Agricultural Remote Sensing

ECC 2016 Leander Campbell (AAFC-Ottawa)

Nicole Rabe (OMAFRA-Guelph)

Satellites, manned, & unmanned aircraft imagery ~ availability on the rise…

• More imaging satellites in orbit bringing revisit time and costs down

• Unmanned aircraft are small & portable on-demand crop diagnostic tools – BUT won’t answer the why

crop looks bad just says it doesn’t look healthy

• Any imaging system needs ground-truthing and more definitive agronomic assessment to determine the why & mng’t action

Planet Labs, a San Francisco aerospace start-up, has launched 113 Dove Cube Sats (10x10x13cm) and are oorbit – hope is to photograph the Earth every single day. By Sean Patrick Farrell on Publish DateMarch 16, 2014. Photo by Jim

Wilson/The New York Times.

Online Remote

Sensing Ag Solutions…multi-year NDVI maps

Online advanced image processing…cleaner images

Remote Sensing 101

www.airinov.fr

missionscience.nasa.gov

Algebra: Vegetation Indices

A discussion at 3 scales:

… it can provide:

o Spatially complete information over very large &/or inaccessible regions; o Information at wavelengths sensitive to vegetation and soil properties. o Well calibrated data over time;

… it can support activities and programs:

o EO data at various spatial and temporal scales can support agricultural land use management, biomass estimation, modeling and monitoring.

Remote Sensing is attractive because…

Near-real-time Surface Soil Moisture Mapping • Near-real-time weekly, bi-weekly and monthly surface soil moisture maps derived from

daily passive microwave data from the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite.

• Collaborating with USA (NASA and USDA) on the calibration of the Soil Moisture Active passive (SMAP) satellite.

AAFC EO-Based Activities

Near-real-time Crop Condition Assessment (NDVI) • AAFC’s Canadian Ag-Land Monitoring System (CALMS) delivers near-real-time weekly NDVI-

based estimates of crop conditions using daily Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) reflectance observations

• Contributes to the Canadian GEOGLAM crop condition assessments for the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS).

AAFC EO-Based Activities

AAFC EO-Based Activities

2015 AAFC Crop Map Inventory to Date

Leander was here

July 2015!

AAFC Roadshow 2015!

Translates into overall inventory accuracy: 87.9%

@LeanderCampbell

2015 Crop Map – Kemptville Region

Soybean Corn Winter Wheat Barley Sod Pasture/Forage Other Cereal Veggies Oats

Ontario corn inventory accuracy: 92 %

3D

Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry Crop Rotations (2013-15) No Rotation 3-Crop Rotation Corn-Soy Only Rotations Pasture/Forage

Municipality of Ottawa Crop Rotations (2013-15) No Rotation 3-Crop Rotation Corn-Soy Only Rotations Pasture/Forage

Prescott & Russell Crop Rotations (2013-15) No Rotation 3-Crop Rotation Corn-Soy Only Rotations Pasture/Forage

Why do we not have much wheat in the rotation in the East???

• Soils? • Winter kill? • Disease? • Wheat: no

economics to it???

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Rye Beans OatsSpring wheat Barley Winter wheatCorn (grain + fodder) Soybean

Not Just an Eastern Trend! % harvested area, Ontario, 1981-2013

(Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Field statistics 2014)

Gaudin A et al., PLOS one (2014) DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0113261 Slide Courtesy of Bill Deen

Rotation complexity effect on corn yield: Ridgetown 2010-2013

Gaudin A et al., Agriculture, Ecosystem and Environment (2015), 210:1-10 Slide Courtesy of Bill Deen

Corn sees a benefit of

adding wheat ~ 2-6%

Gaudin A et al., Agriculture, Ecosystem and Environment (2015), 210:1-10 Slide Courtesy of Bill Deen

Soybeans see a substantial benefit of

adding wheat ~ 13%

Rotation complexity effect on soybean yield: Ridgetown 2010-2013

Economic justification for diversifying rotation

Eg. adding wheat into a CS rotation - 2-6 %increase in corn yield - 6 bu/ac @ $4.00/bu = $24.00 - 9-14% increase in soybean yield - 5 bu/ac @ $12.00/bu = $60.00 - reduction in N requirement - 25 lb/ac @ $0.60/lb = $15.00 - Other (tillage reduction, yield stability, enhanced opportunity to sell residues, reduced nutrient removal…) - conservative estimate …. = $ ??.?? Total additional PROFIT to wheat approx. $100.00/ac or more

Adapted from a slide courtesy of Bill Deen

Grai

n Yi

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(bu/

ac)

2010 2011

ROTATION: Corn Yields after Wheat +/- Red Clover, Ridgetown 2010-12

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Ave

Similar to Elora an increase in yield of 5-8% Note: Fertilizer N applied to all plots 1980lbs/ac

Building more complex rotations in Ontario is not just all about economic return…

….it also building soil resilience during adverse weather events!

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Rotation effect (% of CCSS cluster mean)

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CCSW

CCSW(rc)

Rotation effect (% of CCSS cluster mean)

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CCSWrc

Benefits of diversification under different

weather scenarios - soybeans

Gaudin A et al., PLOS one (2014) DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0113261

HOT DRY seasons OPTIMAL - High Yielding COOL / WET seasons

No TILL TILL

Crop abbreviation: C = corn, S = Soybean,O= Oat, B = spring barley,W= Winter wheat, rc = underseeded red clover, A = Alfalfa. (*) significantly different from high yielding years (cluster E) at p = 0.05.

Slide Courtesy of Bill Deen

2010 Wheat then Soybeans

Orthophotography • 50cm resolution • Early spring

Field Scale: Sources of Imagery

(Source: SWOOP 2010 )

In-season Analysis

2014 Soybeans : Processed

Image

Unmanned Aerial System (UAS):

@ 5cm resolution

Field Scale: Ag Remote Sensing Opportunities

Raw UAV Image → Map Product → Management Decision

Image Source: Sensefly - eBee

For more info. go to Farmsmart Conferences – ZoneSmart Proceedings: http://farmsmartconference.com/zonesmart-2015-workbook-contents/

Wheat Stubble & Red Clover (August 21, 2105) near Guelph, Ontario

Farm: Image Analysis: Nicole Rabe (Land Resource Specialist – OMAFR

Predictive Digital Soil Map

Source: Doug Aspinall (Soil Scientist – OMAFRA)

Agronomic Question: what is my Nitrogen credit?

Keep in mind what the imagery is measuring during growing season… Only the plant OR underlying soil landscape variability?

Measuring benefits of complex rotation & making better management decisions….

• Red clover underseeded to wheat

• Other cover crops following wheat – oats, oilseed radish …

Slide Courtesy of Bill Deen (Meyer-Aurich et al, 2006a; Meyer-Aurich et al 2006b; Munkholm et al, 2012; Munkholm et al, 2013; Gaudin et al, 2013; Gaudin et al. 2014; Gaudin et al. 2015, Wyngaarden et al, accepted

Nitrogen Prescription

Map: Red: full 70lb N credit

Orange: 46lbs N Yellow: 23lbs N Blue: no credit

AAFC Crop Mapping Data - For FREE! Datasets are available via GoC Open Data website: http://open.canada.ca

Interactive map via AAFC Geospatial Platform www.agr.gc.ca/atlas/geoplatform

Future National RS Goals •More active engagement of end users. Stronger linkages lead to better defined informational requirements and improve ability of users to apply EO in meaningful way.

•Derivation of validated biophysical parameters (e.g. yield) from EO data at multiple spatial and temporal resolutions.

•More timely delivery of time-sensitive products.

•Increased use of data from crowd-sourcing to better inform & validate informational products.

•Closer international collaborations (e.g. JECAM) will identify best practices for data collection, processing and dissemination to ensure consistency and comparability among agricultural systems.

For updates and information about the Agricultural Information Atlas, follow us on Twitter:@ONfieldcrops @ONhortcrops.

URL: www.ontario.ca/agmaps

Nicole.Rabe@ontario.ca Leander.Campbell@agr.gc.ca @LeanderCampbell

Thanks!

Questions / Comments?