amarillo, said his interest was in quantifying traits in the wheat breeding yield trials.He said the inaugural flight took place in the wheat breeding plots near Dumas.
“There are 2,000 plots at this site we use for the wheat variety breeding process,” Rudd said. “Each will be combined separately, weighed and analyzed for quality. This UAS flight was a trial run for us, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the results. The flight data clearly shows chaff color, lodging, shattering, height, head density and if outside sources such as animals may have damaged a plot. This is important when the combine harvests the grain and there is something to look at when the yield is lower than expected.
“Right now, it is more of a confirmation of what we already documented by walking the plots or wheat we saw coming through on the combine,” he said.
Shannon Baker, research associate with the wheat breeding program in Amarillo, piloted the drone.
Baker said it typically takes about six hours to walk all the plots and take notes, and “we do that three to four times a growing season.” With the quadcopter, she expects to be able to take weekly data in about 30 minutes per session.
“We will be able to estimate more accurately growth rate and progression of individual breeding lines and varieties,” Rudd said. “We will be able to quantify recognizable injury such as hail damage, lodging, shattering or other physical damage. And, we can look for signatures of diseases such as stripe rust or wheat streak mosaic virus, for example.”
Auvermann said on all crops more scanning by the UAS will help researchers estimate yields early in the season and make labor management decisions based on what they see.
Another benefit, he said, will be the ability to track irrigation – what the soil moisture is like and the extent to which drought stress is showing up in the health of the plants.
“Texas A&M AgriLife Research in Amarillo is moving decisively into drone-based research and we invite anyone to contact us if you they have any questions about what we are doing and why,” he said.
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Find more stories, photos, videos and audio at http://today.agrilife.org
By Rayford Pullen | [email protected]
When May arrives, we start thinking about weed control. With two years of drought under our belts, grass grazed short and hay stocks depleted, what we do now will influence our forage conditions for the entire year. With 75 percent of our annual warm season forages made by July 15 in North Texas, we need to get the grass growing while the sun shines.
Speaking of the sun shining, the biggest deterrent to growing lots of grass is restricted sunlight, and the biggest sun blockers we have are weeds.
Have you noticed weeds are normally just slightly taller than your grass and are probably blocking 90 percent of the sunlight from reaching the grass itself? So obviously, we need to improve conditions, so sunlight reaches the plants we want to grow.
With grass extremely short, more sunlight is hitting the soil surface now, which in turn results in more weed seed germinating. With the moisture we have received, we expect an abundance of weeds this year.
To read more, pick up a copy of the May issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Jared Groce
Rural land sales are continuing on a steady pace for early spring, with prices holding very strong with the sell-to-list price ratios remaining very high, even on properties that have been on the market for a longer than usual time period. The total number of transactions are picking up once again as the spring selling season kicks off, and the average acreage continues to decrease.
Larger acreage properties seem to be in higher demand than smaller properties currently, with many buyers simply parking cash in real estate to hedge against inflation. Interest rates seem to have settled down and most experts agree that rates will be reduced by the fed this year. Some lenders have programs in place that allow the buyer to reduce their rates without having to go through a full refinance ordeal.
To read more, pick up a copy of the May issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
Future Farmers of America was founded by a group of farmers in 1928 with the mission of preparing the next generation of agriculture. It has done just that during its 95-year history, as the organization works to give back to others by following its motto, “learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live, living to serve.”
FFA is an organization made up of state associations, and at the helm of the Texas FFA is a team of 12 officers representing their respective areas within the Lone Star State. These individuals dedicate a year of their lives as they serve members, provide leadership, and work together with the state staff and board of directors to develop policy and lead the organization of over 177,000 members.
North Texas is represented by Area IV and Area IV, stretching from Wilbarger County to Bell County and from Runnels County to Grayson County. This year, those chosen to lead this great area are State President Isaac Hawkins Jr., Area IV, and State Vice President Weston Parr, Area V.
Parr is from the Sam Rayburn FFA chapter and the Area V Association, but the leader who now serves more than 19,100 members of Area V entered the FFA organization as a shy teenager who sat in the back of the room.
“I didn’t talk to a whole lot of people. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life or where I could see myself, so I wasn’t involved on my high school campus,” Parr recalled.
“Then I started FFA and slowly but surely, my ag teachers worked me into attending more contests, meeting new people, and speaking. I remember the first time I gave an officer speech to my chapter. I can still remember how embarrassing it was. To see the progression from that moment to speaking on stage at the state convention in front of thousands of people. Now I feel like I can enter the industry I want and be successful all because of what FFA afforded me for five years.”
There is not much Parr did not do during his time in high school. His contest participation included chapter conducting, wool judging, cotton judging, wildlife, and job interview, but his favorite was extemporaneous speaking, which he did not start until his senior year of high school.
“I wish I could go back to my freshman, sophomore, and junior years and start that sooner. I think if I had more time, I would have been more successful than I already was, but that was something I didn’t realize I liked at the time. I’m not naturally somebody who likes to speak in public, but it was actually my favorite,” Parr said.
Parr won several awards during his time competing. In 2023 alone, Parr earned the Texas FFA Service-Learning Proficiency title, was a National FFA Service-Learning Proficiency finalist, and a Texas FFA Extemporaneous Speaking finalist. In addition to his CDE and LDE events during high school, he showed commercial steers at Houston, and boilers at most major shows, participated in the county show with projects in ag mechanics, showed goats from time to time, and showed heifers until graduation.
“FFA provides invaluable resources and knowledge to be successful once you leave high school and you are out of the blue jacket for the first time. I have been a part of a lot of great organizations over the years, and they are all great in their own way, but in my opinion, FFA is the most successful at producing members of society who want to go and do something with themselves,” Parr said.
He was halfway through his time as Area V Association President and attending the national convention when he began to ponder the idea of running for state office.
“This is around the time when you usually figure out if you want to go through and be a state officer or you decide that area officer is your last run. I was unsure of where I wanted to go, but I knew I didn’t want to be done with FFA. I decided maybe it would be a good opportunity not only for me to make more friendships and connections, but also to give back to the program that allowed me to be able to do what I can do today,” Parr explained.
To read more, pick up a copy of the May issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
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