Drone Coalition Blog

Over the weekend I finally took time to write a blog. However I did it for another site...the Drone Coalition. The title is "Precision Agriculture: A Legacy of Learning." While there are many things that I could have written on I picked research. I won't give it away so if you are interested you can read the whole thing here http://dronecoalition.net/general/precision-agriculture-a-legacy-of-learning/ 

Dillon and Logan posing with my first UAV in 2007

Do You Want to Drone in Agriculture?

A couple of months ago I was participating at the Drone World Expo (DWE) www.droneworldexpo.com as a speaker, town hall panelist, and DWE Advisory Board member. Over 2,100 people attended this event. There was a nice little trade show but more importantly presentations from some of the national leaders in Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) use, applications, regulations, and such.

UAS for firefighting, UAS for maritime use, UAS for building inspection, etc. were just a few of the topics covered. Mine was on agriculture.

Agriculture has been tabbed by many as the largest market for commercial UAS application. However, during my national and international travels speaking, exhibiting, and learning I have found that those outside of production agriculture do not have a clue of the people in the marketspace or how to relate to them. What many see is a cash register sitting on a tractor.

This can potentially be a recipe for disaster for creating a commercial UAS industry and/or company.

Some of these same people trying to create a form of agriculture UAS startup are the same people that focus on buying “local” or are into “sustainable agriculture” or don’t like “factory farms” or hate “chemicals”. Or they take part in trendy fads such a gluten free, free range, cage free, grass fed, organic, or other marketing gimmick targeted against the industry I love.

I’m not trying to tell everyone what to do, I’m just saying don’t talk bad about farmers with your mouth full! You have to realize that your actions, while seemingly innocent, directly affect the people you are wanting to receive money from.

Farmers and ranchers aren’t just American Gothic (the picture of a man in overalls with a pitchfork with a woman in a dress with a white house in the background). Many are CEOs of multi-million dollar international businesses. That’s right! You see, much of what they produce is shipped overseas. You are dealing with C-suite executives that have a much better view than their urban counterparts and do more work for less pay.

One farmer in four uses a smart phone and tablet. They also wear many different hats such as engineer, agronomist, soil scientist, veterinarian, heavy equipment operator, mechanic, carpenter, electrician, plumber, accountant, marketing specialist, and on and on. They usually know more about national and international politics than the average person…because their businesses depend upon the winds of political climates and good information.

Don’t try to BS them…you definitely won’t pass the “sniff” test! They aren’t buying drones because it’s labeled for agriculture, they bought it because they love toys and it’s an extension of the childhood they never grew up from. Remember, they play in a huge “sandbox” with bigger Tonka Toys than you or they had in their youth.

In my lifetime there have been two important technology advancements that were put on life support because people just wanted to make a buck and/or it wasn’t explained properly to the agriculture community.

The first was LandSat in the 1970’s. This technology is the foundation on what UAS data is based upon. The commercial agriculture market didn’t start utilizing this type of information until the 1990’s and it’s still trying to catch on.

Second is precision Ag equipment from the 1990’s. The first yield monitor was produced in 1992 and auto steering and auto boom weren’t too far behind. I remember riding in a combine with a yield monitor in the mid 1990’s and my dad saying to me when I was telling him about it “why would you want something like that?”

Precision Ag and remote sensing markets have been gaining momentum since 2010 and UAS have been a part of that increase. Yield monitors and auto steering are now part of all combines and tractors instead of an option. But in looking at the timeline, it has taken a good 15 years for farmers and the agriculture industry to trust again technology and the companies that sell and service it.

The infant commercial UAS industry and companies in them need to do a quick history lesson. While fifteen years is not that long in the scheme of things, it is roughly 1/3 of the working span of a farmer in agriculture and farmers have long memories. I was just a kid driving truck in my first harvest, but I can tell you what the weather was like in 1977 and every year since.

So be very careful. Do not oversell your products or services to this very fragile market called agriculture. Move slowly and try to understand what it is they are wanting and needing. If you are able to do that, then you could have a very successful company in the agriculture industry.

VIRGIN.COM BLOG

From horses to drones. Idaho farmer Robert Blairtalks elks, surgical agriculture, and the future of farming. 

Top left: My grandfather Reinhard Wilken plowing with horses in the 1920s, Top right: Cletrac with a bean cultivator on front in the1930s, Middle right: My mother Marga Wilken Blair on a Farmall M cultivating beans in the 1950s, Bottom right: Robert Blair on a Case 2470 disking pea ground in the 1970s, Bottom left: Dillon Blair harrowing stubble ground with a John Deere 8520T in 2010, Middle: My son Logan Blair with a hexacopter in 2013. Image from Robert Blair.

There are very few points in time when a person can help influence the future of an industry they love. Agriculture is my industry. Technology advancements such as John Deere’s plow, McCormick’s reaper, Eli Whitney’s cotton gin from the industrial revolution, and Norman Borlaug’s breeding techniques that started the green revolution, are the foundation of today’s agriculture.

Today we are in the information age and Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) are another such advancement that can positively impact agriculture. The ability to capture information to help farmers and ranchers better understand their operations to make more informed management decisions is a reality.

Our farm was founded in 1903, the same year the Wright Brothers had the first successful powered flight. One hundred years later I have tractors that drive themselves, the capability to properly apply inputs to specific areas, and eyes in the sky to assist in monitoring the crops during the growing system. As the old advertisement stated, “We’ve come a long way baby.”

My precision agriculture journey began in 2003 by using a PDA (handeld digital device) with a wire connected to a small GPS receiver to do simple mapping. Now we use our smart phones with built in GPS and apps that are way more complex, user friendly, and functional to not only gather data but to control irrigation systems remotely.

This has two pictures of the same thing; the one on the right is the original RGB image and the one on the left has had false color added to it to stand out. The white arrows are the same areas in each picture and point to a 45 foot wide block where the fertilizer machine was turned on/turned off properly. I used this for management/instruction purposes.  The black arrows point to a steep area that is very shallow, rocky ground that doesn’t produce well no matter what management is done to it. The red circle shows an area where the dark green in the RGB corresponds to the light blue where nitrogen levels were good coming out of winter. The green, red, and dark blue in the image on the left corresponds with the yellow, light green, and brownish color on the right image where more nitrogen is needed.

Image from Robert Blair

In 2004 I put a yield monitor onto the combine. It's made up of a computer in the cab with different sensors situated in and around the machine to collect elevation, temperature, crop moisture, on-the-go yield, etc. This is great information, but it is reactive data. That means the crop has matured to be harvested and there is nothing more I can do to affect the outcome of the growing season.

I took precision agriculture to new heights in 2006 by becoming the first farmer in the US to own and use a UAS. Just like my early precision ag journey, there were many rocky roads to traverse and lessons to be learned. It’s tough being on the “bleeding” edge of industry.

With the advancements of UAS and other agriculture technology we have surpassed precision agriculture and are now in the early stages of surgical agriculture. What I mean is, through advancements in technology we can do an even better job of managing our soils, crops, and other resources to more precise levels.

To be as good as our fathers we must be better, imitation is not discipleship.

~ Wendell Phillips

Elk Damage in Peas – The arrows point to depression in the peas where elk laid down. You can also see the trails going all direction through the crop along with the seed rows of peas.

UAS change the game drastically. They can collect data throughout the growing season so management decision can be made on when to water (I am a dryland farmer and rely strictly on rain), fertilizer needs in certain areas, weed problems that need to be treated, or other anomalies that show up. The best part is that I now have coordinates to physically check targeted areas, and this makes better use of my time.

However, a UAS is only as good as the other precision ag equipment on the farm. If there are no computers on the tractors or controllers on the equipment, the UAS data collected is just good general information with no directed purpose…pretty pictures. Also, without the yield monitor, images taken during the growing season cannot be quantified to know how good our management strategy was.

I have used the data gathered by UAS for multiple things such as showing wildlife damage in crops, seeing how far the nutrients from cow manure travel from winter feeding areas, spotting pest areas, and for management lessons on operating equipment properly. Basically, I want to gather as much data as possible so when the time comes that new software and systems have been developed I have many years of historic data to show the path forward.

To be successful, agriculture and our urban cousins need to quit pointing fingers and work together. Farmers and ranchers are sustainable and we can use technology to not only prove it, but to make it better. But we need help from the business industry outside of our sandbox to create technologies and solutions centered on the vast agronomic knowledge farmers have gained from years of working and loving the land.

Me with a UAV I designed and built. It is five feet long, has a nine-foot wing span, and weighs roughly seven pounds with batteries and cameras.

UAS is a natural evolution in agriculture’s story, and it can help our industry responsibly meet the tremendous challenge of feeding nine billion people by the year 2050. Farmland is being consumed by people to live on. Water use is becoming restricted. Resources are depleting. Precision Agriculture Technology and UAS will play a major role in agriculture being successful. But, we need help from outside our industry.

Oh, one more thing; farmers are young at heart and just big kids still playing in the dirt…only with bigger toys and now UAS!

– Robert Blair is a fourth generation farmer from north central Idaho managing 1,500 dryland acres of wheat, barley, peas, lentils, chickpeas, alfalfa, and cows. The farm is situated on the edge of the rolling hills of the Palouse and not far from his Alma Mater the University of Idaho where he received his B.S. in Agriculture Business. Robert is also the current president of the Idaho Grain Producers Association, past chairman of the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) Research & Tech Committee, and chairman of the US Wheat/(NAWG) Joint Biotech Committee.

BREATHING IN POOR LIBERAL POLICY

For every action taken there are consequences. Yesterday, and I’m sure more days to come, we in north central Idaho will be experiencing the consequences…POOR LAND MANAGEMENT!

As you can tell by the pictures the air quality isn’t good. At harvest time there is dust in the air, usually in the evening but by morning it is cleared out. Not the case with wildfire smoke being held in by a weather system change.

The cause for the smoke…lighting activated fires in public lands. The same public lands that are poorly mismanaged by environmental activist driven liberal policies whose demographics are in the rural regions of L.A., San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, Boston, etc.

Are you getting the picture or is it too smoky to see through?

For years the environmental activist organizations and zealots have preyed on the emotions of city folk to “have passion for mother earth and care for the land” by sending a $10 or more donation to stop logging.

And Liberal lawmakers like Diane Feinstein are leading the charge. I wonder if she is out camping in a tent in our area to experience the fruits of her labor?

By not allowing logging to take place on public lands to remove dead trees, make clearings to help stop fires, and to manage the land has made for one heck of a fuel supply that we are inhaling and will be for weeks.

Senator Dianne Feinstein and her Husband Richard Blum have purchased a new home for 16.5 Million at the corner of Lyon and Vallejo st in San Francisco.

I’m sure that Senator Feinstein, her cronies in Congress, and the liberals and activists that support these poor policies make sure that their yards are watered and beautiful. I’m sure that after the lawn is mowed and weeds are pulled the refuse doesn’t just stay there. Why is my back yard any different?

Why should public lands be any different? Why can’t our government utilize the sale of the trees to help take some pressure off of us tax payers in more ways than one?

The answer is definitely clearer than the smoke invested air I am seeing and breathing…BIG MONEY!

Over $2 trillion is spent annually worldwide on environmental activism. Do you think these bloated back east elected officials care about me and my family in a town of 369 people in north central Idaho? Or do you think they care about the bundles of dollars their rich activist friends with townhouses in Manhattan think?

Not only do we need to clear the air on this issue, but we need to clean house. We need better policies that actually work regarding public land management. We need common sense policies instead of the kind driven by activist monies.

I’m sure that there is concern on the other side’s part to care for the environment and those that live in it…just not us humans that pay their way. Maybe if I was a three horned snail darter or painted lady toad strangler they would pay attention to my plea. It's down right unAmerican!