February 2018
25 years of Cattle Country means the Manitoba Beef Producers archive is full of unique stories and photos. Each week throughout 2023 MBP will be sharing some of the most interesting content that was published.
UAVs can be a useful tool but know the rules before you fly
By Angela LovellThere are lots of exciting, potential uses for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in agriculture, and researchers, ag consultants, producers and others in the industry are just beginning to understand what they are. Researchers at Manitoba Beef and Forage Initiatives (MBFI) research farms are using UAVs to help analyse things such as pasture plant health and growth.
For the average beef producer, however, uses may be a bit more limited because there is a definite learning curve around flying UAVs and interpreting the data they potentially can collect.
The most basic use for a UAV might be checking the cattle out in the fields to see where they are, but add a few sensors and it could be used to check vegetation health and productivity using a process called NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) which uses different light spectrums to measure the difference in vegetation that the naked eye cannot see.
“You could use a UAV with another type of sensor to look at thermal imaging that measures heat,” says Steven Hills, an instructor at Assiniboine Community College who has been assisting researchers at MBFI on some of their projects and demonstrated a UAV for producers attending MBFI’s Summer Pasture Tour on August 30.
“There’s some research that’s in it’s very early stages in the U.S. where they are looking at changes in animals’ body temperatures at time of calving, which might be a way in the future to keep track of when cows are about to calve.”
UAV or Satellite?
With UAVs providing a lot of the same imagery that satellites provide, why would a producer decide to choose one over the other? A lot boils down to turnaround time, says Hills. “Satellite imagery is only captured as the satellite goes over, and if there are clouds or it’s a rainy day you might not get a good image at that particular moment,” he says. “That satellite might not pass over that particular area again for 15 or 20 days due to the tasking and the orbit patterns, whereas a UAV can fly at any time and take some imagery when you want it and the conditions are perfect.”
SINCE 1998
A drone landing at the Manitoba Beef and Forage Initiatives Brookdale farm in August 2017.
There also isn’t as much option to control the resolution of a satellite image as there is with a UAV. “If you want to fly at a 25 meter altitude, you can get a much finer resolution on the ground in terms of your image,” says Hills. “A satellite image might come in with only a one or two meter pixel.”
Satellite imagery can be expensive, but a basic UAV with a colour camera and real-time video capabilities is around $1500, so fairly affordable.
How to read the data
The real issue still remains analysing and interpreting data, especially if UAVs are taking more advanced imagery, which is far too time consuming for most producers. “Most of the Precision Ag companies and consultants are doing a lot of that stuff,” says Hills. “A lot of it now is also being done on the “cloud”. A farmer can upload his crop yields as he’s harvesting them and get those processed by the consultant right away, or in due time, and added to his history. A lot of this kind of data is being networked over the internet or in the cloud.”
Although most producers are happy to leave the technical interpretation of their data to someone more qualified, those people still need the producer’s expertise and knowledge to make it relevant to his or her situation. “A lot of farmers don’t have the high tech end of the training required to put some of that stuff together but they can discuss in detail, field history, input applications, the effect of certain things on the crops, things that worked and things that didn’t work,” says Hills. “There are always things that you can’t see from satellite imagery, from a UAV image or from any kind of precision Ag technology and that’s the boots in the dirt kind of information. In reality, the farmer has to work closely with the consultant to transfer that field knowledge that they have so they can get the best possible advice.”
Changes to the rules coming
There are also some changes coming soon from Transport Canada to the regulations around flying UAVs, particularly in regards to where they can fly. People flying UAVs within built up areas like cities and towns will have to get a Special Flight Operation Certificate (SFOC) whereas currently they can fly in those areas if they meet some exemptions.
Most agricultural applications for UAVs occur outside of built up areas, and the rules for operating a UAV in these areas are more relaxed. “In these areas you don’t need an SFOC if you can meet some of the basic requirements,” says Hills.
The new rules will introduce a testing process, although it is not yet clear whether it will be online like the current Firearms Acquisition Certificate test or the Boat Safety test. All UAV operators, regardless of where they fly, will also need to maintain $100,000 liability insurance.
There are a number of ground schools that offer UAV flight training, and Hills suggests getting some basic instruction is always a good thing. “It’s important to understand that these things are considered to be a regular aircraft and that you need to maybe understand a little bit around the theory of flight or what makes them fly, the safety concerns around using them and understand the rules and regulations,” says Hills. “A lot of the ground training schools go through all of that. Certainly, in the future that ground training school requirement, depending on the use, may or may not go away depending on this basic knowledge test that is being introduced and some of the other changes, but I certainly think it’s a good idea to understand that component.”