Imagine cruising through your pecan orchard scouting for insects or disease and instead of riding with your head out the window, looking up reaching for branches, you were staring at your cell phone, and not Facebook. Imagine you are looking at live images from all around your orchard, but not just pretty pictures, you’re viewing insect hot spots, and early detection of scab even before the human eye can see it, along with a myriad of other important tree health data. Using this data to find “hot spots” in your orchard before they proliferate. Well that day may not be too far away.
Mr. Daniel Scheiner sees that day in the not too distant future. Mr. Scheiner and the rest of the team at Skyraider Aeronautics spend their days working on just such applications for the agricultural industry. Sky raider Aeronautics works with various different row crops but being from Georgia, Mr Scheiner became interested in how he could serve the growing pecan industry.
“ So far we’ve been able to Identify damage and also find anomalies in regards to growth deficiencies in pecan trees.”Says Mr. Scheiner. “We had really good results with identifying problem areas that have helped pecan farmers save time and money with applications of irrigation and pesticides at the exact places needed.”
But Skyraider Aeronautics isn’t stopping there. They’ve been working with experts to solve one of the most expensive aspects of farming pecans in humid climates, “scab”. Mr. Scheiner believes that he can utilize various types of data gathered by drones scanning the pecan trees, to spot scab before the human eye can. He is now working with pecan growers to establish baselines and move forward with testing and data collection. Mr. Scheiner and his team have already been working with large pecan farmers like Shiloh Farms in South Georgia. When the high winds of Hurricane Irma came through in September SkyRaider Aeronautics was on scene at Shiloh Farms to assess the damage. Skyraider Aeronautics was able to assess damaged and downed trees at least 10X faster and with more accuracy than traditional scouting methods. They were also able to use NDVI cameras to gauge canopy formation and health as well as provide real-time imagery of the pecan orchard, pecan orchard damage and pecan tree canopy health. Skyraider aeronautics is based in Augusta, GA and covers all of the south east region, Mr Scheiner said that they will be taking on new clients this season for pecan scouting but space is limited. You can get more information about SkyRaider Aeronautics by clicking link below or by visiting (https://www.skyraideruav.com/).
