It’s been around for about 30 years, but aerial imagery has changed and is bringing more information to producers than ever before.

In an interview with Cindy, GROWMARK precision agriculture manager Sid Parks says we’re not just looking at pictures anymore. “We’ve got the ability to get that information digitally, so we can use that image to quantify variability within a field,” he says. And with crop prices higher than almost ever before, farmers are more willing to spend the money on these sophisticated systems.

Parks says there are several different products available, such as satellite, aircraft or drone imagery, that show a wide array of information, and they are becoming more cost effective every day. But he cautions that farmers most likely need some help interpreting what much of this data means to their operations. “Farmers probably aren’t going to feel real good or be real successful doing this directly themselves,” adding that that’s where a good service provider, such as an FS Green Plan Solutions agent, comes in. It’s a bit like looking at an x-ray. If you don’t have an expert interpreting what’s on that image, you can’t properly diagnose the problem.

Listen to the interview with Sid here:
[wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/growmark/gmk-sid-2.mp3″ text=”GROWMARK precision agriculture manager Sid Parks”]