Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84EYES IN THE SKY 14 / SEEDWORLD.COM JANUARY 2017 FOR THE PAST several years, researchers have been working to figure out how drone technology can benefit crop production and crop improvement. They’ve figured out how, but have since been trying to work through the logistical challenges of being able to attach more sensors to a drone and finding that ideal weight balance. Then there’s the issue of getting all that data back to the person who can make sense of it and finally to the end user. That’s not even getting into the issue of air space and safety. But a new technology might make all these efforts obsolete. That’s right, the challenges scientists and researchers have been trying to tackle with high throughput phenotyping and drones could be put to rest with the new Smartfield technology. An agricultural information company, Smartfield was founded on an exclusive license from a U.S. Department of Agriculture patent on BIOTIC (biologi- cally-identified optimal temperature interactive console for managing irrigation. Since then the company has added an additional patent around measuring plant canopy temperature. Plants have a leaf temperature at which they perform best, explained Mario Carrillo, Smartfield vice president of agronomic services, during the 2016 Exceed the Seed Symposium Dec. 6 in Chicago, Ill.. This is called optimum plant canopy temperature (OPCT), he said, noting that Smartfield can identify OPCT for any crop. During the presentation, Carrillo said that about 95 percent of what Smartfield does has to do with canopy temperature. Even different varieties, lines or hybrids of the same crop species can have different OPCT, he said, noting that for corn the optimum temperature is known to be 82 degrees Fahrenheit and is the same with cotton. Prior to joining Smartfield, Carrillo served as direc- tor of strategic seed projects at Chromatin, Inc. and held leadership positions at Monsanto as project devel- opment manager for DEKALB corn germplasm and as technology development manager for specialty crops. “When a plant is under stress, it loses the ability to regulate to its OPCT,” he said. “This impacts yield. The more time a plant spends in a stressed state, where it cannot correctly modulate canopy temperature, the higher the magnitude of the yield loss.” Carrillo added that it’s not just about stress mitiga- tion, but also seed enhancement. The team of engineers at Smartfield developed a technology called the FIT System that collects 96 data points per day to provide a complete daily picture. You see, Carrillo said that canopy temperature is a direct, integrated measurement revealing plant health and continuous canopy temperature provides a complete picture of the growing season. The Smartfield FIT System is completely wireless and powered by the sun. It’s made up of an infrared camera, visual spectrum camera, high performance pan-tilt system, customer hardware, a 50-foot pneu- matic mast and a solar panel system. A network of advanced sensors are placed throughout the field, sending a constant stream of data to the researcher or grower, and that constant cap- A look at how one company looks to measure canopy temperature to reduce plant stress. Julie Deering “We believe the long-term solution will be a blend of both macro and micro databases to achieve a spatial – temporal balance.” — Mario Carrillo