2023 is well upon us and the growing season has even started for some of us in the Northern Hemisphere. So, let’s cover some questions that may be racking our brains. What will come of this year’s growing season? How about ag technology solutions; what’s been released and what will support the upcoming season? Ways to optimize this year’s outcomes?  

Each year we look forward to the exciting new technologies available to leverage throughout the season. I mean, who doesn’t want to take advantage of tools that boost productivity and efficiency? Like new smartphones, we see new ag drone hardware and software product releases and advancements so frequently that it’s often difficult to keep up.  

So, let’s highlight some exciting new technologies, tools, and updates that can optimize your 2023 growing season. 

Better Ag Technology Solutions with Improved Ag Drone Systems

The last year has been filled with exciting new technologies and innovations.  

Ag drone sensors are getting lighter with higher resolution and pixels to meet the need of getting more done with less. Drones and sensors go hand in hand with making strides towards more efficient, precise, and reliable data collection. Did you know the weight of a sensor directly impacts the endurance of a drone? The lighter the sensor, the longer the flight.  

So, drone sensors, like Sentera’s 65R, have been constructed specifically to boost endurance, efficiency, quality, and precision in terms of data capture. The 65R is the first ultra-high-resolution sensor designed specifically from the ground up for easy drone integration. So, if you’re looking to get more imagery, faster, ag technology solutions like this ultra-high-resolution sensor are the answer.  

Orthomosaic mapping, or stitching together the images captured by these sensors, has become a necessary evil to understand what’s happening across plot locations or your field. A common issue associated with stitching, though, is the time commitment and risk to data integrity accompanying the massive overlap and blending. Did you know a typical project time with traditional orthomosaic mapping is six hours? Sometimes, you don’t have six hours to spare – you need an answer within minutes of data capture.  

 With Sentera’s DGR System, which was released late in 2022, the efficiency, precision, and payoff hasn’t been seen before. By cutting project time by 8x, you’re able to prioritize your time to be spent where it matters: powering critical decisions. And with these immense time savings, you are not risking data integrity – thus getting more reliable data, faster. From pre-flight planning to in-the-air image capture to post-processing, the DGR System increases efficiency by reducing project time by nearly 90%.  

The result of pairing these two together? Capture more pixels at a faster rate of endurance and efficiency without sacrificing data quality. The high-precision certainty from the DGR System combines with the ultra-high-resolution aerial imagery captured by the 65R increases project efficiency by 3x.  

What’s New with Ag Data Analyzing Tools

To accompany the advancements and riveting new ag drone hardware, supportive software and machine learning platforms have increased their capabilities. In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has proven its worth in the agriculture industry and has transformed both data collection and analyzing data.  

Machine learning has become a popular tool in the data world and has resulted in more accurate and convenient data analysis – throughout every stage of the growing season. Take Sentera’s KRNL, its image-based deep learning engine focused on generating plant-level measurements from high-resolution aerial imagery captured by ag drone systems.  

Via its image-based deep learning engine, Sentera delivers insights designed to count plant populations, detect areas of crop damage, uncover anomalies, and identify plant classification, like weed species. In synchronization with its core platform designed to consume spatial, temporal, and image data, Sentera announced the launch on several new insights to help researchers and product developers turn measurements into insights.  

These include:  

• Canopy Cover 
• Crop Area 
• Crop Health 
• Flowering  
• Elevation & Hydrology 
• Height & Lodging  
• Residue Cover 
• Stand Count  
• Tassel Count  

Keep an Eye Out for Future Ag Technology Solutions

This year, the ag industry has a lot to look forward to. Already, there have been several announcements about how machine learning continues to propel the industry ahead with advancements in how we use and analyze data. This isn’t going away. After all, gaining key insights into performance throughout the season and translating that to critical decisions is only going to result in a more productive and sustainable future.  

In such a high demand industry that is constantly seeking ag technology solutions to combat the various challenges it faces; agriculture is constantly evolving. And this year will be no different. We can continue to be excited for potential advancements and can expect some revolutionary technological advancements to pop up throughout 2023.